A Shorty St lifeline — is it you and me?
South Pacific Pictures seeks rebate from the NZ Film Commission
Is it you, or is it me? Lately, I’ve been lost it seems I think a change is what I need
The opening lyrics of the
Shortland Street theme song — penned three decades ago and lauded as one of our most enduring pieces of television music — perhaps hold more relevance about the show itself these days.
Our longest-running TV drama, which celebrates its 32nd anniversary next month, is in need of life support with TVNZ reviewing whether it can sustain its multimillion-dollar investment in light of tough economic conditions and rapidly changing audience habits.
State-owned enterprise TVNZ, which relies on commercial revenue and has no direct taxpayer support, fully funds the show to the tune of eight figures a year, with no support from NZ on Air.
Ratings data show it is one of TVNZ’s most popular on-demand shows. But it’s a different story on linear television: from highs of almost
350,000 viewers in the critical 25-54 age group in 1999-2010, Shortland Street would be lucky to get a third of those numbers at 7pm now.
Several options are likely under consideration — production costs most definitely, but also the frequency of the shows and whether the 7pm linear timeslot might be freed up for a more commercially attractive offering.
Shortland Street’s production company, South Pacific Pictures, also believes the show can be given a huge boost, by allowing it to be eligible for the existing Screen Production Rebate (SPR), administered by the New Zealand Film Commission.
“Currently to be eligible for the domestic SPR, the budget for a drama series has to be in excess of $500k per hour,” says South Pacific Pictures managing director Andrew Szusterman.
“The international SPR which the likes of Netflix series [and] New Zealand-shot Sweet Tooth has accessed doesn’t have that requirement. It’s an anomaly that we’d like to see changed.”
The international version of the SPR considered total investment and the domestic SPR looked at per-hour spend, he said.
“It just doesn’t sit right,” said Szusterman.
“Shortland Street, by nature of being a serialised drama, and the efficiencies that are brought about by being a fast turnaround television production, doesn’t get close to that minimum $500k per hour threshold.
“We are advocating eligibility level changes for the domestic SPR. Television productions having a significant investment of over $15 million should become eligible.”
Szusterman cited a report from
2022 that highlighted the critical role the drama had played in the fabric of New Zealand — contributing more than $227 million to the economy, while also being a training and breeding ground for some of our biggest and brightest talent both behind and in front of the camera.
“We believe this eligibility change will ensure its future and a key point is that change requires no Government bailout. It’s just a change in policy.”
A similar change had occurred in Australia, he said, with Home and Away now eligible for a rebate scheme and the Australian Government recognising the economic and cultural importance of the series. “We believe the NZ Government should follow suit.”
Jacindamania movie loses ‘Jacinda’
A feature-length documentary film focusing on Dame Jacinda Ardern’s leadership has trimmed its working title and lost its original distributor.
The $3.2m film — set to receive at least $800,000 of public funding and a likely further $1.2m in taxpayer support through a screen production rebate — was originally promoted with the working title of Jacindamania.
It then became The Untitled PBK and JP Project for a time but its new working title is Mania, New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) chief executive Annie Murray and the film’s producer, Emma Slade, confirmed yesterday.
The Herald revealed last month that the former Prime Minister was understood to be unhappy with the project and had distanced herself from it.
The film was presented to potential international partners as part of the NZFC’s slate at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023. At the time, the working title was Jacindamania. In a synopsis, the documentary is described as “a social excavation of the rise and fall of the young female leader, Jacinda Ardern, exploring how the mania that propelled her rise later collided with a backlash of hate, told through a bold mash-up of media and peer archive”.
That document also reveals that Aucklandbased Ahi was the film’s distributor and its producers were Pietra Brettkelly, Chelsea Winstanley and Polly Fryer. But Firefly Films — Slade, Victoria Dabbs, Roxi Bull — are now the producers, alongside Brettkelly.
Winstanley and Fryer are no longer producers.
Ahi was also no longer the distributor, the NZFC’s Murray confirmed this week. She would not say why, referring Media Insider to Ahi for comment.
Ahi Collective chief executive Neil Lambert did not return messages.
Neither Murray nor Slade would name the new distributor. “We are currently focused on making the film. There is no need for them to be named at this stage,” said Slade.
The NZFC, in order for it to agree to public money for a project, demands that a distributor be attached.
“To be clear, the documentary has a distributor attached as is required of all films NZFC invests in,” said Murray.
But she said the distributor would not be named “at this time” for reasons of “commercial sensitivity”.
Later, a spokeswoman said an application to the NZFC for production funding required a “deal memo” from a distributor.
“A deal memo was provided with the Mania application. As mentioned, we don’t include market partners in any of our funding announcements. When a project is confirmed for production funding, the agreement with the distributor moves from an ‘offer’ to a full agreement signed by all parties.
“In regards to Mania, this process is nearly complete, but the producer Emma Slade advises that we can’t confirm the name of the distributor until the process closes. Please be assured we will be very happy to share with you the name of the distributor as soon as possible.”
Murray said the applicant for Mania “satisfied all the funding guidelines for domestic distribution when applying for funding”.
“This included a deal memo from the distributor which met the NZFC requirements,” said Murray.
“In regard to publishing details of the distributor, the NZFC only includes filmmakers in our funding announcements.
“We don’t name market partners at this time. For reasons of commercial sensitivity, we aren’t able to confirm the distributor for this project at this stage, noting the contracting of all parties is yet to be finalised.”
Ex-TV3 boss in Newshub bid
Newsroom co-founder Mark Jennings is understood to have been involved in a bid to secure the contract to produce the 6pm news on Three (TV3).
Several sources confirmed Jennings’ interest — as one of New Zealand’s most experienced and respected news executives, he has intimate knowledge of the Newshub operation.
The former head of news at TV3, Jennings founded the Newsroom website with former NZ Herald editorin-chief Tim Murphy in 2017.
Sources say he led a Newsroom bid for the Warner Bros Discovery contract, although it is not clear how close he came to securing it. Jennings did not wish to comment yesterday.
Stuff was this week named the successful bidder — its first bulletin will screen on July 6, the day after Newshub’s final show.
In a very astute column in late February, Jennings wrote of how Newshub staff might save their newsroom.
“Suggest that a slimmed down operation move to a smaller, cheaper suburban premises. Cut the news down to half an hour with one presenter. Follow the news with Ryan Bridge’s new show so you are still competing against TVNZ. Bridge, if he is good enough, can make his tightly staffed show profitable if he secures a major sponsorship.”
Millions more could be saved, Jennings wrote, with staff taking some form of pay cut, and asking the Government to forgo broadcasting transmission fees charged by Kordia.
“Then go to every big advertising agency and every big company in New Zealand and ask them to give Newshub a bigger share of advertising — at least until the economic climate improves.”
Following the news this week that Stuff had won the bid, Jennings made comments in several media interviews and wrote in a follow-up column titled “Stuff takes a big risk with Newshub” that “Stuff will need to have got its cost projections spot on as it appears to have undercut rival bids”.
“Boucher and her team will also have to accommodate the views of WBD executives. Kyne made it clear at the media conference that he considers the deal to be a ‘partnership’ and expects to be consulted on presenters and the ‘tone’ of the news,” wrote Jennings.
“It is understood the higher ranks at WBD feel Newshub has been too left-leaning in its approach to news and want to see it ‘straightened up’.
“This might prove to be the biggest of the many challenges facing Stuff as it enters the difficult world of TV news.”
Traitors set to return
Filming is understood to be under way for the second season of The Traitors NZ, hosted by Paul Henry.
“I can’t confirm any shoot dates,” said South Pacific Pictures managing director Andrew Szusterman. “I can confirm it will screen this year though.”
The first season of the local version of the global format has screened in Australia and Canada. It is currently airing on the NBC-owned platform Peacock in the US, and is about to launch on the BBC in the UK.