TVNZ sales team in Q’town as reward

TVNZ’S sales team is in Queenstown for a threeday meeting as the state broadcaster heads for a $17 million loss.

A spokeswoman for TVNZ said the trip was a planning session and the location was selected to reward staff.

‘‘The destination was due to meeting targets. The work would take place regardless of location. They were preparing with a lot of hard work before they left,’’ she said.

Some questions about the trip — including its cost and the number of people who had jetted to the resort — were not immediately answered. However, the spokeswoman did confirm chief executive Kevin Kenrick was not on the trip.

Last month, Mr Kenrick refused to say if he had been paid a bonus for the company’s 2019 financial year, which ended on June 30.

He said it was a matter that would be dealt with in the state broadcaster’s annual report, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament next week.

Last year, Mr Kenrick pocketed a $460,054 bonus, which took his total remuneration to $1.43 million (a $73,334 increase over 2017) and dwarfed a $1000 incentive payment to rankandfile staff members.

On August 29, TVNZ reported its fullyear net profit had halved to $2.9 million and suspended its dividend to the Government for the foreseeable future.

Mr Kenrick, who pegged the profit fall on unfavourable exchange rate movements, said the broadcaster was heading for a $17 million loss in 2020 as it embarked on a threeyear restructuring.

His turnaround plan includes a 26% (or roughly $20 million) increase in spending on local productions next year.

Mr Kenrick said the increase in spending on local content was in reaction to the likes of Netflix, Amazon and the pending Disney+ and Apple TV+ globalising the entertainment market.

He also said TVNZ was embarking on its threeyear turnaround plan off a strong base.

‘‘We made $26 million ebitda [in fullyear 2019]. We expect our revenue [$310 million in 2019] next year to be pretty stable. We expect some softening in TV but that will be offset by the Rugby World Cup and what we do in OnDemand,’’ he said.

TVNZ could potentially do well out of the tournament. If Spark Sport’s stream goes south, the plan is to transfer games on to TVNZ’s Duke channel within four minutes.

The freetoair broadcaster will be carrying 12 games, including all of the All Blacks’ matches, regardless.

Mr Kenrick quoted statistics showing strong growth in TVNZ’s streaming offering.

It achieved 80% yearonyear growth in viewership to record 184 million video streams during fullyear 2019, reaching 141,145 daily.

And it delivered yearonyear increases in weekly audience reach (+38%) and advertising revenue (+31%).

Mr Kenrick would not give a dollar figure for that 31%. — The New Zealand Herald