Faafoi to break radio silence
Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi looks set to finally outline his thoughts on the future of public media, after coming under pressure to open up from both sides of the political spectrum.
Stuff has learned that Faafoi plans an announcement on public broadcasting today.
Cabinet discussions that were leaked to Radio NZ last month revealed ministers had agreed to continue work on a proposal to fold RNZ and TVNZ into a new public media agency that could be in business by 2023.
But NZ First has voiced reservations and a final decision won’t be made until officials draft a detailed business case. Pity the bureaucrats who will need to make that business case when even seasoned commercial media executives would not claim to know what the industry might look like by 2023.
Barrie Saunders, chairman of the Taxpayers Union lobby group, has described the secrecy surrounding the discussions as ‘‘disgraceful’’, arguing the restructuring of public broadcasting should be a crossparty project, involving the public. Better Public Media, a lobby group that argues for more resources for the media, probably shares few views in common with the Taxpayers Union but it has echoed the call for more transparency. It argued last week it was ‘‘high time the Government announced its public media blueprint’’. ‘‘What is missing so far is greater public input to the decision-making process,’’ chairman Peter Thompson said.
There are three key questions the Government should consult on before any serious work on a business case can begin.
It appears clear the new merged media agency will receive significant ongoing government funding but it will also be allowed to earn some commercial revenues – as TVNZ currently does from advertising.
That raises the question of how the mixed funding model will be managed to prevent commercial imperatives from diluting its ‘‘public service’’ mandate.
This is the key concern of Better Public Media, which has concluded the functions currently fulfilled by RNZ need to remain ‘‘non-commercial’’. ‘‘Once a media operator starts factoring ratings and revenue into every commissioning and scheduling decision, the incentive to provide programming that appeals primarily to minorities or takes a commercial risk is inevitably diluted,’’ Thompson said.
He noted commercial broadcasters would raise questions over whether publicly funded programming was ‘‘competing unfairly for audiences and ad revenue’’.
The second, related question is whether the new media agency will be required or allowed to be a significant player in the online news market, as opposed to largely confining its journalism business to more traditional mediums such as radio and TV.
That will help determine the extent to which it competes with private sector media businesses Stuff and NZME, both of which face their own challenges.
NZME is due to report its annual results on February 25 and will be under pressure from investors to show it is making headway not just in paying down its debt but also in reducing its debt gearing ratio, after suspending its dividends in 2018.
Stuff’s earnings have been falling at a faster rate than NZME’s and while its Australian owner Nine has the deep pockets to play a longer game – after failing to sell the New Zealand offshoot at a desirable price last year, it will want to see progress in arresting that decline.
And MediaWorks’ loss-making TV business is up for sale.
The Government can’t pretend it is making decisions about public media in a vacuum.
Turning a blind eye to the implications of its decisions on the health of wider media plurality won’t wash.
A third major dilemma facing the Government is whether the new public media organisation should be expected to produce a commercial-free TV channel and, if so, what if any other sources of commercial revenue are being envisaged to fill the resulting gap.
Thompson noted that removing advertising from TVOne would cost at least $150 million annually, though it is possible that revenue stream might have dried up somewhat by 2023 anyway.
There will be little point in Faafoi setting out his thoughts on the future of public media without at least touching on those three topics. But the Taxpayers Union and Better Public Media are right that these are decisions that should be reached only after a public and non-partisan conversation.