TVNZ hints at digital Fair Go return, Willie Jackson attempting Parliament media summit
Sunday, 28 April 2024
TVNZ chief operating officer Brent McAnulty says the broadcaster had to consider “better candidates for investment” in axing Fair Go and Sunday, despite the shows being profitable.
McAnulty was amongst a panel of media industry experts fronting a Better Public Media meeting, where he was questioned why TVNZ cancelled the legacy shows in March.
“Profit is profit, but there might be a better candidate for that investment that will see a better return for us, so we have to keep that in mind,” he said.
“Personally, the decisions to cut Sunday and Fair Go were two of the most confronting decisions that I’ve had to make as a member of the TVNZ exec.”
He said the broadcaster is still dedicated to consumer affairs content, and that audiences will see that “content come up in other places.”
“We will need to find a way to re-purpose that type of content for digital audiences in the future.”
Earlier in the meeting, panellist and executive of the Screen Production and Development Association, Irene Gardiner, addressed the “massive cutbacks” TVNZ and Three have made to local productions.
She said there was an estimated $50m being lost from the industry, and shows which have historically been fully funded by their network’s advertising revenue are most vulnerable to cuts.
“Unfortunately that includes Shortland St, which has been fully funded by TVNZ in recent years,” she said.
She said SPADA had been in discussion with the Government to introduce a streamer’s levy for giants such as Netflix and Prime Video, which would create funding to produce more locally-made shows.
Gardiner also suggested altering the budget minimums on the Government’s screen production rebate to allow shows such as Shortland Street to survive.
“We could potentially get Shortland St to be eligible, which would take the full burden of paying for it off TVNZ.”
She cited a similar move made by tweaks made by the Australian federal government to its production subsidy system, which allowed more shows, such as Home and Away, to be eligible.
“A country need a soap. What would New Zealand be if we didn’t have Shortland Street?”
Joining as a guest speaker, former Minister of Broadcasting and Media, Willie Jackson, said he thinks “things are a mess, actually” in the media industry.
Jackson said he was attempting to call a media summit at Parliament, which would involve all political parties.
He wrote to former Broadcasting minister Melissa Lee a week before she was stripped of her portfolio and left parliament on Wednesday, but the proposal has now been passed onto the newly-appointed minister, Paul Goldsmith.
“We think that it would be very appropriate to have it out of Parliament, and make it a bi-partisan type of meeting,” Jackson said.
He believed the media was “not a priority with this Government.”
“When I looked at the Newshub deal, I did feel that the government could have actually done a lot more in terms of cobbling things together, in terms of talking to NZ On Air, in terms of talking to big business.”
He said the summit would provide a way to “work in tandem” with the Government, “with key industry people coming in, and key recommendations coming out.”