MediaWorks boss set to reveal plans to improve TV profits

Ian Audsley. Photo / Supplied

The interim boss of MediaWorks television, Ian Audsley, is expected to unveil his plans this week to improve profits at TV3 and C4.

Audsley, who runs consultancies in Australia and rejects claims he is focused on cutbacks, could not be reached for comment.

Options for cuts are limited with a tight rein having been kept on costs during the 10 years that his predecessor, Brent Impey, was chief executive.

MediaWorks is encumbered with debt from when Ironbridge Capital led a heavily leveraged buyout in 2007. The radio operation - led by Sussan Turner - has suffered with other media trying to boost or maintain revenue in an unprecedented advertising slump.

But TV3 has been harder hit and the Association of New Zealand Advertisers says that the advertising market is still soft.

A larger-than-life Australian media executive, Audsley is a former chief operating officer at the Australian Nine Network. He made an immediate impact when he replaced Impey at the end of last year by suggesting to staff that he would put a bar on the corporate floor so they could mix with management.

There has been speculation about his approach to news and current affairs, which have been a programming mainstay but are the biggest cost centres. At the beginning of the year, Audsley flew star presenter John Campbell back from holiday to talk to him at an Auckland restaurant about the future of Campbell Live. The 7pm show and the breakfast show Sunrise - the two most vulnerable shows in a MediaWorks cutback - have survived. It is understood the breakfast programme, which was not making a profit at the end of last year, is still under scrutiny.

Impey steadfastly rejected options for programming cuts and was protective of TV3 as a full-service broadcaster.

MediaWorks chairman Brent Harman said at the end of last year that over the next few months the board intended to devote considerable focus to assessing the digital future for its television business.

"The board's brief to Ian is to assist the board to grow the business and capitalise on new opportunities."

Audsley has been hired on a 12-month term in an unusual restructuring arrangement in which Impey's role as group chief executive was disestablished.

Formerly a joint operation, the company, radio and TV operations now report separately to the board of directors.