Radio with Pictures
August 15th, 2011 at 2:55 pm by David FarrarDavid Beatson blogs at Pundit:
I welcome the proposal that John Barnett from South Pacific Pictures has pitched to the board of Radio New Zealand for “radio with pictures”. …
Barnett told us he had been given a positive reception by the RNZ board and outlined some of the arsenal of new media technology that he proposed using to add the necessary visual enrichment required by the television audience.
He saw scope for including original productions currently provided to TVNZ 7 by independent producers – and was confident that he could deliver 18 hours of programming a day on a public broadcasting channel at a cost that is considerably less than the $13 million a year TVNZ was paid to produce TVNZ 6 and 7. My own analysis of the concept indicates that he is right.
That is not an unreasonable sum.
I have blogged previously several times that the Government should sell TVNZ, which is a fully commercial broadcaster, and put the proceeds from the sale into a trust to fund a full public service broadcaster, such as Radio New Zealand with pictures.
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August 15th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
How about the gummint sells TVNZ (and every other media organisation it owns) and tells special interest groups (those who like listening to the concert programme) that they can either put up with adverts or fund the station themselves.
Why the fuck should I pay for public broadcasting?
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Definitely sell TVNZ while it is still worth someone buying. Only TVNZ and Maori TV perform anything like a public-service broadcasting role.
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Isn’t this just another example of someone wanting the goverment to pay them to invent something that we already have? “Radio with pictures” sounds a lot like televsion and/or the internet to me, and last time I looked, both where working fine.
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
The whole concept is a throw back to the 30s thru 70s. Let it go…AND Radio NZ with it. We certainly do not need Radio Left on The Terrace (a rose red imitation of iased BBC, ABC, CBC and NPR). The only service that should be kept is the International Pacific Islands service. But even that, with the advent of Stats, may have passed its use-by date. Better things to spend money on. Richard Griffin and Coleman should kill it!
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
I managed to “jailbreak” my freeview tuner to pick up the SBS channels in Australia (they share the same optus satellite as freeview & sky). The channels are a treasure trove of dramas, comedies, documentaries and foreign movies. Some of the shows screen here, eg entourage, south park but 99% of the shows don’t get here.
Vote:This has convinced me that the “private” sector alone does not meet our broadcasting needs in New Zealand and we need some kind of public broadcasting.
August 15th, 2011 at 5:44 pm
bc
I think what you are saying is that if you, or anyone else, was given for free something that is expensive to make, then you would consume that service, but the moment that you are required to pay the economic cost of it, then you object and blame the “private” sector for not delivering costly things to you for less than their cost.
That the Australian government has decided to spend some of the taxes it raises on giving something to its citizens for less than its cost doesn’t convince me that the New Zealand government should do the same.
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 6:32 pm
The news media is an essential component of a democratic society. It is going through a crisis because of the disruptive impact of the Internet, threatening the existence of responsible, reasonably independent journalism. Therefore it is good policy for a government on behalf of citizens to have a modest role in supporting quality journalism in the medium term.
Radio NZ National clearly offers quality journalism. TVNZ, equally clearly, does not. It does not pretend to be anything other than populist garbage. So I’m happy for more of my tax money to go to RNZ, including possibly a TV element, and less to TVNZ.
The same argument does not apply to RNZ Concert. Who listens, and can’t they afford a CD player?
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Why not take the total content of TVNZ, host it on a server, connect it to the internet, and then make it all available via BitTorrent. I think the idea of sequential TV is dated. Very soon all content will be available all the time, on demand.
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 7:23 pm
No that’s not what I am saying at all georgebolwing.
Vote:I would be more than hppy to pay for an SBS-like service in New Zealand.
What I am saying is exactly what I said – without you putting words into my mouth (or keyboard in this case) – the private sector is not providing channels like SBS in New Zealand. Certainly not pay-tv such as Sky.
So if the private sector does not provide it, then what next?
August 15th, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Mikenmild: “Only TVNZ and Maori TV perform anything like a public-service broadcasting role.”
How doos TVNZ do that? You could have fooled most mere viewers who ultimately pay the bill. (And please don’t give me that hoary old line that TVNZ’s “service” is paid for through its advertising. The total equity of the business is provided by the taxpayer, as is the informal underwriting of liabilities that would be called upon immediately TVNZ faced any hint of financial duress.)
Public service broadcasting, where it is operated in the public interest, is expected to have professional integrity, quality programming standards and political impartiality. There is little of that in evidence at TVNZ. Sell it to the highest bidder, the sooner the better.
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Sorry, I meant TVNZ 7.
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Reform is totally needed in the public broadcasting space – and TVNZ7 and Maori TV have proven that good public broadcasting is possible here.
We should create a NZBC again – bringing together TVNZ7, Maori TV and Radio NZ. Maintain separate editorial control, but no reason why back office cant be combined – even newsrooms could be combined.
Operate it as a service instead of demanding a dividend. Sell the remainder of TVNZ – there is no reason for the Government to operate channels that compete with the private sector to buy popular international content like Coro St (and just about everything else on 1 and 2).
It would be good if our politics allowed a mature discussion around restructuring SOEs and selling off the bits that are just competing with private companies. Instead we seem stuck with black and white positions – sell everything/sell nothing.
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 9:18 pm
radio with pictures coming from kiwiblog would be like larry flint and hustler
go slide down your own drainhole
Vote:August 15th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
TV1 was always seen as the public broadcaster, but it is now just full of reality tv shows (just because they are British reality shows instead on the American ones on TV2 doesn’t make them any better) and CSI-type crime shows. Every now and then something decent comes along like “Justified” but 2 weeks later that gets shifted to a graveyard slot to be replaced with more British reality shows. It is pretty clear that TVNZ are not anywhere near what could be considered the role of a public broadcaster, so it may as well be sold. The money could be used to expand TVNZ7 so that it becomes more than a (predominantly) news channel.
Vote:August 16th, 2011 at 3:00 am
TVNZ 7 is basically a dumping ground at the moment for old locally-made documentaries that may or may not have been interesting the first time around, but certainly aren’t in demand for repeat viewings.
Vote:August 16th, 2011 at 7:59 am
My favourite hate is when they take an American reality show like “Destroyed in Seconds” that plays on Sky channels anyway and overdub a NZ commentary (same as the US one) and I am guessing it now counts as NZ content.
Vote:August 16th, 2011 at 8:07 am
Slightly o/t, Radio with Pictures, 1976 – 1988 took overt the TV pop culture slot from The Grunt Machine, 1975-1976 which featured a rather youthful Paul Holmes.
Vote:August 16th, 2011 at 9:19 am
Its remarkable that instead of reforming TVNZ , so many choose to sell off a public asset that has taken decades to develop and has cost millions. We won’t be getting back anything like what we paid for it. We don’t need RNZ with pictures, we need a TV channel ( news service at least ) with the public service ethos of RNZ. TVNZ remains under the control of the govt so they should simply put their foot down and arrest the hijack by the airheads who think that all we want is endless forensic crime shows and amateur chefs. Leave the rubbish TV to the private sector. Adjust the costs within TVNZ to reflect their public role and stop all the nonsense about incredibly expensive TV is to make. This country can afford a public service TV broadcaster – but that doesn’t mean paying people 400k to read the news. Public service broadcasting works in every other western democracy – its just that here we appear to be too stupid to comprehend what could be developed. And spare me that juvenile “why should i pay for public TV” crap. Its part of living in a grown up country.
Vote:August 16th, 2011 at 9:27 am
The reason for the current state of TVNZ is that it has a purely commercial focus. The recent attempts to run a couple of genuinely public service channels – 6 and 7 – have been stymied, with the initial funding not renewed. In the absence of any commitment toprovide such services, the Radio NZ option seems to be emerging as a low-cost alternative.
It’s not that there is much money involved in the wider scheme of things, it’s a question of of political preference. The government would rather lend money to TV3 than fund a genuine public broadcaster.
Vote:August 20th, 2011 at 8:46 am
All TV is pay TV, and people need to get that into their heads. Yes, people in other small countries have non-commercial TV and radio, but they have to pay licence fees of up to $600 a year. The Rhema Broadcasting Group’s radio and TV stations in NZ are funded by donations – if a Christian broadcaster in NZ can do it, why not a mainstream one?
However, I don’t know why some people (freedom fetishists and tax bores) in NZ have this chip on their shoulders about public service broadcasting – is it because TV was a state monopoly for so long compared to other countries? People like them are like the Russian Mafia, more obsessed with the market than people in other countries because they were deprived of it for so long.
Sure, people on the right in other countries dislike and resent paying for the BBC, ABC, CBC, PBS and NPR, but few seek to shut them down completely – I guess it’s that Kiwi characteristic of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
There could have been a privately own independent TV channel operating alongside the NZBC in the 1970s – if that had happened, thre wouldn’t have been the screwing around and chopping and changing that has happened since.
I’m glad SBS can be picked up in NZ – a pity the ABC can’t be as well. I think a lot of people in NZ would be happy to pay for it. The disadvantage that NZ has is that it’s too far from its nearest neighbour to be able to pick up the terrestrial TV signal from that country. The Irish, Dutch and Belgian cable TV operators all carry BBC1 and 2, and pay the BBC for it.
davidp “Why not take the total content of TVNZ, host it on a server, connect it to the internet, and then make it all available via BitTorrent?”
1. Because broadband internet in NZ is a joke.
Vote:2. BitTorrent takes ages. Why bother when you can have video on demand? Digital terrestrial TV can offer this.