Fair Gone: Show’s host resigns
After almost a decade, Hadyn Jones has quit the popular long-running series to spend more time with family and see the world
Hadyn Jones is a Good Sort, one of New Zealand television’s most popular stars. For almost a decade, since 2016, he has fronted with professionalism and little fanfare Fair Go, which — alongside the 6pm news and Country Calendar — remains one of the staples of Kiwi TV.
Since it crackled into life in 1977, Fair Go has been both a launch pad and main stage for some of broadcasting’s biggest names, either as hosts or reporters, including Brian Edwards, Philip Alpers, Kevin Milne, Kerre Woodham, Carol Hirschfeld, Greg Boyed, Matt Chisholm, Sean Plunket and Ali Mau.
More recently, Pippa Wetzell and Jones have fronted the top-rating consumer-crusading show.
But even Fair Go is not immune to big personnel and talent changes sweeping through media, as evidenced by the latest TVNZ marketing material.
Wetzell’s name and face are still in lights for Fair Go’s return on Monday, February 19, but Jones is no longer there.
And the reason?
Jones resigned last year although there appears to have been minimal fuss, and certainly no fanfare.
TVNZ said last night that Jones had let viewers know on air that he was resigning — a spokeswoman sent Media Insider a brief clip from the end of a show in early October.
Standing next to Wetzell, Jones says: “Now that is it for me, I’m off on a wee adventure overseas with my family but I am leaving you in this woman’s capable hands; she is amazing . . . 54 per cent of the time.”
The pair crack up at the joke; it basically sounds like Jones is off on holiday and will be back soon.
That impression is emphasised when Fair Go fans start asking about Jones’ whereabouts on the show’s Facebook page in the following weeks.
One of the page’s administrators wrote: “As Hadyn told viewers in October — he’s away roaming the world with his family. But thanks for the messages — it’s reminded us he owes us a postcard!”
A TVNZ spokeswoman said last night that Jones had indeed resigned from the show — his departure, she said, had nothing to do with costcutting that is impacting TVNZ and other commercial media.
Jones is based in Taranaki and has been commuting to film Fair Go in Auckland each week.
“Hadyn let us know at the time that he wanted to spend less time on planes coming to Auckland each week and more time with his family,” the TVNZ spokeswoman said.
He won’t be officially replaced — existing Fair Go reporters will be rostered to co-present with Wetzell this year — so TVNZ has undoubtedly been able to bank some savings.
Jones continues to front another of TVNZ’s long-running and popular series — the weekly Good Sorts segment at the end of the 6pm news on Sundays.
The piece highlights Kiwis going above and beyond in their communities each week.
“We’re pleased that he’s chosen to continue with Good Sorts given he can be more flexible with how that segment is filmed for 1News,” said the spokeswoman.
Jones is still travelling — his latest Good Sorts pieces have been prerecorded — and he could not comment in time for Media Insider’s deadline.
Jones, whose journalism career started at The Ensign in Gore and includes stints on the Holmes show, Close Up and 20/20, told the Herald of Good Sorts in 2010: “Some people think these stories are easy, but there’s a trick to them because I like to find a surprise in each one. You just need to take the time, and trust there’ll be a good story there.”
Ali Mau’s big career move
Ali Mau has been a journalist and broadcaster for 40 years, a familiar face as one of TVNZ’s stars across several highprofile shows (including Fair Go) for a good two decades, before she launched, in early 2018, a national #MeToo investigation into sexual harassment, supported by Stuff.
Over the following five years, she and others brought to account a number of perpetrators.
The work was substantial and recognised — in 2021, Mau was named Reporter of the Year at the annual Voyager Media Awards. She left Stuff last July but her passion for helping survivors has not dissipated.
Over the past eight months, working with another #MeToo campaigner, Zoe Lawton, Mau has been developing a new venture, Tika.
Several details came quietly into view this week. According to brief details on a new LinkedIn page, Tika (tika.org.nz) “is a non-profit organisation that will provide an innovative legal service to people who have experienced sexual harm”.
That support includes free legal advice and representation, and special technology to identify alleged, repeat perpetrators.
The backdrop — and a motivating factor for Mau — is what she describes as New Zealand’s “appallingly low” reportage of sexual harm. According to official figures cited in a launch document for Tika, 92 per cent of sexual harm is unreported.
“That’s because of the barriers that survivors still face, which is fear of not being believed or they’re nervous about trying to negotiate the legal space alone,” Mau told Media Insider.
“Many, many people don’t know for sure whether what’s happened to them is illegal.”
Tika — translated from te reo Ma¯ori as truth, justice and fairness — will be a platform for people to report their experiences, including the name of their alleged perpetrator. Tika will then crosscheck its database for any other registered clients who have been harmed by the same person.
The site will be secure and private and follow-up discussions with Lawton, a barrister, would be legally protected.
“We’ve focused initially on groups because we know that group reporting has a number of advantages, including safety and comfort in numbers,” says Mau.
From her own experience as a reporter, survivors found “great comfort” in knowing they weren’t alone. Quite often a group approach meant a stronger legal case.
Tika will be “heavily survivorfocused”, says Mau.
A big motivating factor for survivors coming forward is a desire to ensure that what happened to them did not happen to anyone else.
“Survivors will be in a group and will be given their legal options along a range of pathways — criminal, civil, regulatory body or mediation. They can all decide individually, and they can pull out whenever they want if they feel that they’ve gone as far along the process as they want to.”
Mau and Lawton have enlisted Maria Dew KC to help on civil cases and have been working closely with specialist police on their plans for when criminal complaints need to be laid.
An official launch date for Tika is to be confirmed, as Mau and Lawton seek funding. It will be this year; they have been in a number of discussions.
“Right now we’re exploring all possible fundraising avenues,” says Mau.
“We’d really like to hear from high net-worth individuals who this resonates with. We feel that there are probably quite a few out there because most of us know someone in our lives who has been affected by sexual harm and therefore will have an interest in this mahi.
“It’s not just for women in the workplace. It’s for men. It’s especially for Ma¯ori and Pasifika, LGBTQI+, disabled communities, and migrant communities who are disproportionately affected by this issue of sexual harm. We need to be ready to go from zero to 100 at launch.”
Ultimately, they say, their mission lies in lifting reporting rates; eliminating guilt, shame, self-blame and isolation; opening up legal remedies for survivors and holding perpetrators to account.
Mau acknowledges the pivot away from journalism and broadcasting.
Much of her work now is on public comms, stakeholder management, and rolling out the public legal information programme. “And, at the moment, raising money!
“It’s my last big sprint and I want to make it meaningful.”
Sky’s delicate business balance
An intriguing, bold, and possibly slightly risky new business approach from Sky TV, with its plan to open up more live sport to non-paying viewers.
It’s definitely a big win for sports fans — as they get more access to free games — and for the codes, as they attract more eyeballs.
Where many media businesses — such as the NZ Herald and Stuff — have offered digital content for free for years and only relatively recently moved to online subscription models, Sky is essentially moving the other way.
It’s had a substantial subscription service since 1989, largely based around live rugby, rugby league and other sporting rights.
According to its most recent annual report, Sky has just over 515,000 Sky Box customers and more than 465,000 streaming customers. They all pay for the privilege.
Now, led by respected chief media and data officer Lauren Quaintance and head of sales Ben Gibb, Sky is putting a huge effort into building a new advertising revenue stream — by showing more live sport, for free, on its Sky Open channel.
It announced yesterday that it would screen 25 Friday night NRL games, including seven Warriors matches, for free this season. There would be additional free matches for Anzac Day, the Magic Round and State of Origin I. Sky would also screen, for free, 19 Saturday Super Rugby Pacific games.
The games will start at the same time as those being screened simultaneously on the Sky pay channels, but they will be progressively delayed as ads are played during the matches. The delay, by the end of each game, will be about 12 minutes.
Sky has really not had a proper advertising model in all its time in existence.
Its pay channels carry commercials, but the company has been careful they don’t interrupt live sport or movies.
Where Sky needs to walk a careful tightrope is in its handling of its loyal, paying customers.
Those one million subscribers form the company’s most critical revenue income.
So what’s the risk? In a cost-ofliving crisis, some of them might be now more willing to give up their subscriptions and go for the free option — those prepared to have advertising to interrupt live rugby and league games.
Certainly, that might be an attractive option for casual Warriors and rugby fans. Seven Warriors games would be a strong pull factor.
Sky will be balancing that subscriber risk with the additional advertising revenue coming into its coffers — but knowing it can’t tip the balance too far.
As Sky CEO Sophie Moloney told Newstalk ZB’s D’Arcy Waldegrave last night: “Free to air does not generate what subscription does but it has a role to play.”
Bravo! The rising star of reality TV
Out of seemingly nowhere, and for the first time in its eight-year history, Bravo channel has become the fourth most popular free-to-air channel in New Zealand, behind TVNZ 1 and 2, and Three.
Nielsen ratings — for all audiences, aged 5+ — show Bravo finished ahead in 2023 of the likes of TVNZ Duke, Rush, Prime (now Sky Open), HGTV, Eden, and Whakaata Ma¯ori.
Kiwis certainly seem to be embracing the escapism that Bravo offers. Reality TV, more generally, is on the rise.
The biggest hits on Bravo and ThreeNow were Below Deck Down Under, Below Deck, Below Deck Mediterranean, Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Vanderpump Rules, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, The Real Housewives of Orange County, Snapped, 24 Hours in A&E and film titles from the Bourne franchise.
Bravo described itself as the new number one challenger network in New Zealand. As well as the ratings success in the 5+ category, Bravo said it was also number one among key demos — women 25-54 and household shoppers with kids 0-14.
“Now in its eighth year broadcasting in New Zealand, Bravo has established itself as a much sought-after free-to-air destination for extraordinary reality, entertainment and true crime content,” said NBCUniversal executive and Bravo New Zealand executive chairman Chris Taylor.
“It’s exciting to see Bravo buck the linear viewing trend with viewing continuing to grow across both linear and VOD, demonstrating the pure strength and appeal of our content for Kiwi audiences.”
News bill: Media firms, CEOs front up
A big week for our media companies, as they front up to Parliament to discuss the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill.
Most of them will be arguing in favour of the bill when they appear before Parliament’s economic development, science and innovation select committee on Thursday.
The bill — which would force the likes of Google and Meta (Facebook) to the table to negotiate with media companies, or otherwise pay for news — faces an uncertain future under the new coalition Government.
Sources have previously said that National has softened its view on the bill that’s before the select committee, although it may well want changes.
Through a spokesman, Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee told Media Insider in December: “After considering the best way forward to address any concerns, changes and impacts on stakeholders who have already submitted, the minister has confirmed to the leader of the House to recommend that the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill remain re-instated for the purposes of select committee processes.
“This does not preclude the minister deciding to discharge the bill after considering the findings and any recommendations of the select committee in charge.”