Where now for our free-to-air TV?
From Wall Street’s Gordon Gecko to Falling Down’s Bill Foster, the now 79-year-old created some of the 80s’ and 90s’ most memorable characters. By James Croot.
The confirmation by Warner Brothers Discovery that Newshub would cease operation in July with the loss of 294 jobs came as no surprise, but it still sends shockwaves across the New Zealand media ecosystem. The decision leaves a major gap in the television news sector, not least because Newshub is also the supplier of News First for Sky Open (formerly Prime News).
TVNZ has also announced that its Midday and Tonight news programmes are being axed (along with longstanding programmes like Fair Go and Sunday), while youth-oriented Re: News faces staff cuts. That leaves TVNZ’s 1 News 6pm bulletin, Te Karere and Whakaata Māori’s Te Ao Mārama as the free-to-air television news offerings.
These developments reflect a culmination of structural factors which have undermined the business models for free-to-air television, including intensified competition as viewers switch to on-demand streaming services and the big tech platforms’ capture of advertising spend (television’s share of which has halved over the past 25 years).
But there are institutional factors too. After CanWest sold Mediaworks to Ironbridge in 2007, the company was left servicing unmanageable debts which saw it slide into receivership. Bought out by Oaktree in 2015, extensive restructuring to cut costs saw Newshub formed out of a consolidation of the news operation in 2016. Compared with ownership by vulture funds, the 2020 acquisition of Mediaworks’ television channels by a global media company like Discovery must have seemed like salvation.
Unfortunately, Discovery’s 2022 merger with Warner Bros saw the parent company itself burdened with over US$50 billion in debt. That translated into a drive to cut costs across its subsidiaries, ultimately resulting in the decision to axe Newshub.
TVNZ, meanwhile, is in a more secure position, but as a commercially-operated crown company, its own declining business model is fundamentally no different from Warner Bros Discovery.
As such, it too is seeking to cut costs to reduce losses and remain viable. The fact that it has decided to axe important and popular programmes like Sunday and Fair Go despite these programmes being profitable is significant because this underlines just how pernicious commercial pressures have become.
It is no longer sufficient for a programme to bring in more revenue than it costs to make; if there is an alternative which costs less and/or brings in more eyeballs and ad revenue, then even marginal opportunity costs are regarded as intolerable.
These pressures are not unique to television news, but they are unique to commercial media whose business models depend on mass audience appeal and advertising. When TVNZ still operated its commercial-free channel TVNZ7, it was able to offer an hour of news every evening – and it was news, not a commercial news hour comprising primarily of ad-breaks, human interest stories and sports.
TVNZ7 news even included a longform interview every day focusing on a topical issue in-depth. Such a format would sound like commercial suicide to TVNZ or Warner Bros Discovery, but it was possible for TVNZ7 because a noncommercial news operation is not driven by ratings and revenue and can therefore absorb the opportunity costs commercial broadcasters cannot.
But TVNZ7 ceased operation in 2012 and for the commercial broadcasters, almost all forms of local content are relatively expensive to make compared with licensing overseas programming. Even with NZ On Air subsidies, it is becoming harder to justify any form of investment in anything other than the cheapest and most popular content.
The problem is that by trying to optimise profit margins by cutting flagship programmes, this will tend to accelerate the defection of free-to-air audiences to online streaming services. Once a broadcaster adopts such a logic, there is a risk that, instead of stabilising revenues, it will enter a death spiral where budget and staffing cuts lead to reduced programme quality and further accelerate audience decline.
By discontinuing Newshub, Warner Bros Discovery has taken a massively risky step toward such a scenario because the 6pm news bulletin is still a critical capture-point for locking in the primetime audience.
It is not clear what TV3 will schedule to compete with 1 News. TVNZ’s decisions to cut popular, profitable programmes likewise suggest it is flirting with the same fatal strategy.
There has been (somewhat optimistic) speculation that Newshub might be rescued by another media company, including Sky, NZME or Stuff. However, even if Warner Bros Discovery was hypothetically willing to accept a dollar for a news operation it clearly didn’t value, it is not self-evident what assets the purchaser would actually acquire.
If Newshub could be sold, Warner Bros Discovery would presumably retain the studios and the spectrum rights. It is primarily the brand that might attract a buyer. But Sky has already outsourced its news for Sky Open to Newshub. Stuff and NZME, meanwhile have their own branded websites and adopting an orphan television news operation might entail brand confusion. Indeed, it would be cheaper for them to just hire the Newshub staff who will soon be looking for work.
New Zealand is left facing a gaping hole in its fourth estate. In the absence of white knights or magic bullets, a conversation about alternative ways of supporting a healthy news media sector is surely long overdue.
But to avoid the same problems which set Warner Bros Discovery and TVNZ on a commercial race to the bottom, any solution has to include a non-commercial, multi-platform, public interest operation which will engender competition for substance and quality, not eyeballs.
American President Joe Biden is “considering” a request to drop the prosecution of Julian Assange after judges ruled that the WikiLeaks founder could have grounds to appeal his extradition to the United States.
Assange, who was charged with multiple counts of espionage in 2019, has been imprisoned in Belmarsh Prison in Britain for five years as of yesterday, while an extradition battle plays out in the courts.
Earlier, it was reported that the US government could offer the Australian a plea deal, having repeatedly argued that he compromised intelligence sources around the world when WikiLeaks released almost half a million documents on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Asked about a request from Australia that he end the prosecution of Assange, the US president told reporters: “We’re considering it.”
In March, the High Court dismissed most of the legal arguments against Assange’s extradition. However, it said the Biden administration must issue various assurances – including that Assange would not face the death penalty.
The White House has until early next week to give those assurances, which will be followed by a final hearing in mid-May. Otherwise, the judges ruled that Assange would have grounds to appeal.
Speaking after the ruling, Assange’s wife, Stella, dismissed the idea that the US could issue “so-called diplomatic assurances”.
She told Sky News: “I find the decision bizarre. The courts have identified three major obstacles to Julian’s extradition but they’ve asked for a political intervention from the US government to address these issues.
“There is no assurance that the US can give that will keep Julian safe from what he is exposed to. If he is taken to the United States, he will be placed under conditions of extreme isolation which could – and will – drive him to commit suicide.”
A British judge ruled in 2021 that Assange should not be extradited because of the risk he could commit suicide in a US prison, but this was overturned on appeal.
There were signs last month that the US stance was beginning to soften amid reports that officials were drawing up a plea deal with Assange’s lawyers.
Under the terms of the agreement, he would plead guilty to mishandling classified information, the Wall Street Journal reported. The charge carries a lighter sentence than espionage.
Assange would be able to plead remotely, removing the need for him to appear in a US court, and time served in Britain would count towards his sentence – potentially meaning his release could be imminent.
Barry Pollack, a New York lawyer acting for Assange, has cast doubt on whether his client would plead guilty to the charges.
In February, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed a motion calling for the return of Assange to his homeland ahead of his hearing at the High Court.
Declaring “enough is enough”, Albanese said he had raised the case “at the highest levels” in Britain and the US.
“Regardless of where people stand, this thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely.” – Telegraph Group
Like his father Kirk before him, Michael Douglas is an acclaimed, awardwinning actor who, at one stage, was the biggest star on the planet. For a period during the late 1980s and early 90s, the former Inspector Steve Keller in The Streets of San Francisco was almost a guarantee of box-office success, as he starred in a succession of hits that included Fatal Attraction, The War of the Roses, Black Rain and Disclosure.
Now, after a relatively quiet period, where he’s alternated between three seasons of The Komsinky Method and playing “scientific adventurer” Hank Pym in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the 79-year-old has returned to the spotlight to play the eponymous founding father of the United States in Apple TV+’s eight-part period drama Franklin.
To celebrate, Stuff To Watch has taken a look back through Douglas’ CV and picked out our six favourite movies to feature Catherine Zeta-Jones’ husband, while also letting you know where you can watch them now.
The American President
(1995, iTunes, YouTube)
Sure, it might be a fairly sappy story at its heart, but this romantic-comedy about a widowed president (Douglas’ Andrew Shepherd) seeking a second term and a second chance at love (with Annette Bening’s environmental lobbyist) is memorable for many reasons.
Without it, there would have been no The West Wing (creator Aaron Sorkin wrote this script), or Spin City (Michael J. Fox honed his politico character here).
“The image of a chief executive as moonstruck single guy taps something buoyant and touching in our collective democratic imagination. And Douglas, wearing a fast-break smile in place of his usual frown, strikes a tender rapport with Bening,” wrote Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman.
Basic Instinct (1992, AroVision, AcademyOnDemand)
The film that transformed Sharon Stone from supporting act into a major star and caused plenty of controversy because of its combination of sex and violence.
A then very modern take on a classic film noir, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s lusty and lurid tale sees Douglas’ hapless San Francisco police detective Nick Curran (and his chunky sweaters) drawn into the world of (and an intense and passionate relationship with) enigmatic writer Catherine Tramell (Stone), when she becomes the chief suspect in the brutal murder of a wealthy rocky star.
“The harsh, politically incorrect truth about Basic Instinct is that it’s a tantalising, suspensefully correct thriller,” wrote Orlando Sentinel’s Jay Boyar.
The China Syndrome (1979, iTunes)
Not only was this the most “serious” of the wave of disaster movies that dominated the 70s, but it was also the most prescient – James Bridges’ nuclear power plant-set thriller hitting cinemas just 12 days before an accident at Three Mile Island.
Jane Fonda and Douglas play crusading journalists who uncover significant safety issues at California’s Ventana, but it was Jack Lemmon who took the Academy Award for his role as shift supervisor Jack Godell.
“A terrific thriller that incidentally raises the most unsettling questions about how safe nuclear power plants really are,” wrote Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert.
Falling Down
(1993, iTunes, YouTube)
Exposing the then intractability of McDonald’s breakfast menu timings and inspiring everyone from the Foo Fighters and Iron Maiden to The Simpsons’ Frank Grimes, Joel Schumacher’s psychological thriller still has a contemporary resonance three decades on.
Douglas is William “Bill” Foster, an unemployed defence engineer having an increasingly bad day as he attempts to navigate the chaos of Los Angeles in time for his daughter’s birthday party. Robert Duvall and Barbara Hershey also play key roles.
“Douglas’ intentionally robotic – and intense – performance holds its own. He's scary, normal and funny all at once …,” wrote the Washington Post’s Desson Thomson.
Romancing the Stone
(1984, Disney+)
A rather blatant Indiana Jones rip-off it might have been, but Robert Zemeckis’ 1984 movie is also a rip-roaring adventure.
Douglas’ roguish Jack Colton and Kathleen Turner’s romance novelist Joan Wilder spar and spark in equal measure, while Danny DeVito gets all the laughs.
“Zemeckis spices up a deliberately oldfashioned matinee adventure with tonguein-cheek gags and top-of-the-range action,’’ wrote Radio Times’ Alan Jones.
Wall Street (1987, Disney+)
In creating the celluloid character that perhaps most epitomised the 80s, director and co-writer Oliver Stone and Douglas also tethered unscrupulous corporate raider Gordon Gecko (the man who gave the world the mantra “greed … is good”) to a The Hustler-like drama that not only arrived with perfect timing just weeks after the American financial market’s Black Monday, but also, rather disturbingly, influenced many a subsequent financial career.
Douglas won the Oscar for Best Actor, while the film also teamed father-and-son Martin and Charlie Sheen.
“Stone’s most impressive achievement in this film is to allow all the financial wheeling and dealing to seem complicated and convincing, and yet always have it make sense,” wrote Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert.