Cam Slater: If TVNZ Was a Dog We’d Put It Down

TVNZ is a financial cot case and is expected to lose $33 million this financial year. If it was a dog we’d take a shovel and a gun and put it out of its misery.

TVNZ is expecting a financial loss of up to $33 million this financial year – more than double what it originally expected – with a “significant” impairment to also hit the state broadcaster.

It announced today it expected underlying operational losses of between $28m and $33m this financial year, which runs until June 30, following “challenging marketing conditions” in the second half.

TVNZ had been originally forecasting a $15.6m loss this financial year. But it was already behind the eight ball when it posted its half-year results to December 31 – a $4.6m operational loss for the six months, with a $12.2m impairment.

In addition to the underlying operational losses, TVNZ’s full-year result would include a significant impairment “acknowledging the impact TVNZ’s forecasted future earnings will have on its asset valuation”, the broadcaster said in a statement today.

It did not state the size of the impairment.

NZ Herald

TVNZ have, like TV3, failed to adapt to the modern technical environment of on-demand streaming.



Sure they have a streaming service but it was too little too late.

The optimal thing to have done, perhaps ten years ago was to have sold it off and let a private business shoulder the costs that the taxpayer is now having to cough up for.

TVNZ highlighted weak demand in traditional television advertising, which was down 15.8 per cent year-on-year “and is only partially offset by TVNZ’s digital revenue, despite streaming audience and revenue growth on TVNZ+”.

“We have made significant strides in our path to being a digital-first broadcaster over the past six months, however, as a fully commercially funded organisation, we are exposed to the ad market,” said TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell.

NZ Herald

Of course revenues are down, and I’ll tell you why. They’ve been lying about their audience numbers and advertisers have rumbled them about it.

You see, if you claim audience numbers are still high, then advertisers know that if they spend a certain amount on advertising then they’ll get a defined and proven return on that spending.

But the sales revenue for advertisers has dropped. The only logical explanation is that the audience has changed and dropped, and it is now increasingly found online. So advertisers have walked along with the audience.

TVNZ is likely terminal, and propping it up is pouring good money after bad.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. Cam blogs regularly on the BFD - where this article was sourced.