The Future of Public Broadcasting and TVNZ

The announcement by the Government that it is not considering selling TVNZ provides some relief in wake of the Government’s decision to cease funding TVNZ 7.

The decision to axe funding for TVNZ 7 is a severe blow to public broadcasting whose purpose is to promote ideas and perspectives that are ignored or underrepresented in the commercial media. In this regard, public broadcasting serves the citizens whereas commercial broadcasting serves the advertisers and shareholders. Commercial television aims to maximize profits by attracting as many viewers as possible to expose them to advertising and its programming philosophy is driven by ratings as a key measure of its success. Public television aims to educate and inform, to enlighten and entertain. It is an absolute necessity in the maintenance of a complex modern technological democracy.

“Documentaries are already struggling to be commissioned and screened on television as broadcasters favour programmes preferred by advertisers like reality TV and drama. The loss of TVNZ 7 will further diminish the opportunities to make and screen documentaries.” says Dan Shanan and Alex Lee, directors of the Documentary NZ Trust.

“Documentaries representing a wide range of issues locally and internationally are a feature of TVNZ 7. Documentaries to a country are like photo albums for families. The loss of this platform will take away an important storytelling genre that defines our identity and place in the world.”

While documentaries can compete for NZ on Air funding, broadcasters with a commercial imperative will not be motivated to screen documentaries making it harder for documentary filmmakers to seek funding to make the films.

As the decision to axe TVNZ 7 has already been made, The Documentary NZ Trust invites the government to consider the following:

“There needs to be a mandatory quota of public broadcasting that all commercial broadcasters must adhere to in order that we ensure that our citizens and country are well informed and served”.

ENDS

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