NZ On Air urged to open up
Media funding agency NZ On Air trumpets its successes by publishing details of the ‘‘top 10’’ productions it funds, but does not provide ratings information on shows that aren’t a hit with the public.
That would change under a private member’s bill that has been drawn out of a ballot for debate in Parliament.
The bill, proposed by National Party MP Melissa Lee, would force NZ On Air and Maori media funding agency Te Ma¯ ngai Pa¯ ho to publish the viewership, ratings and other performance data of all the programmes they funded, every three months.
NZ On Air received a $4 million funding boost from the Budget and could be in line for a big chunk of a further $23m in funding that Communications Minister Clare Curran hopes to direct towards public media from next year.
But NZ On Air spokeswoman Allanah Kalafatelis indicated it was not prepared to be drawn into a public debate about how public it should be about ratings and performance data.
‘‘There is no desire here to debate the pros and cons of a private member’s bill – we’ll leave that to Parliament,’’ she said.
NZ On Air currently has an agreement with ratings company Nielsen that lets it publish the broadcasttelevision ratings for the ‘‘top 10’’ productions it funds, and has much more information direct from broadcasters on how they have performed on the likes of on-demand platforms.
But despite its own taxpayer funding, Kalafatelis said most of that information was commercially confidential. ‘‘We provide that information to [our] board who are the people who make decisions.’’
Kalafatelis acknowledged NZ On Air could potentially publish the ratings data it got direct from the media partners it funded, with their agreement.
‘‘It is something we would have to discuss at board level and I don’t know there would be a great deal of appetite for it, because you are sort of inviting the ‘court of the public’ to make decisions about things,’’ she said.
To date, NZ On Air was not aware of its ability to withhold performance data ever being tested under the Official Information Act.
Jordan Williams, executive director of the Taxpayer Union lobby group, said Lee’s bill ‘‘could be called the ‘Spinoff TV Memorial Bill’ ’’ after what it described as the abysmal ratings failure of Spinoff TV, a current affairs show catering to millennials that received $700,000 from NZ On Air.
Kalafatelis said NZ On Air reviewed each programme it funded six months after it was broadcast or streamed, taking into account a range of criteria such as ‘‘social feedback and engagement, and any critical acclaim and awards’’.
‘‘Ratings is a very blunt instrument for measuring success.’’
NZ On Air funded some programming precisely because it would not be commercially successful and might otherwise not be made, she noted.
But Lee believed that was not a reason for NZ On Air to withhold its performance data.
‘‘I have never said ratings is the only gate. [But] people need to know where public money is going and whether it is doing good. They should be more transparent than just publishing their top 10 programmes.’’
‘‘Ratings is a very blunt instrument for measuring success.’’
Allanah Kalafatelis, NZ On Air