Media: Did the Govt save The Hobbit - or lose a game of bluff?

Raunchy rock videos may be replacing the likes of Fireman Sam on TVNZ 6. Photo / Supplied

As the media-induced hysteria over The Hobbit dies away - and with union officials dealing with threats - people are asking whether the Government has saved The Hobbit or lost a game of bluff with Warner Bros.

Was the New Zealand location assured after Actors' Equity unions removed the threat of boycotts?

The Hobbit deal is not the first where New Zealand taxpayers have shelled out extra money to keep a Hollywood studio happy. And it won't be the last.

From 2004 to last year taxpayers gave Sir Peter Jackson's business interests and overseas production companies $230 million in subsidies from the Large Budget Screen Production Grant.

Taxpayers dished out $3.4 million to Tom Cruise's hit film The Last Samurai because of a "gentleman's agreement" aimed at keeping Warner Bros happy. They were under no legal obligation to do so.

In the late 1990s a National Government exempted Jackson's Lord of The Rings from tax changes that removed a loophole.

The exclusion ensured that Lord of The Rings got made with all of the benefits that accrued. It is said to have removed more than $200 million from tax revenues - though Jackson has rejected that view.

National has been extending its commercial tentacles elsewhere into the media sector.

State-owned enterprise New Zealand Post has announced it is entering the advertising industry with its new Localist directory. It will compete with the financially struggling Yellow Pages.

BROTHERLY LOVE

Alongside the taxpayer handout and changing laws to appease Warner Bros there has been talk from actors opposing Actors' Equity about the formation of a new union.

The union would compete with the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), which backs Actors' Equity.

MEAA insists it will carry on in the industry.

Presumably a new union of people who did not like Equity would adopt a less antagonistic relationship to Jackson's business interests and the producers body the Screen Production and Development Association.

What is not clear is how such a union would be treated by actors' unions worldwide, with the potential for similar boycott threats.

The hope among some in the production industry is that Actors' Equity has crashed and burned with its mishandling of The Hobbit dispute. It would be game over and the labour law change would keep unions out.

But it will be surprising if the debacle of the MEAA in New Zealand is over.

One of the MEAA's failings was its heavy-handed attempt to impose international discipline and industrial tactics ignoring the less industrialised nature of the local industry.

While it sounds a bit hokey, the union just was not New Zealand enough. But others in the industry point a finger at the Screen Production and Development Association (Spada) and a wish to maintain the non-unionised status as long as possible.

The lack of formal structure apparent in other countries was holding back New Zealand.

"This was always going to explode. It will go away now, but it will be back again," said a well-placed insider who would not be named.

TAKING SIDES

Jim Anderton was Minister of Economic Development under the last government and dealt with Hollywood studios seeking subsidies.

A veteran advocate on the left, he has not criticised the Government's handling of the dispute which led to the payout and the amazing promise to change industrial laws to suit Warner Bros. You cannot judge negotiations with studio unless you are in the room looking these people in the eye, he said.

"But there has been a massive overreaction to the dispute and cooler heads should have prevailed," said Anderton. There is a feeling that the union made some strategic mistakes trying to call for a ban on The Hobbit.

Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee attacked the union while offering to mediate.

"If I had been the minister I would not have been screaming at the union with recriminations," Anderton said.

"There is going to be sourness and some very bruised people," Anderton said.

WHIPP IT

Its clear that the MEAA Actors' Equity boss Simon Whipp got this dispute terribly wrong and he acknowledged to me he should have done things differently.

Having failed in similar actions against TV productions like Outrageous Fortune, The Cult and This Is Not My Life, the union took aim at The Hobbit.

It is tempting to blame the outcome on an Australian union that did not understand the New Zealand way.

Much of the industry is run by guilds of self-employed people like the Technicians Guild but they too have struggled to be heard in an industry that producers would like to control.

Alun Bollinger is president of the Technicians Guild. He said the relatively small size of the Outrageous Fortune set meant actors pulled back from industrial action because it would hurt the livelihood of their technician colleagues - a camaraderie that was not apparent in a big industrial project like The Hobbit.

Bollinger laments the way that dispute got played out.

"Name calling and personal attacks" had left him disheartened.

TV producer Dave Gibson is a key negotiator for Spada. His approach is typical of producer wariness of the MEAA. He said local members of Actors' Equity had wanted some big fish in the pool - but the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance turned out to be sharks.

GOODBYE FIREMAN SAM

State TV is making another push into the embattled advertising market.

Say goodbye to Fireman Sam on TVNZ 6 and hello to raunchy rock videos.

Under a plan being given advanced consideration by the Government, some TVNZ 6 programming will be folded into TVNZ 7 while the rest is dropped.

The abandoned capacity on 6 would be used for a commercial channel focused on youth.

Currently TVNZ 6 offers disparate programming with children through the Kidzone strand, family viewing and the arts.

Five years of taxpayer funding worth a total of $79 million runs out at the end of next year.

But sources say TVNZ wants the term to end early so TVNZ 6 can be turned into a commercial youth channel by March.

The Government is expected to announce the move before the end of this year.

The ongoing funding of public TV is still unclear and no decisions have been made yet whether to merge Radio New Zealand with TVNZ 7.

COUNTRY COOKIN'

Sky Television has been amending its terms with its premium subscriber channel Country99 Television, as potential buyers circle the channel.

Country99 chief executive Chris Gedye is away on leave and owner Colin Harvey has been acting as CEO.

It is understood that Sky is not in the market to buy the channel but that two parties are actively interested - including South Island media interests.

The satellite broadband internet service provider Farmside has been sniffing around, but is no longer an active proposition.

QUESTIONABLE

I have mentioned the sometimes hysterical and one-sided coverage in the news media of the Hobbit dispute.

The union was painfully slow to explain its point, so many in the media - especially in Wellington - threw caution to the wind and took the view that Sir Peter Jackson, Weta Workshop's Sir Richard Taylor and business interests associated with them could explain what was happening.

Some of the worst examples of unsceptical and biased coverage were on One News including coverage of the rally organised from Weta Workshops.

As a result, angry public fervour was whipped up - leading to death threats against Actors' Equity's Simon Whipp and local organiser Frances Walsh.

Separately, Paul Holmes' Q&A interview with Helen Kelly and John Barnett - with fawning praise for Sir Peter and Sir Richard - goes down as one of his worst performances yet.

It was surprising after the Paul Henry debacle that TVNZ News has dealt with the issue in this way.