Calling all media pundits. Get ready for a surprise. 83% of all New Zealanders watch traditional television every day and only 6% watch Online TV!
Why am I excited about this? Because I am surrounded by pundits, friends, bloggers and Ministers of Broadcasting who insist that all the kids are watching online TV, not traditional television.
Craig Foss watches Apple TV and creates policy that assumes everyone else does; most of my television mates watch DVDs and downloads; everyone else I meet has stopped watching television because it’s so terrible. They all say “Why worry about TV? Everyone is watching video on the internet and no-one cares about old channels any more”.
But this week NZ on Air released research confirming what I have long believed. That the traditional television channels are hugely important still, and continue to be in the future. Each day 83% of all Kiwis watch the regular television channels compared to just 30% who click on YouTube and a mere 6% watching Online TV such as Apple TV and Netflix. Audiences may be time-shifting but they are still watching old-school, traditional television en masse. And that is where our broadcasting policy needs to be tightly focussed.
Sadly the current broadcasting policy is all about content, content, content, content at the expense of channels. The result is an abundance of programmes for ‘Household Shoppers aged 18 to 49’ and practically nothing for anyone else, especially in primetime. Does this government not understand how commercial television works? Or do they actuallywant to fail most Kiwis watching television?
They were wrong about TVNZ7 viewer numbers, they were wrong that most TVNZ7 programmes would continue on other channels, and they were wrong about how Kiwis watch television. That eliminates all the government’s excuses for closing down TVNZ 7. And this new research contradicts the logic behind current broadcasting policy – that audiences are moving away from traditional television and will watch content wherever it’s available. Audiences are habitual, fickle and diverse. Like most things in life, they don’t fit the simple market model of supply and demand, and neither should our broadcasting policy.
Either the government confesses to trying to ruin public service broadcasting, or they admit they have no idea how the industry works and ask around for some better ideas. But don’t ask the pundits who only know their own viewing habits. Do the research, ask audiences what they want, and get ready to be surprised.
The Coalition for Better Broadcasting is a charitable trust working to champion public service radio, television and online media. We have an active grassroots membership and regular campaigns. Myles Thomas is Chief Executive of the Coalition for Better Broadcasting. Less importantly he is also a television director specialising in reality television and documentaries.
I have tried to point this out to some people not long ago, while social media is now quite important to many, the traditional media is still very powerful and dominant, and that is why it must be taken seriously also in the election campaign. Most people still watch TV and listen to radio, almost every day, and for quite some time.
That is why advertisers are spending heaps on advertising there.
But my argument is exactly with that, why leave the media up to the private players, depending so much on advertising revenue, which really makes them being “compromised” or even “bought” by the paymaster of their services?
We need a robust, competitive, well financed, more independent and balanced public broadcasting sector, for television and radio, and sadly New Zealand is one of the WORST served in that respect. Look at “Freeview”, how many commercial advertising and “infotainment” channels there are, some also are foreign owned or dominated, and we have an abysmal own public broadcasting system, actually the WORST in the developed world.
There is little information, almost NO education programs, documentaries are so rare now, they have been replaced by cooking and supposed “talent shows”, and the current affairs programs also leave to be desired. Nothing about science, education, solid information, lots of light hearted dumbing down that is the rule.
That serves some politicians and governments, but if we want to advance, become truly 1st world, and want educated kids, we better reflect and steer away from the dumbing down, brainwashing, over commercialised model, and start bringing back quality, integrity and programs of substance.
I sense, we need to change the government, to even have the slightest chance of that to happen. Even with a change we may have to push the agenda, as we get too poor “signals” about any true change.
Do we want more sales shows, cosmetics, Women’s Weekly, gardening, home improvement, The Block, more bollocks and crap, or do we want a future generation that actually learns about what matters in a civilised and educated society, I ask? It is up to readers, viewers and listeners to think and vote accordingly, I think.
I have had quite enough of the nonsense we are being served. With the cheap trash we get, we get uninformed voters and the same kind of poor government as we have had for a few years now. It is time to put a damned stop to it, I would say.
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