MEDIAWATCH: TVNZ makes a profit but at what cost?
TVNZ reports half-year profit, but foresees potential full-year loss
Television New Zealand has turned a profit in the first half of the financial year, though the second half is expected to be hit by further drops in television advertising revenue and additional tech costs, with potential for a full-year loss.
The state-owned broadcaster made a net profit of $53.1 million for six months ended December, compared with a loss in the year earlier, though the result included a non-cash adjustment of $41.3m to remove costs already accounted for in the year earlier loss.
Otherwise, TVNZ made an underlying profit of $11.8m, with a 1.9 percent decline in revenue to $152.7m.
A drop in television advertising revenue was in contrast to a 16 percent year-on-year increase in digital revenue, accounting for about 25 percent of total revenue.
“This is an encouraging financial performance for the business. While the advertising market remains challenged, we’ve worked hard to shore up our revenue pipeline and reduce our costs,” TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell said.
$11.8million?
That’s the pittance we get back after gutting the news room?
That’s the pitiful ‘profit’ while blinding and muzzling our fourth estate journalism?
That’s how much Democratic Oversight is worth is it?
$11.8million?
This terrible and gutless retreat from Fourth Estate Journalism that the TVNZ Quislings have enforced upon NZ are cowardly and beneath the mana of the craft of journalism!
The only reason TVNZ are moving everything behind their on demand + site is to sell advertising between the videos.
This has nothing to do with their obligations to the Democracy they are supposed to be serving. Instead they will become a gated community that provides little Fourth Estate oversight while turning their viewers from citizens into consumers.
The TVNZ Board are pitiful and have failed in their obligations to News Journalism.
Here’s the TVNZ Board…
Alastair Carruthers (Chair)
Ripeka Evans
Meg Matthews
Aliesha Staples
John Quirk
Linda Clark
…gutless cowardly quislings one and all!
How dare they allow News to be butchered!
How dare they protect their jobs first while strangling off their Fourth Estate Obligations!
I’m not looking for open rebellion against the Government here, I’m demanding courage to stand up to this Government’s vandalism of the institutions they are attacking!
This hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government has made the front line everywhere.
When will the Boards stand and fight back against this public good vandalism?
Destroying thew news arm of TVNZ isn’t a solution!
Yes the economics has changed, yes the truths told have to be far more universal, but the need for Fourth Estate Journalism in an ocean of disinformation and misinformation is more crucial than ever before!
Look, we need long form journalism and we need it on a Sunday night dammit! The problem was that Sunday always pulled its punches! Compare any story on Sunday with Bryan Bruce’s documentary last year on the cost of food. Bryan actually goes to the heart of the problem with the intelligence to analyse it, Sunday is bullshit emotional journeys, celebrity interviews, overcoming struggles blah blah blah. It became current affairs for Soccer Mums.
What they should?
- Deliver a far harder journalism and prove their worth for the Sunday timeslot.
- Dump Seven Sharp, send Jeremy to host the late news and make that a more studio based show. Send Hilary to Breakfast. Launch a new studio based 7pm current affairs panel show with hard hitting interviews on the days newsmakers.
- Keep Late night News but with Jeremy as host
- 24 hour news channel working with RNZ
Studio based panel TV is far cheaper to make and there is enough talent to do that successfully in NZ week nightly.
TVs power is that it is live.
The problem with public broadcasting in NZ is that our population base has always been far too small to support advertiser broadcasting, that’s why it has always needed the State to support it.
So.
How to Save TVNZ + Newshub + Public Broadcasting?
We need a mix of ideas:
Fund TVNZ 1 commercial free – If we can have commercial free radio, why not commercial free TV? By removing TV1 from the ratings, the advertising flow would immediately go to Newshub and allow them to stay on air. You save two birds with one stone.
NZ on Air ‘Read between the Flags’ Kiwi journalism – In a world of disinformation, we need journalism we can trust. We all get the ‘swim between the flag’ model of surf life saving, NZ on Air should be given extra funding for ‘Read between the flags’ Kiwi Journalism. This money is to ensure plurality of voice for independent media, Māori media, specific communities, news blogs and mainstream news media who become eligible if they agree to a set of Journalistic Principles. If you do agree and sign up, you are entitled to funding and must have a Kiwi Journalism flag on your site to show you are obliged to the Journalistic Principles Code of conduct. You would have an awareness campaign to urge NZers to ‘read between the flags’ for trusted information.
Promoting Journalism in the Pacifc to counter other influences – I think one way NZ could uniquely promote its interests into the Pacific could be via Journalism. AUT run the excellent Pacific Media Centre to promote quality Journalism throughout the Pacific. What if NZ saw the promotion of quality Journalism as a craft throughout the Pacific as a strong way to counter corruption and external influence? Scholarships, Pacific News Media websites and support of local ethical journalism, these could be the pillars of promoting corruption free politics and holding those Governments to account. Promotion of Journalistic standards throughout the Pacific could counter external influences and promote NZs strategic interests.
Māori Media – Māori TV & Māori Radio need a baseline increase rather than extra budget for collaborations because the bigger players give very little back.
The NZ population has always been too small for advertiser funded journalism, it has ALWAYS needed State support, add a broken market where social media takes all the revenue while providing none of the journalism and you have a hollowed out Fourth Estate that can’t be a watchdog to anything other than their own self interest.
Current policy is simply adding more money to Corporate News to cover the news they should be covering anyway and to fund echo chambers of elite opinion so that the Spinoff Story gets posted on RNZ who then co post it on Stuff who then co post it on newshub.
It’s the same people saying the same thing to the same echo chambers.
The last election was a warning that disinformation campaigns can wreck the trust in our system, a strong public broadcaster alongside an expanded NZ on Air journalism fund paid for via taxes on the social media currently gutting traditional journalism would be a bold vision that would seek to genuinely rebuild public broadcasting.
Unfortunately the Political Right want to keep you stupid and want to leash the fourth estate if not kill it off altogether while the Political Left want to control the debate!
We saved $11.8million but the cost is priceless.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
“This is an encouraging financial performance for the business. ”
Forty years ago that would have read:
“This is an encouraging financial performance for the service. “
“It’s the same people saying the same thing to the same echo chambers”
Ain’t that the truth! And unfortunately those are the people consulted when any discussion of reform takes place. Their primary interest is in self preservation.
All the tinkering over the years has led us to where we are today leading to a raft of agencies and institutions – all with their CEOs and boards, and sales, marketing and HR departments.
All these f’ing idiots, with no knowledge of how a democracy actually functions.
No concept of how commercial imperatives corrupt journalism.
How in a see of Atlas propaganda and Koch astroturfing, and Breitbart framing and lies, and after decades, of Murdoch manipulation,
Western democracy is on the ropes.
An no, you f*cking idiots.
No.
It’s not because of “ID politics”.
It’s not because of “DEI hires”
And all the other bs, the right wing gas light complex has planted in your f*cking brain.
The ideological excesses ranting 1st years, is not what is not what is threatening democracy and western civilisation.
Neither is it the hundred year analysis of capitalism known as “Marxism” (ffs) an analysis concerned with ECONOMICS and MATERIAL CONDITIONS.
The threat to western democracy is the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, who have used that wealth to funded a concerted, many decades long campaign to specifically undermine democracy and create a dumbed down, uninformed, confused, populace, busy warring with each other, and competing with each other, divided, and conquered.
To undermine govts and public institutions, and weak, toothless governments, stacked with pet, bought politicians.
Forget “big govt media”, and all the other f’ing brainless slogans those billionaires have planted you’re addled f’ing mind.
It’s called a f*cking charter, and what it is is “public interest journalism”.
It’s time to stop f*cking around.
This is not a game.
If you think, some new, nasty techno feudal totalitarianism is not making a concerted effort to make us all it’s f’ing serfs, you are gravely mistaken.
If you think another world war is not possible, you are gravely mistaken.
If you think climate change is a myth, and that we couldnt exceed a tipping point in OUT lifetimes, and certainly those of our childre, that would doom organised civilisation on earth,
you are gravely f’ing mistaken.
The time for f*cking around, and bickering is passed.
Well passed.
Wake up and smell the f*cking coffee.
Some kind of gold standard, publicly funded journalism is essential.
Now more than ever.
We took sovereignty, democratic sovereignty. We f’ing fought and died for it.
We abolished the divine right of kings.
Now these f’ing billionaires, want to claim that power.
By telling you that democracy is “big govt”.
And replacing it with utterly undemocratic, “big corporate”.
For which you will be a f’ing slave.
Wake the f*ck up.
And cut the crap.
FFS. Democracy is us, if it’s not f’ing working right, it’s up to us to fix it.
But not by putting our heads in the sand and carrying on like bratty children with our hands over our ears, trying to avoid hearing uncomfortable truths, that challenge our f*cking worldviews.
– or in this case dumbing down media and “selling it to fox”.
Possibly the stupidest f’ing thing, I have ever heard.
Saving public journalism,
Is saving democracy.
Good summary QW.
We need uncompromised journalism now more than ever. But we don’t own the various media outlets.
They get snapped up by the wealthy who turn them to their advantage.
We have a few minor outlets like this one which democratically accepts the rubbish Ada and Btf write because we are fair people who listen. It doesn’t pay though. They abuse our hospitality every day.
I feel that we are just waiting for the axe to fall. I try to influence my immediate friends and family and have found out who my real friends are in recent years. You don’t need many.
All we can do is to point out the obvious nonsense spread by the right, the lies and propaganda. To be honest I don’t think they believe half of it themselves but they hope, they hope, that by working so industriously for their masters, they will be saved from the axe in the end.
They won’t of course, they are just as expendable as us. And no-one will escape climate catastrophe no matter how many bunkers they build for themselves.
There’s Sir Ian Taylor, of all people, pointing out Seymour’s obvious failings, his jack-of-all-trades, master of none behaviour. He pokes his nose into everyone’s business and achieves nothing. The whole Act party falls into that category, no expertise anywhere.
So, it appears we have support in some unlikely places.
We need public journalism, it would be good if TVNZ actually fulfilled it’s charter but self-interest is very compelling for some people. If we can’t work with them, we have to go round them, continue the resistance as widely as we can.