This is what could be done.
Television New Zealand (TVNZ) is a commercial broadcaster running a programme schedule that, with some exceptions, has little to do with public broadcasting. It should be sold.
Trying to merge it with Radio New Zealand (RNZ) is a fool’s errand because the two entities are from different worlds. One is oil, the other is water.
The cash raised from the TVNZ sale should then be put into a trust that would oversee the expansion of RNZ into a 21st-century media organisation covering everything from broadcasting to social media and print. The new organisation should also receive funding from the Government via the trust.
It is vital the new organisation be independent of government. Any legislation should be free from the kind of instructions the previous Government loaded into its otherwise sensible and still-needed Public Interest Journalism policy.
I have long advocated selling TVNZ and putting the proceeds from the sale into public broadcasting. A senior Labour MP once told me that this is what National should have done, and I agree.
The problem is this is a solution that would have worked a decade ago, as TVNZ was more valuable then. Today a sale of TVNZ would probably generate very little capital because linear TV is dying.
Crucially, the new entity must not take advertising.
That money should flow to commercial media who will need to go through a major restructure.
Not having state broadcasters compete for advertising would help, but again the solution is ten years too late. Advertisers are abandoning media because simply it is less well targeted as social media where you can set exactly who views your ads.
A slimmed-down commercial media with more access to advertising dollars would make for a more viable model. It is possible that a government could help with this by limiting entry to the market.
No, no, no. The job of Government is not to protect incumbents.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
3 comments:
Sadly, no one would pay for it today. The best that can be done is to replace the board with a balanced left and right board and clean out the leave them to clean out the newsroom. There has been a decline in MSM around the world but even those on the left need to start admitting, it has been worst here with this gap largely driven by lack of balance. Bring the balance back and preserve kiwis’ access to news. In a disaster or any other major event this is essential. While they are at it they should save money to pay for it by closing the journalism schools as they don’t add any value and go back to teaching journalists on the job, preferably after journalists get a proper degree which teaches them something about the real world.
Sound's like a very good idea to start from even now. Has any one told Melissa Lee ? Is she still in the job ! Is she still in the country, I haven't heard from her for so long ?
Like many of my associates I can't remember when I last watched the TV news or read the Herald. We all think the same, it's just biased left wing pap. And at most I will listen briefly to RNZ News [ aka radio maori grievance] once a day just to check that the 3rd World War hasn't started.
For many I know the main source of news is BBC Radio [rebroadcast from Auckland by the Auckland Radio Trust on 811 khz AM], or the BBC or ABC Australia online .
An independent and unbiased public media is a fundamental plank of any democracy. And no one can say that of NZ mainstream media.
Not that the left minds one little bit.
One thing I am sure of is that platforms like Breaking Views are hugely important.
Who cares, it is all a dead duck now with even the feathers plucked out.
Nothing left. Bury it. The smell is getting worse.
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