Stuff’s TV move could shake up news market
While it is always difficult to analyse something that has not yet been created it is possible to detect some interesting facets of the move by Stuff into the TV news market with Warner Brothers Discovery (TV3).
However well it fares in ratings in July against TV1 it will have considerable effect on the news market in this country.
Let us look at the likely positive consequences of, in lieu of any actual name for it at this stage, Stuff TV News.
It will energise TVNZ’s 1News, keeping it honest and providing a measure of competition. Without a Stuff TV News, TVNZ management would almost certainly continue, over time, to downsize its news operations to save money and its news would slide in quality as lethargy set in among journalists and producers who would lack a direct competitor.
Although Stuff management says TV3 will have “first run” at 6pm of the items it produces for WBD and will not carry the entire bulletin on its website, Stuff presumably has access at any time to other material shot of that same news event and can carry that on its site whenever it chooses. This will further increase competitive pressure on TVNZ’s news.
Video footage would be sent in from any of Stuff’s 19 bureaus around the country and be recut and put together on the production desk at Stuff HQ and inserted into its current Stuff website.
It will undoubtedly have an impact on NZME’s NZ Herald news website. It also will be forced to run more video stories and other such material.
The downside of the Stuff/WBD deal for the country’s news market is also considerable.
Most of the 300 people who worked for Newshub on TV3 will still be out of a job with Stuff talking of picking up “less than 40” TV3 staff.
Most of those picked up will be producers, technicians and production desk staff, not necessarily journalists or camera operators in the field.
Another advantage for Stuff is that it should have access to TV3’s deals with foreign news outlets, which will enable its website to carry more foreign news. The website will also probably have greater visual amounts of sports news coverage than it currently provides. Sports fans do like seeing the action.
If the 6pm bulletin on TV3 is perceived as sub-standard in quality to TVNZ’s 1 and viewership declines, then advertisers will quickly flee to other markets and WBD could obviously reconsider its arrangement with Stuff.
The challenge will be to develop the new and innovative approach to TV news that Stuff’s management has talked about. Quite what that approach is will only be seen in July.
However, taking media convergence to the next level, the likeliest option for the 6pm bulletin will be to increase the use of graphics, commentary, analysis and live crosses by Stuff’s expert rounds people, combined with Stuff’s bigger regional penetration of news, to give the viewer the impression of greater depth and energy.
While the Government is no doubt congratulating itself that the news market realignment has apparently sorted itself out without Cabinet being forced somehow to intervene, it is not off the hook. Both TV operators (and radio) need the Kordia transmission fees to be eliminated, releasing several millions in cash for TV to keep maintain its news services. Government will need to bite the financial bullet.
In the next year or so, if Stuff TV News proves a success, ministers will be forced to reconsider the merger of TVNZ and RNZ news operations. The lesson of a Stuff success will be that there are savings and benefits in doing so.
Having previously scrapped the idea Cabinet will probably have to revisit the proposal. After all public broadcasters abroad in Australia and Britain are living proof that you can combine radio and TV output and have a superior product doing so.
We have, of course, yet to hear from Winston Peters who has power of yes or no over any Government moves in the sector. His absence abroad has been one reason why National’s Melissa Lee looks so helpless in the matter. National will need to consult with NZ First before the Government can do anything.
Overall, the winner in the Stuff/WBD deal looks to be Stuff itself, which will have significantly enhanced website content. TV viewers win in that they retain a choice of news programmes to watch. TVNZ wins in that it retains a competitor to keep it on its toes.
Much of the commentary we have heard to date comes from those who have a legacy outlook and justifiably bemoan the loss of the old-style TV3 news programme, but the reality of the situation is that the advertising market has eroded to the point where it is no longer financially possible for broadcasters to pour $30 million or $40m into their news product.
What we are seeing now is the continuing painful process of traditional media morphing into a more workable and enduring model.