More funds needed for quality local broadcasting content

The Green Party has welcomed the evidence of strong public support for state broadcasting contained in a recent Ministry of Culture and Heritage survey - and has urged the Government to forego its dividend from TVNZ this year, and thus make it affordable for the state broadcaster to screen more quality local content in prime time.

“It is all very well for Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey to tout the success of New Zealand on Air in enabling more hours of local content to be screened,” Greens Broadcasting Spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.

“In reality, New Zealand’s ratio of local content still lags far behind other developed countries, and the funding arrangements have simply not kept pace with the cost of making quality local content, marketing it properly and screening it in prime time.

“According to the MCH survey, 89 percent of New Zealanders think public broadcasting contributes to the cultural and social value of New Zealand. Armed with this mandate, the Government should forego its dividend this year, and thereby enable TVNZ to absorb some of the cost of marketing and screening quality local context in a time slot where more New Zealanders can see it.

“Similarly, the Government should be putting more funds into New Zealand on Air, to ensure that local producers do not have to tailor local content to the lowest common denominator, in order to get it funded and scheduled,” Ms Kedgley says.

“ Until Government tackles the issue of how quality local content can be adequately funded by NZOA and supported by the networks, the current digital television conference at Te Papa will be mere window dressing. .

“As things stand, the Freeview digital platform is looking like a niche venue for recycling old local content, and any new local content screened on it appears as though it will have to be made on a shoestring. There is a real risk this process could help to undermine the local production industry’s wages and conditions.

“The MCH survey shows that the public want quality local content. At present, the Government is happy to pay lip service to that concept, while requiring commercial returns from TVNZ that regularly consign quality programmes to the outer regions of the schedules, ” Ms Kedgley says.