Govt moves on RNZ, TVNZ deal
The Cabinet is forging ahead with the plan to create a new, supersized public broadcaster, but ministers have taken some convincing.
RNZ understands they have signed off on a high-level decision to proceed and to commission a business case, after Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi presented a revised paper on Monday.
He was told to do more work on the original plan, after taking it to the Cabinet last month. If that had gone ahead, the government would have been readying now to pass legislation under urgency to disestablish RNZ and TVNZ, and then proceed with a business plan later in the year.
That sequence has now been scrapped so ministers will have a substantive business case to consider before making any significant or irrevocable decisions.
RNZ understands there was pushback from some senior Labour and New Zealand First ministers about the way the preferred option was landed on, the implications for public broadcasting if RNZ ceased to be a standalone company, and the speed at which it had been progressing.
However, this may not necessarily change the timetable – the plan to have the new media company in place by about 2023 appears to still be the goal.
RNZ has also been told the amdended proposal puts emphasis on the new company being primarily a public service media outlet, and ensuring that is made clear in any legislation, and through a charter.
That would also help to alleviate the strongly expressed concerns some ministers had about a ‘‘culture clash’’ – namely the risk the public broadcasting ethos could be subsumed by an aggressive commercial imperative once the new company was established and operating.
As in the original proposal, it could still fund some operations through commercial or advertising revenue.
The news late last year that MediaWorks was selling its television business after plummeting revenues sent shockwaves through media and political circles; that announcement is understood to have created a sense of urgency to act swiftly on the public broadcasting reforms.
However, ministers appear to have taken a step back, with more of a view that what’s happening in the commercial sector should not drive the timetable of any government action, but decisions about public broadcasting should be taken on their own merit.
Boosting the contestable funding pool for NZ On Air to ease some financial pressure on commercial players is also understood to be part of the mix.
When approached for comment Faafoi said he had no comment to make about the proposal, or what happened at Cabinet.