No private bailouts in public television plan
There will be no backsliding on the Labour Party’s commitment to fund a new non-commercial television service delivered by RNZ, Communications Minister Clare Curran has indicated.
But privately-owned media firms may have to find their own solutions to the commercial challenges they face, with Curran warning there will be no bailouts.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced before the election that a Labour-led government would pay for RNZ to set up a non-commercial television service, funded from a $38 million annual boost for public broadcasting that would also provide more money for NZ On Air.
RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson said last month that he was uncertain whether that would necessarily entail a fully-fledged, ‘‘old-style’’ linear channel, given where ‘‘the market and technology is going’’.
RNZ chairman Richard Griffen has since been briefed by Curran, who said the indications she had were that RNZ was very enthusiastic about the plan, which she confirmed would include ‘‘at least one free-toair linear, non-commercial television station’’.
Thompson agreed, saying the channel would definitely be broadcast on Freeview.
‘‘For me it is about doing everything we do better and new things for new audiences, and television delivery of content will absolutely be critical as part of that, but it won’t be the only thing.’’
Curran said RNZ’s service would take time to establish and she could not forecast whether it would be on air within a year, but by then people would ‘‘notice a difference’’ to public broadcasting.
‘‘We have got money in the May Budget. I am expecting RNZ to hit the ground running with a comprehensive plan.’’
RNZ’s channel would include some content it bought-in as well as programming it commissioned and produced itself, she said.
Radio had been RNZ’s core business and remained its major strength. It had made ‘‘enormous inroads’’ into the digital area, and it would now morph into a ‘‘truly multimedia entity’’, she said.
‘‘I want to strengthen and enable those things to be done really well, rather than on the smell of an oily rag.’’
Curran rejected the argument an RNZ television service might further fragment audiences in a television market that was struggling to adjust to competition from new streaming services.
RNZ’s service would be a noncommercial one that would ‘‘fill a gap’’ and not directly compete with existing services, she said. ‘‘This is different. It is not about profit.’’
Curran said she was aware of the pressures on the media sector.
‘‘But we think this intervention is going to provide a boost to the whole sector.’’
The Labour-NZ First government had inherited a broadcasting landscape that had been ‘‘neglected and ignored’’, she said.
‘‘We will encourage innovation through NZ On Air – I have made that clear – and assist where we can to modernise the settings, but we are not here to be bailing anybody out.’’
New media ownership laws were not on her agenda, she said.