Crucial days ahead in effort to save commercial TV news
Now that television channel Three owner Warner Bros Discovery has discharged its legal obligation to consult with staff over the closure of Newshub, discussions can start in earnest about trying to save commercial television news in some shape or form.
Newshub vice-president Glen Kyne made clear on Wednesday that its door was still open to some kind of deal.
Those discussions may or may not be successful, but interesting ideas are emerging on how the Government might choose to lend a helping hand.
Sky Television, and presumably Warner Bros Discovery as well, would ideally still like some kind of television news bulletin to help stitch together the prime-time schedules of their Three and Sky Open free-to-air channels.
One option would be for Sky TV – which currently gets Sky Open’s 5.30pm news bulletin from Newshub – to hire former Newshub staff to set up its own television newsroom.
That could be a smart move, given Sky has been growing its television advertising revenues. Owning a journalism arm would give Sky TV strong leverage over government media policy at a key juncture in the evolution of broadcasting.
If Sky shied away from the capital outlay, another option would be for an established media company such as Stuff or NZME to negotiate a deal to supply Warner Bros Discovery and perhaps Sky with television news bulletins.
Such a deal would seem very tough to stitch together.
A lot would no doubt come down to what Warner Bros and Sky were prepared to pay, and for what exactly.
A spin-off might be that any media outsourcer could potentially boost the video content on their own websites in the process.
Without any such bonus, it is hard to see what could be gained by any party from outsourcing television news production.
Labour broadcasting spokesperson Willie Jackson suggested yesterday that the Government should be playing the role of “mediator” by helping to broker an agreement between commercial firms to prevent a state monopoly over television news.
He went as far as to label Media and
Communications Minister Melissa Lee “stupid” and “out of her depth”, accusing the Government of being bereft of any ideas or strategies and having instead given up on the sector.
To be fair to Lee, however, there is no evidence broadcasters or media firms need a broker or facilitator to bring them to the table to try to find a way to save commercial television news.
What they are more likely to need is some sort of financial leg-up to make a deal stack up.
Jackson suggested that if Labour was still in power it might talk to NZ On Air about throwing in more of its funding as a sweetener to a television news operator.
Another idea floating around is that the Government could offer relief from Kordia’s digital terrestrial television transmission fees to broadcasters, but only on the condition that they maintained news bulletins as part of their service.
A document released under the Official Information Act last month revealed that Warner Bros Discovery has been paying Kordia $5.2 million a year in such fees, so that would be a decent if not huge incentive.
The silence from broadcasters, media firms and indeed the Government in the hours since Warner Bros Discovery confirmed the closure of Newshub may be a positive sign that work is under way and sums being done – so long as it doesn’t last too long.