Bob Jones: Television New Zealad

The costly furore over amalgamating TVNZ and Radio NZ is specially amusing for me.

That’s because over 3 decades ago they were one entity, Broadcasting NZ and I was one of the government appointed small committee formed to consider their splitting into separate entities.

Cam Slater: The Reverse Ferrets Have Started

In the media world a reverse ferret is a sudden reversal of an organisation’s editorial or political line on a certain issue. Generally, this will involve no acknowledgement of the previous position. We are about to see the political equivalent of the reverse ferret on policy. The first one to go will be the Radio NZ/TVNZ merger. Sir Peter Gluckman has produced a report on it that says it’s a dog:

Bryce Edwards: Labour was meant to save public broadcasting, not weaken it

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.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: If Labour was smart, they would ditch the TVNZ-RNZ merger

 

If the Government was smart, it would ditch the TVNZ-RNZ merger.

After that interview that Willie Jackson gave Q+A yesterday, it’s becoming very obvious that this shaping up to be Three Waters 2.0.

A complete PR disaster for Labour. 

Most of the problem is Willie. He can’t answer basic questions like ‘Why are you doing the merger?’. So when he’s under pressure to try to deflect away from the fact that he can’t answer those questions, he starts acting the goat in interviews.

Damien Grant: Like it or not, we've got a new democracy

The Minister of Māori Development, Willie Jackson, recently declared that “Democracy has changed... This is not a majority democracy.”

He is right. Aotearoa has changed its understanding of democratic norms, and we are establishing different political and economic rights based on a person’s whakapapa.

Some of the more excitable elements on the fringes of our fractured community have latched onto the He Puapua report as evidence of an accelerated time-frame for this constitutional restructuring, but these changes have been underway for a generation and, as Jackson noted, have arrived.

Bob Jones: Wasting taxpayers money

Our print media are currently up in arms over the proposed merger of Radio NZ and Television NZ at a ludicrous cost of a third of a billion dollars. They claim it will produce a dominant news powerhouse and destroy competition.

Feasibly that’s possible albeit I’m a news hog yet never listen to the radio and being unable to speak maori, don’t watch our television news. But then I’m not necessarily representative of the wider public.

I was actually on the Broadcasting Commission of Enquiry three decades ago, which resulted in Radio and TV being split into two entities and I protested at the proposition which for the life of me seemed pointless, doing something for the sake of it. But my fellow commissioners ran with the British consultants who’s principal argument seemed to be that every other country was doing this.

Cam Slater: Government Spending More than RNZ and TVNZ Are Worth

Melissa Lee asked a good question in Parliament about the more than $300 million spending on the merger of Radio New Zealand and TVNZ. It turns out that the Government is planning on spending more on the merger than the combined value of what both companies are worth.

Worse still, Willie Jackson just doesn’t care, and is hell-bent on ramming the merger through because it is not about money, he says, rather it is about controlling the narrative and messaging as they seek to exert even more state control over media in New Zealand.

Bryce Edwards: Time for a 'save public broadcasting' campaign

There was a fair amount of enthusiasm and optimism several years ago when the Government announced a restructure designed to boost public broadcasting. Many hoped it might result in a BBC-like, non-commercial public media organisation that operated on multiple platforms.

Labour’s goals made a lot of sense, and the National Party complaints that Labour was trying to fix something that wasn’t broken didn’t resonate. After decades of RNZ being underfunded, with TVNZ and NZ On Air operating an experimental public broadcasting model that produced ever-worsening commercial television, Labour looked set to bolster democracy with this reform.

But that was 2017, when the idea of a transformational Labour Government still had currency. After years of corporate consultancy reports and working groups, the result of the public media investigations were announced last week and effectively killed off the dream of a cohesive and comprehensive non-commercial public broadcasting media organisation.

Kate Hawkesby: RNZ/TVNZ merger a disaster waiting to happen

 

Sadly, no detail on the Government's RNZ/TVNZ merger but let's start with the very brutal truth – it’s going to be about as exciting as watching paint dry.  

It’s going to apparently ‘better reach those groups who aren't currently well served; such as our various ethnic communities and cultures,’ Faafoi said, so in other words, kissing a mainstream audience goodbye. 

Here’s the first problem – it’s going to operate under a charter. That’s been tried before – and failed – it was disastrous because it was invented by boffins all based on theory and PC BS, with no regard for the realities of the real world and what audiences actually want to see and hear.