CHRIS TROTTER: Willie Jackson’s New Network Will Go Fishing For a New Audience

 

Train Wreck: Perhaps the easiest way to describe what Willie Jackson’s new public broadcaster will be like, is to set out clearly what it will not be like. It will not be fair. It will not be balanced. It will not perceive itself as a platform upon which all New Zealanders, espousing all manner of ideas and opinions, will be made to feel welcome. CHRIS TROTTER writes – 

 

WHY CAN’T WILLIE JACKSON make a case for the merger of Radio NZ and TVNZ?

Last Sunday, on the Q+A current affairs show, he told his host, Jack Tame, that he wanted an “entity” to match Britain’s BBC and Australia’s ABC. Great! Were New Zealanders to be treated to a new public broadcaster modelled on the BBC and the ABC, the country would forever be in the Minister of Broadcasting’s debt.

Unfortunately, Jackson was just blowing smoke. The entity he is in the process of creating will not be the least bit like the BBC or ABC. So unlike them will it be, in fact, that it is actually safer for the Minister to give New Zealanders as few details as possible. Hence his unwillingness to make the case.

So, what will this “entity”: this Frankenstein broadcaster, cobbled together from the dead bodies of New Zealanders’ existing public radio and television networks; actually be like?

Perhaps the easiest way to describe what Jackson’s new public broadcaster will be like, is to set out clearly what it will not be like.

Princess in fairy tale but happy ending unlikely

For people who sought to escape from the glare of unwelcome publicity, Harry and Meghan Windsor show no signs of going away.

Their latest business venture – an eponymous blockbuster Netflix docudrama – may or may not prove a success but there is no question that it’s on a grand scale.

BRYCE EDWARDS’ Political Roundup: Labour was meant to save public broadcasting, not weaken it

• BRYCE EDWARDS writes –

 The Labour Party used to advocate for a properly-funded, multi-platform public broadcaster. There was real merit in the proposal to set this up when Labour campaigned for it in 2017. After all, New Zealand lacks a public broadcaster along the lines of the BBC or the ABC. And the idea of merging RNZ and TVNZ meant that synergies, together with proper funding, could finally produce a broadcaster that would enhance democracy and New Zealand society. The idea had hints of transformation about it.
 
The plan was also to update public media for the 21st century in which the future is clearly digital. Public media needed to be online and less reliant on TV and radio. By future-proofing the public broadcasters, setting up new digital offerings that would coexist with the mega tech companies, public media operating in the public interest could survive and prosper.
 
But that was in 2017. Once in government, Labour delegated the job respectively to ministers Clare Curran, Kris Faafoi, and now Willie Jackson. They have all failed miserably, and what we are about to see launch seems something more of a Frankenstein version of a public broadcaster, and much worse than the existing services.

Faafoi is sharing few firm figures on the funding of public broadcasting after TVNZ and RNZ have been merged

Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi had few firm figures to share with the public, when he was questioned in Parliament about the merger of TVNZ and Radio New Zealand and the likely cost to taxpayers.

Budget confidentiality was one part of the explanation he gave for keeping numbers under wraps. Not knowing perhaps explains some, if not most, of the rest.

One number was provided in response to the first question asked by National’s Melissa Lee on Thursday:

“How much has he been advised the merger of TVNZ and Radio New Zealand will cost, and how much ongoing taxpayer funding, if any, will the new public media entity he is creating receive?”

Faafoi began his reply by providing information that had not been sought:

“The Government recently announced that it will create a new single public media entity. This, as I said in my response to question No. 7, is to ensure that our public media is fit for the future challenges of audience change and international content via online platforms”

Then came the one firm figure he seems willing to mention:

“Cabinet’s decision also included funding of $14.6 million to begin establishing the new entity.”

Broadcasting merger – why and what will it mean?

Barrie Saunders comments on the government’s proposals for restructuring public broadcasting (based on what we have been told so far) …

TVNZ and RNZ are to be merged but absent is a credible rationale or even the end point.   All that is being left to the yet to be appointed establishment board.

First, a bouquet to those journalists who have analysed the announcement and pointed out the information gaps.   Pretty amazing when you think this is all about communication entities.

In summary, what we know is they will come under one company umbrella, the budget for which has yet to be announced.  And yes, it will have a charter full of worthy objectives and will be required to cater better for minorities.

What will happen over the next year?

• Massive lobbying by many to be on the new board, including current members of the RNZ and TVNZ boards.
• Massive lobbying from the supporters of “public broadcasting”, some of whom are dismayed at the thought the commercial TVNZ culture will permeate their beloved RNZ.
• Massive time spent inside parts of RNZ and TVNZ as staff lobby for key roles and speculate on what may happen.  A general loss of productivity.
• Current CEOs of TVNZ and RNZ, Simon Power and Paul Thompson respectively, expected to be preoccupied with the merger and how they might head it, all at the expense of their day jobs.
• Other media heads, including Discovery, to engage in the process to ensure they are advantaged or at least not disadvantaged.
• Lots of media speculation about what’s going on.
• General public confusion.

Pulling the FM plug on the Concert programme was a matter for Parliament to decide

This post by TOM FREWEN is one of two being published on Point of Order today on the restructuring of state broadcasting and the fate of RNZ’s Concert programme.   

Tom is a journalist and broadcaster who has worked for both commercial and publicly funded media. He reported on the NZ House of Representatives for 22 years, starting the Today/Week in Parliament programmes in 1994, and he established Mediawatch on RNZ, fronted first by Russell Brown and now by Colin Peacock.   

There was never any need for the QC trio, hired by local orchestras to fight RNZ’s plan to turf Concert off its high-quality FM frequency, to go past the first of the three legs of their proposed legal action.

That was the claim that RNZ was in breach of the Radiocommunications Act 1989 which, together with the Broadcasting Act of the same year, provides the legislated foundations for the broadcasting system established by the Fourth Labour government 31 years ago.

Section 174 of the Radiocommunications Act entitles RNZ to use “certain frequencies” for “the operation of four services including “the service known as the FM Concert Programme”. Section 175 specifies the conditions of the licences relating to the FM Concert Programme and National Radio

RNZ’s chief executive, Paul Thompson, assured Lisa Owen on Checkpoint on Tuesday this week that legal advice had been obtained when they hatched what they call their “strategy” to become more relevant to younger people.

The TVNZ–RNZ merger – is this another broadcasting train wreck?

This post by BARRIE SAUNDERS is one of two being published on Point of Order today on the restructuring of state broadcasting and the fate of RNZ’s Concert programme.   

In the 1970s Barrie worked for the NZBC, ABC, UPITN, NBR and the BBC, he  was a director of TVNZ from 2011-2017, and he listens via the internet to the ABC, BBC and other public radio.   

The RNZ Concert programme train wreck is but a prelude to what is likely if the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger goes ahead.

The Government has asked PWC to flesh out a plan that doesn’t stack up.  But we can be 100% confident that PWC will find the proposed merger is viable when they report to the government in mid-year.   Consultants rarely produce reports that customer don’t like and – unlike the private sector – this one will be taxpayer underwritten.  And we all know what that means.

In a small democracy and economy, I accept there is a case for a publicly owned broadcaster.  But it should exist alongside a thriving private media, which at present is in deep trouble as foreign digital media hoover up most of the digital advertising, without providing any real NZ content.

The future of broadcasting is in Faafoi’s hands (which might not be as fumble-free as CEOs decided last year)

Back  in  September,  when reporting  its annual assessment  of  what it calls  “Mood  of  the  Boardroom”,  the New Zealand Herald featured  an article on how  CEOs ranked  Cabinet  ministers on  performance.

Lo and behold,  17^th-ranked  Kris  Faafoi  emerged   as  the minister  who  most  impressed  “top  chief  executives”.

The   report    quoted   a  “leading  banker”  (who  sensibly  remained anonymous)  as   saying the

“ … unsung performers of this  Cabinet   are  David Parker and  Kris Faafoi.  Both have  reached out to the business  community to  genuinely ask for  our  views and  listened. They also put  government policies  in their  areas  into perspective”.

 Point  of  Order   can only wonder   whether   those   top  CEOs   are still clinging to the  view  they  expressed  last  September  that   Faafoi  is  a  “safe  pair of hands”.