Govt gives $50 million to media

Stuff reports:

Media companies will get help worth $50 million from the Government to help them cope with a huge drop in income during the coronavirus crisis.

Broadcasters will not have to pay transmission fees to state-owned company Kordia to broadcast television channels or FM radio channels for six months, under the first stage of the plan.

The main beneficiaries of that assistance, which will cost just over $21m, will include TVNZ, television channel Three owner MediaWorks, and Maori Television.

Broadcast media will also get the bulk of the benefit from a decision to reduce media companies’ contributions to NZ On Air screen content by $16.5m in the 2020-21 financial year.

The Government will provide $11.1m for “specific targeted assistance to companies as and when needed”.

No doubt the specific targeted assistance will be dependent on how many stories the media company runs that the Government approves of.

We are now going to have basically every media company in New Zealand dependent on the Government’s goodwill. This creates incentives.