TV3 move casts pall over private media

Television channel three and the rest of MediaWorks’ television business has been put up for sale, casting a further pall over the private media industry.

But chief executive Michael Anderson left the door open to a change of heart if the Government’s media policy changes.

MediaWorks said it intended to sell its television arm and had engaged UBS as an adviser to help identify a list of potential purchasers.

TVNZ, Spark and Sky TV wouldn’t comment on whether they might be potential buyers.

A sale would leave MediaWorks owning about half the country’s commercial radio stations and the outdoor advertising business that it acquired through its merger in August with QMS New Zealand.

MediaWorks, which is owned by United States private equity firm Oaktree, trimmed its overall loss to $5.5 million last year, but again failed to bring its television business into the black.

Anderson said this year had been ‘‘by far the worst year’’ since he arrived at the business in 2016 in terms of the decline in television revenues.

‘‘I think Three is not a ‘distressed’ business. Newshub is really solid asset.

‘‘What it is, is a good business struggling in a market that is skewed against all of free-to-air, but particularly skewed against Three.’’

MediaWorks was aware the Government was due to make an announcement prior to Christmas on broadcasting policy, Anderson said.

But he said it had started the sale process now as it wanted to start its next financial year in ‘‘a clean state’’.

There was ‘‘no defined time frame’’ for the sale, but he did not expect it to drag on for years.

MediaWorks has lobbied the Government to turn TVNZ’s TV One channel commercial-free, which could assist Three by allowing it to grab a greater proportion of television advertising.

More recently, it has blasted a decision by the Government to allow its state-owned rival to suspend paying dividends and to post a loss of up to $17 million this financial year while it beefs-up its digital operation.

Anderson said the TV sale plan was not ‘‘set and forget’’ and it would review any information it received from the Government about its media policies.

‘‘But at the same time, right now, this is we believe the best approach.’’

MediaWorks’ had not made the announcement to try to force a change in Government policy, he indicated, while not ruling out a change of tack should that occur.

‘‘We are putting the business up for sale.

‘‘We’d be silly to ignore changes that might occur, but we are not expecting anything to change at this point in time – but we are open,’’ he said.

The Government has signalled it wants to invest further in public media.

In August, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was of the view there should be an organisation dedicated to making sure New Zealand’s stories are told.

Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi said his thoughts were with the staff of Mediaworks TV operations.

But he said the decision to put the division up for sale was a commercial one and he did not want to intrude on the process.

A spokesman for Faafoi said the minister was acutely aware of the landscape and saw there were ‘‘total challenges across the board’’ both in the private media and public media which was his primary responsibility.

MediaWorks first warned in April last year that it might pull out of television, if Government policies didn’t change.