A new media battleground opens up, featuring a familiar TV face; Exclusive: Sky TV chairman on the rugby rights negotiations; Hosking-Luxon interview - six ways to avoid a train wreck; NZME lifts the roof with property brand; TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell on leadership - and the option of pay-TV.
Media Insider: Ryan Bridge to host new morning video news show; Sky TV chair opens up on rugby rights and DAZN threat; Hosking-Luxon interview - six ways to avoid a train wreck
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The new show and channel, known as free ad-supported streaming TV (Fast), represents a major strategic pivot for NZME as it looks to seize more video audience and advertising revenue.
It also comes as the Herald newsroom is reshaped and downsized with a net loss of about 30 roles. The net savings are about $4 million as NZME seeks stronger profits from its publishing division.
In the world of digital convergence, the new Fast channel puts the Herald and NZME in a competitive live-video position against the likes of TVNZ and Warner Bros Discovery.
Rival publisher Stuff won the contract last year to produce Warner Bros Discovery’s 6pm Three News – it is paid a flat fee for the contract while WBD retains the advertising revenue around the bulletin. Stuff also benefits from slicing and dicing the news videos for its own website.
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More broadly, the new show means the Herald will have more access to video content to draw audiences and revenue - on its own platforms and likely across social media channels such as YouTube.
In an investor call this week, following the announcement of the company’s financial results, NZME chief executive Michael Boggs touched on the new Herald Now channel.
Boggs said revenue from video advertising for NZME was in the single-digit millions today but with the launch of the new Fast platform “we would expect it to be many multiples of that”.
The Herald Now show has already secured some advertising and sponsorship.
It was exactly a year ago today that Warner Bros Discovery announced the proposed closure of Newshub - a move later confirmed with the loss of almost 300 jobs.
Bridge had been preparing for a new nightly 7pm show on TV3 - the Newshub closure meant those plans were thrown on the scrapheap.
He subsequently moved to Newstalk ZB, where he has been hosting the 5am-6am Early Edition radio show. He is currently filling in for Heather Du Plessis-Allan on the Drive show while she is on maternity leave.
The Herald and Newstalk ZB are both owned by NZME. Bridge will continue to host Early Edition before moving into the newsroom each day to host Herald Now from a specially constructed studio.
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“It’s going to be live,” said Bridge. “But I think importantly, it’s also easily able to be cut up into bite-sized chunks for people who want to digest it that way.”
The show is expected to feature regular one-on-one interviews, panels, and NZ Herald journalists including the likes of investigative reporter Michael Morrah, markets show host Madison Malone and others.
While the vast majority of the show will be live, it will also be able to call upon talent and content from around NZME, including interviews from the Early Edition and The Mike Hosking Breakfast radio shows.
While it will feature a strong percentage of investigative, political and business journalism, Bridge - who has a commerce degree – also wants to bring some banter to break up the heavier content.
“Because I like having fun, I’m hoping that it will also be a fun bit of telly for people if that’s how they want to consume it.”
Bridge says much of his own prep for the radio and video shows will be done the afternoon and night before; he normally gets up at 2.30am and is in the NZME newsroom by 3am for the radio show.
Bridge says he’s missed being on screen.
“I love radio. This is where I started. I did Drive on Radio Live for years. I love radio, but I do think there is something about a politician whose face is on camera with a hard question thrown at them. There’s something pretty cool about that.
“I do miss that and I do miss connecting with people, especially at that time of day. People are often at home getting ready for work or whatever. It’s setting them up for the day.
“I do like the idea that you can bring them a bit of a smile or a bit of a laugh, or some really good information that they can take to their workplace. I’m looking forward to that kind of vibe again as well.”
In a statement, NZ Herald editor-in-chief Murray Kirkness said the launch of the show was another example of NZME’s digital innovation, having launched the country’s first mainstream digital news subscription service.
The new show has reunited Bridge with former Newshub boss Sarah Bristow, who is now at NZME as the Herald’s managing editor of multimedia content. She said the new show would complement the Herald’s premium journalism.
“Ryan’s charisma, versatility and news nous are well known and we believe audiences will enjoy engaging with this new way of watching video news.”
TVNZ back to profit
TVNZ has posted a first-half operating profit of $11.8 million - a positive sign that the state broadcaster is on track with its digital transformation after a challenging year which has seen the loss of dozens of staff and top-rating shows such as Sunday and Fair Go.
However, the company is warning it might still fall into an operational loss for the full year, partly because of continuing challenging economic conditions and the requirement to invest in new technology.
TVNZ today announced a net profit after tax of $53.1m for the six months to December 31 - this included a non-cash adjustment of $41.3m to remove costs already accounted for in its 2024 financial year impairment.
While revenue was down slightly for the six months - by 1.9% to $152.7m - the company said it had slashed operating costs by almost $20m compared with the same period the previous year.
TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell said the financial results were “encouraging”.
They reflected efforts by the business to stabilise its revenue in a challenging advertising market and to reshape its operating cost base.
“While the advertising market remains challenged, we’ve worked hard to shore up our revenue pipeline and reduce our costs. Today’s result puts us in the best possible position to advance our digital strategy and deliver on our aspiration to be New Zealand’s number one streaming platform of trusted news, sport and entertainment.”
O’Donnell told Media Insider the company was on track to reach its annualised savings target of $30 million for the full financial year. TVNZ’s financial year runs from July 1 to June 30.
About $15m of this would be through increased revenue, and $15m through cost reductions, she said.
The cost reductions for the full year will include Shortland Street production savings - the flagship show has been reduced to three nights a week and is now partly funded by NZ on Air as well as benefitting from the government’s screen production rebate. Sources believe TVNZ will save more than $10m a year from the changes.
Sky chairman on rugby rights
In a rare interview, Sky TV’s chairman has opened up about the rugby broadcasting rights negotiations, saying that he expects NZ Rugby will be looking at its own cost base “fairly carefully”, as the two parties strive to hammer out a new deal.
Sky is understood to have offered about $85m a year for the next five years – down from the existing $111m annual deal. This week, the NZ Herald revealed that British-based streamer DAZN was now in the mix as a likely competitor for the rights.
Sky chairman Philip Bowman told Media Insider that the company was hopeful of securing a new deal but he indicated this would not be at any cost.
The negotiations between parties are starting to drag – Sky’s existing rights conclude at the end of this year.
Bowman says changes at NZR governance and executive level haven’t helped the timeframe.
A new-look NZR board, led by new chairman David Kirk, started on February 1. Meanwhile, NZR Commercial chief executive Craig Fenton, a key figure in the negotiations, left the organisation in January.
“I know David reasonably well,” Bowman told Media Insider.
“I’m sure David and the new board have got a number of different ideas in terms of strategy, and they’ve got a number of pretty big challenges to face at the moment, so it’s not a surprise to me that probably the negotiations have not been at the top of the agenda.”
There were, inevitably, “different views” as to the value of the rights, said Bowman.
“That is only natural. I would say that around the world – it’s not an unreasonable thing to say – some sports codes are probably spending beyond their means. That’s true in New Zealand but it’s true in a lot of other places as well.”
He said ultimately any decision on rights would come down to commercial considerations: “What is fair value for our customers and our shareholders and what New Zealand Rugby thinks it needs to run their business.”
He said if he was in NZR’s position, he would be looking at its cost base “fairly carefully”.
“I would be very surprised, with David coming in, if they don’t do it.
“There has been a bit of an interregnum in negotiations. I can understand that. If you’re coming in as a new board and a new chairman, you probably want the opportunity to do the deal yourself, particularly if your strategy is going to be different.”
On the possibility that DAZN might be a contender – the interview was conducted before the Herald’s story confirming the UK firm’s interest – Bowman said: “They’ve got no real presence here; they’ve got no infrastructure here. It takes time to build that infrastructure if they wanted to do it.”
The full interview with Dubai-based Bowman – he speaks more about the rugby rights as well as Sky’s satellite issues and its future direction and other governance matters – will appear on nzherald.co.nz and in the Weekend Herald on Saturday.
Six ways to avoid a train wreck interview
There was no shortage of commentary this week over the three-minute exchange between Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Mike Hosking about former minister Andrew Bayly’s resignation - and Luxon’s reluctance to answer a simple yes or no question about whether he’d have sacked him.
A former National Party chief press secretary and television journalist, Janet Wilson, told Stuff of Luxon’s interview responses: “Those habits are definitely not serving him. I think his falling ratings in the preferred prime minister polls show the issue. It is a matter of trust and we need to see more direct language, more framed-up arguments, and not just bumper slogans.”
Another former top TV journalist, Amanda Millar, now runs her own PR and media training agency Amanda Millar & Co. Speaking generally, she said her firm had six tips for everybody they worked with.
“We don’t do spin and we always make the point, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it that’s important (tone, body language, pace etc),” Millar told Media Insider.
Her company’s six tips:
- Always prepare. Never wing it or think you’ve got it. It will go badly.
- Be clear, calm, concise and real. Audiences will always spot a fake.
- Be conversational. If you have key messages, find different ways of saying the same thing rather than determinedly sticking to your talking point or saying, “As I said...”
- Ditch the jargon or corporate/technical speak. You’re a human, not a report.
- Fess up if something’s gone wrong. Do it early. Offer it before you’re asked. It reinforces your leadership and shows that you’re real. It will often kill the issue/story too.
- Always acknowledge the question. It shows you’re listening. Never immediately deflect. It kills trust.
One Good Poll
Lifting the roof
NZ Herald publisher NZME certainly appears to have excited investors with its announcement this week of a strategic review of property portal OneRoof.
NZME shares were trading at $1.04 before the company’s financial results announcement on Wednesday. By the close of day, they had jumped 15% to $1.20 on the NZX. They eased back yesterday, closing at $1.16.
NZME announced EBITDA of $54.2m and a post-tax loss of $16m following a $24m non-cash impairment of intangible assets such as mastheads and brand names for publications.
Of most interest to investors and analysts, it appears, is NZME’s appointment of Jarden to carry out a strategic review of OneRoof.
According to an NZME statement, opportunities include the potential separation of the business “to enable raising external capital, either public or private, to surface its value” and “potential pathways to value recognition and monetisation”.
NZME chief executive Michael Boggs told Media Insider: “We believe the OneRoof value isn’t really being recognised in our share price.”
NZME’s moves should potentially uncover any high-value investors waiting in the wings. It has no plans to sell 100% of the company, it says, but there might be the opportunity to bring in another shareholder.
The company does not need to look far for inspiration: US-based real estate marketplace and analytics firm CoStar has offered $4.20 a share – a 35% premium – in a takeover bid for Australian real estate site Domain. Domain is owned 60% by media company Nine; the CoStar offer equates to a $A2.7 billion valuation of the real estate site.
In a research note following NZME’s financial results, Forsyth Barr’s James Lindsay and Will Twis said a divestiture of OneRoof could generate a “significant capital return ... given OneRoof’s robust operational momentum and the valuation of Australian peers”.
Domain, they said, was now trading at 18 times EV/Ebitda.
Jarden analyst Arie Dekker said NZME had produced a “pleasing” operating result and headlined his research note: ‘OneRoof starts to make a difference; can it be supercharged?’
Boggs said the value of OneRoof was an open question.
“That really is how long is a piece of string? In Australia, there’s obviously some corporate activity underway. Activity at those levels would see that OneRoof potentially is worth more than the whole of NZME right now.”
A similar pathway could unfold in New Zealand.
“Our objective over the last few years has been really to try and grow OneRoof as quickly as possible,” Boggs said.
“It’s been loss-making and this is the first year in which we committed to actually saying we wanted to make a profit for OneRoof, which we did. So there’s been a $4m Ebitda turnaround from a loss last year to actually making $2.7m this year.
“That just shows the momentum in the business. Overall, the digital OneRoof revenues grew 51%.”
The company would also establish a new OneRoof board this year, reporting to NZME.
“We’d look to put external parties onto that. One of those being ideally someone who has property marketplace experience, which we think would be helpful,” Boggs said.
NZME board updates
Several of NZME’s five-strong board members will reach nine-year milestones in the next couple of years – that’s generally the time limit that the Institute of Directors recommends in its governance guidelines.
In that context, NZME is looking to introduce a sixth board member in the next 12 months to help with succession planning – someone with digital acceleration experience.
“I think it’s all-encompassing,” says Boggs of the skillsets being sought. “It really is quite a broad set of skills. It could be a digital marketplaces specialist. It could be a digital advertising specialist, it could be a digital customer specialist.
“It’s looking for the right person who can bring the skills to make sure our products are right for the market, and then how do we monetise them.”
TVNZ’s Jodi Donnell on leadership
TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell has opened up on the personal and professional impact of closing Sunday and Fair Go, among a range of other cost cuts and job losses at the state broadcaster.
“I think the decisions of last year were absolutely the biggest challenge [of my career] – I still remember that day, March 8. It’s ingrained in my mind,” O’Donnell has told Bruce Cotterill in a new episode of his podcast Leaders Getting Coffee.
“Particularly because I’m from within this business, I knew so many of the people and the changes that we were proposing that impacted those people. I found that personally really hard, but professionally as well.
“I knew it was the right thing to do to ensure the business was sustainable long term because if we didn’t sort it out, then somebody else would. And then you lose control of your destiny.
“That’s definitely been the hardest, but equally, you know, I’ve been able to build a lot of resilience from that. And I smile now when I go how was your first year [as chief executive]? Yeah, it was harsh but I’m still here, I’m still smiling and I’m ready to go for whatever 2025 chucks at us.”
By contrast, sealing a deal to take over sports rights, such as cricket, from the now-defunct Spark Sport was a highlight. It enabled TVNZ to get back into the free-to-air sports space over the past two years and to secure some rich audience insights into what’s resonating.
O’Donnell says it’s a shame, from TVNZ’s perspective, that cricket is moving back to Sky at the end of 2026.
“We’ve quadrupled the audiences for cricket, so that means four times as many New Zealanders have been able to watch cricket free-to-air over the last two years, which is phenomenal. But it is a challenging broadcast environment in terms of the broadcast fees that the sporting bodies require.
“It’s that really fine balance between reaching and engaging all of the sports fans and obviously [the sports bodies] earning enough revenue to also obviously pay all the players and develop the sport as well.”
Cotterill asked whether top international rugby could ever return to free-to-air.
O’Donnell thought that would be difficult in a purely ad-funded broadcasting model. “You’re only getting ad breaks every 40 minutes and that makes it quite challenging, which is why we’ve quite openly talked about diversifying our revenue and moving into the pay space.”
O’Donnell told Cotterill that she would love to see a faster pace on media reform in New Zealand. She appreciated the Government and public sectors were busy with lots of legislative change, but the media sector was a critical industry.
A million people still watched the 6pm news each evening, either live or on demand.
“I look at Australia and the regulation that’s happening in the media space over there and, I don’t know, sometimes I wonder, do Australians care more about their media space or about the news space more than we do?
“I haven’t quite got an answer to that one yet, because we should care. It’s really important that we have a democracy that’s held to account and it’s really important that we have a vibrant local media sector.
“Because if we don’t, we will be getting our news from Fox or from other international outlets. My wish would be, I wish New Zealanders cared more ... we should do everything we can to make sure that they understand the importance of it.”
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In case you missed it
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
