The public broadcasting spend

Chris Barton had a very good article in the NZ Herald detailing how we are still spending $233 million a year on . That is not a small amount, for a country of our size. The challenge is that costs do not scale much to size.

We spend:

  • $82 million contestable NZ on Air funding (includes $15.1 million Platinum Fund)
  • $58 million for Maori television (includes $25 million Te Mangai Paho contestable)
  • $36 million for New Zealand
  • $18 million for 6 and 7
  • $11 million for Maori radio
  • $9 million for other (Pacific transmission, archiving, digital, , etc)
  • $5 million for Freeview
  • $5 million for New Zealand music
  • $4 million for commercial and community radio
  • $3 million for National Pacific Radio Trust
  • $2 million for Parliament TV

I'd be very interested in true viewer numbers for each. The article cites monthly and weekly cumulative audiences for some channels and programmes, but that means if you watch 10 minutes of a channel once a month, you get included. What I want is the average number of viewers or listeners during a show.

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