Stuff to step into 6pm news slot
Stuff and television channel Three owner Warner Bros Discovery have reached a deal to prevent local television news from becoming a state-owned monopoly.
The agreement will see Stuff provide television news bulletins for broadcast on Three, with the help of Newshub staff that are being made redundant by Warner Bros Discovery.
Stuff will provide hour-long news bulletins that will replace Newshub’s existing 6pm news bulletins on weekends and a 30-minute news bulletin for the weekend.
Stuff owner Sinead Boucher said it would deliver “a news product for the future”.
“We will look to innovate not replicate the 6 o’clock news, building on our expertise in digital audiences and engagement and our ability to deliver live and lively news 24/7 all over Aotearoa.
“Newshub and Three, over an incredible 35 years of journalism, has been known for gutsy, independent, non-partisan reporting, values that we share and will proudly continue to uphold.”
Boucher said the move was a next step in Stuff’s transformation strategy, following a management buyout in 2020.
“We have reorganised our business from the ground up, investing in new platforms, technology and capability and reshaping the business to be data and digitally-led.
This allows us to seize they arise,” she said.
Warner Bros Discovery senior vice-president Glen Kyne said it received a number of proposals from partners.
“Stuff put a lot of thought into not just the bulletin but also a broader partnership with a real future focus which would benefit both parties and New Zealand,” he said.
“As a large, already-established news organisation with newsrooms around the country, Stuff’s proposal offered us strong confidence in the future we’ll now embark on together.
“This agreement also gives all New Zealanders confidence that there won’t just be one broadcast news option on TV. It’s critical for democracy that we have a strong fourth estate to hold the powerful to account and that there are different voices opportunities as asking different questions,” he said.
Less than a week ago, Warner Bros Discovery announced that all of Newshub's operations, including its flagship 6pm bulletin, The AM Show and the Newshub website would close on July 5, with the loss of almost 300 jobs.
That risked leaving state-owned media businesses Television New Zealand and Whakaata Māori as the only providers of local television news.
It is not clear how many jobs the outsourcing agreement with Stuff might save, or whether the deal could see Stuff also supply television news bulletins to Sky TV.
Sky TV currently receives Sky Open’s 5.30pm news bulletins from Newshub under a revenue-sharing deal.
Sky spokesperson Chris Major said it continued to be “open to exploring how we might play our part in delivering strong local news, where it makes commercial sense”.
“There’s no immediate change for ‘News First at 5.30pm’ on Sky Open, given Newshub continues to produce news services for a couple more months, so we have time to explore the options,” she said.
It is understood Stuff could use video content it produced for Three news bulletins also on its own websites, which include stuff.co.nz, the post.co.nz, the press.co.nz and waikatotimes.co.nz.
A joint statement from Warner Bros Discovery and Stuff indicated there would be a “transition period” during which both companies’ would be involved in producing bulletins.
It did not set out the commercial terms of the deal, including the length of the agreement or the amount of money Warner Bros Discovery would pay Stuff for the service.
A spokesperson for Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee said the Government had not been involved in facilitating the agreement.
It is understood that the Government has been considering offering Warner Bros Discovery and other broadcasters a break on television transmission fees that would normally be paid to state-owned enterprise Kordia, on the condition that they continued to offer television news bulletins.
That would provide an incentive worth about $5.2 million a year for Warner Bros Discovery to retain news bulletins in some form on Three.
Lee told Stuff on Friday “no decisions have been made by this Government on Kordia fees, but we will consider any proposals that come through”.
Her spokesperson said yesterday situation had not changed.
Government officials told Lee in December that Warner Bros Discovery expected its television channels, including Three, would go internet-only from the end of next year, but the company has not since confirmed that is still its expectation. that