TV3 owner warns of state monopoly
TV3-owner MediaWorks has delivered the starkest warning yet about the future of the independent media, saying in effect that it might be forced to pull out of television broadcasting if media policies don’t change.
The radio and television company told a ministerial advisory group that if the ‘‘structural anomalies’’ in the media market were not addressed ‘‘there is a genuine risk that the Government, through its owned media channels, may become the only broadcaster in New Zealand’’.
The warning was delivered in a letter sent to the advisory group by chief executive Michael Anderson and chairman Jack Matthews in April.
The submission was not included among those initially released to Stuff under the Official Information Act by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage this month, because of what the ministry said was an administrative oversight.
MediaWorks said government and privately owned free-to-air television channels now accounted for less than half of television viewing.
Discussing MediaWorks’ warning yesterday, Anderson said that pulling out of television was not currently under active consideration, and nor could he envisage that happening within the next year or two.
‘‘But that is probably, in any context, as far as any media would be looking forward – a couple of years,’’ he said.
MediaWorks argued in its submission that independent media was a necessity for ‘‘a well-functioning democracy’’.
A competitive television market could be maintained ‘‘at least for the short to medium term’’ if the Government turned TVNZ 1 into a publicservice channel, it said. That would be an alternative to funding a move by RNZ into television.
Communications Minister Clare Curran said in response that the Government’s strategy was to build the capacity and the quality of the public media sector ‘‘so it continues to set standards, reach audiences in new ways and complement the offerings of private sector media’’.
‘‘I expect commercial operators to adapt their business models to ensure they too are keeping up with the changing media environment both within New Zealand and globally.
‘‘I believe, that as is the case in many other countries, strong public media and commercial media can operate alongside each other in a healthy media ecosystem,’’ she said.
Anderson said he did not believe the company had fully got across its message to the Government yet.
Its warning of a state-owned TV monopoly was the result of a modelling exercise and not ‘‘opinion’’, he said.
Neither did it have anything to do with MediaWorks’ operational performance which had been improving. ‘‘We are competing much more effectively.
MediaWorks, which is owned by US private equity company Oaktree Capital Management, cut its net loss by about 60 per cent in the year to December, to just under $6 million.
Anderson said the ‘‘strategic’’ issues facing the industry globally remained, as did the specific challenges operating in ‘‘a skewed market’’ in New Zealand.