Media merger on cards
TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick has written to the broadcaster’s advertisers in an apparent bid to reassure them about the possible impact of merging TVNZ and RNZ into a new public media organisation.
The letter was sent out after an RNZ report that the Government was considering disestablishing both RNZ and TVNZ and creating an entirely new public media entity.
Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi said he didn’t want to comment until the Government had a chance to consider its options but media industry sources said it was being assumed the RNZ report was reliable.
The Government’s intention was to ‘‘strengthen public media – not weaken commercial media’’, Kenrick wrote. ‘‘You can be assured that TVNZ and the Commercial Communications Council have reinforced the need and value of television advertising platforms and opportunities for New Zealand business to build brands and promote products and services.’’
Should any decision be taken to change TVNZ’s future obligations, the legislative process would ‘‘likely take years to implement,’’ his letter continued.
Television channel Three owner MediaWorks did not comment directly on whether folding TVNZ into a new public media organisation might cause it to revisit its own decision to try to quit the television business.
Chief executive Michael Anderson said last month that it had asked adviser UBS to solicit bids for its television arm, while leaving the door open to a change of heart if the Government’s media policy changed.
‘‘We have always said that something needs to be done to help the entire media landscape,’’ Anderson said yesterday.
‘‘We are reserving judgment on any Government policies until there is something concrete to judge.’’
Anderson has called for TV One to go non-commercial by removing advertising. That is an option that Faafoi is known to have previously asked officials to cost.
A lobby group that advocates for more investment in public media said merging RNZ and TVNZ into a new organisation that received some of its income from advertising would come with a risk.
Better Public Media chairman Peter Thompson said it would be good to see a multi-platform public media provider that had a ‘‘clearly defined public media mandate’’. But he said it would not be a simple task to ‘‘glue public service and commercial priorities together in the same institution without significant compromises’’.
‘‘It is therefore a concern that the suggestion is only ‘some’ of the channels and services ‘may’ be advertising-free,’’ he said.
Faafoi said he was close to taking media policy proposals to Cabinet and expected an announcement by the end of the year. He denied he had a preferred option and called the apparent leak to RNZ ‘‘unhelpful’’.
He has previously stressed the importance of media plurality given the fragile state of the media market but Faafoi said yesterday he thought the best way to deal with the ‘‘general media issues in New Zealand
. . . is to make sure we do as a Government what we can to support public broadcasting. They are the assets that we own.’’
RNZ reported the other options on the table were a merger of RNZ and TVNZ’s newsrooms, and more funding for NZ On Air. But it said a new public media organisation was the ‘‘preferred option’’.
RNZ reported that an advisory group, with representatives from both RNZ and TVNZ and ‘‘public service agencies’’, concluded the status quo was ‘‘unsustainable’’ and ‘‘collectively recommended the government agree to disestablish TVNZ and RNZ and to establish a new public media entity’’.
It would have a clearly-defined public media mandate and purpose, with the core functions of a globally recognised public media entity, it reported.
It would provide public media services across a variety of platforms, ‘‘some of which may be advertising-free’’, it said.
While it would receive some government funding, it would also receive income from other sources including ‘‘advertising, sponsorship and subscriptions’’.
Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi said he was close to taking media policy proposals to Cabinet and expected an announcement by the end of the year.