NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

John Drinnan: TV funding carve-up

John Drinnan
By John Drinnan
Columnist·NZ Herald·
22 Sep, 2016 06:05 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

TV One show Dirty Laundry received $6.7 million of NZ On Air funding.

TV One show Dirty Laundry received $6.7 million of NZ On Air funding.

John Drinnan
Opinion by John Drinnan
John Drinnan is the Media writer for the New Zealand Herald.
Learn more

The TV production industry is likely to give a guarded reaction to the biggest shakeup to NZ On Air since it began 26 years ago. Details of the changes will be announced today.

Media consumption is changing, with more focus on new video ventures, so the funding agency has been lobbied to spread the taxpayer dollar further.

There will probably be a greater expectation on media companies to attract more outside investment, suggesting acceptance of more advertiser sponsorship.

The new system will be more "platform agnostic", while still giving preferred access to the free-to-air network, which can deliver a mass audience by combining TV broadcast and online screening through on-demand platforms.

A TV industry source who has seen the proposals said that allocations of more than $500,000 - for programmes such as big dramas - will effectively be limited to the free-to-air networks.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Allocations of $100,000 to $500,000 could be for either broadcast or online, while funding of $50,000 to $100,000 could be for online only.

One producer, who is focused on network commissions, expected NZ On Air's moves to reduce funding to the formal production sector, cutting the number of productions and lowering production values.

There was a view that nobody would notice if things were done more cheaply, said the producer. "That may be true for some news content, but not for other content.

"It clearly reduces the power of the broadcasters and makes it easier for funding to be allocated to new players like [Herald publisher] NZME.

"There is enormous danger in safeguarding NZOA's investment - these new players will not have the systems, people and controls to manage the funding and ensure it is spent appropriately," said the TV-focused producer.

Discover more

Opinion

Drinnan: Pressure on media leaves Govt unmoved

01 Sep 07:45 PM
Opinion

John Drinnan: Film industry riding high

08 Sep 06:00 PM
Opinion

John Drinnan: Embracing the video revolution

15 Sep 08:30 PM
Opinion

John Drinnan: MediaWorks' man with the news

06 Oct 05:40 PM

On the other hand, The Spinoff website's Duncan Greive has campaigned for changes at NZ On Air and complained about the high proportion of funding going to television.

Read the full report here:

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Rude words

Heavy editorial and social media promotion for Episode 6 of Real Housewives of Auckland has not led to any real change in ratings for the tabloid reality show, according to broadcaster Bravo, which has declined to spell out the numbers.

Last week the Herald on Sunday reported that one of the "housewives", Julia Sloane, consulted lawyers, seeking changes to the show in which she used the N-word to refer to another contestant, Michelle Blanchard.

The Real Housewives of Auckland.
The Real Housewives of Auckland.

On Tuesday, Bravo ran the episode, in the knowledge that the heavily bleeped phrase would alienate advertisers, who were given ad spots elsewhere in the Bravo schedule.

So nobody was out of pocket, with the possible exception of Sloane, who has taken legal and PR advice.

Stranger than reality

PR woman Deborah Pead criticised Bravo's handling of the incident and aspects of the media coverage promoting the episode.

In my opinion, Sloane's words were clearly hurtful to Blanchard, and that had to be acknowledged.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But in my view Bravo's coverage and subsequent publicity exploited the racism and sought to make a villain of Sloane on social media.

We have come to expect controversy and hurtful attacks from reality shows. For example, X Factor judges made cruel comments about a contestant, and women on The Bachelor were demeaned by being asked to swallow a cucumber, in a promotional prank on an associated radio station

Now, the hurt caused by a racist comment has been used to promote a TV show, and spurred hatred on social media.

Bravo public relations consultant Adelle Keely of Acumen Republic said Real Housewives producers had met several times to discuss how to handle the programme, and would have been criticised if they had not covered the controversy over the offensive word. "It was not about ratings - they are not concerned with ratings." she said.

Some will say all this is just TV, or that casual racism should be exposed. In my opinion, it's just another example of how nutty media has become, when it all ends in the Human Rights Commission naming and shaming an individual on a tabloid reality show.

New magazines

Publisher Bauer Media is working on three new magazines - including one focused on Auckland's upmarket eastern suburbs.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Bauer NZ chief executive Paul Dykzeul would not give details on the new weekly, but said the titles would not intrude on other magazines in Bauer's stable.

At least one of the new mags is expected to be up and running by late next month.

Among the projects Bauer is developing is a bi-monthly magazine based on the thoughts and celebrity of 2011 MasterChef winner Nadia Lim.

Lim is one of the founders and a shareholder in the food delivery firm My Food Bag. However the Nadia Lim magazine is a venture between her and Bauer, and does not involve My Food Bag.

Lim's PR consultant, Deborah Pead, optimistically compared the magazine to O: The Oprah Magazine in the US.

The magazine would not be solely about food and would include travel and Lim's stories about entrepreneurs, Pead said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Premium
Personal Finance

Company that lends flexible line of credit for divorce proceedings launches in NZ

13 Jul 05:00 AM
Construction

Insulation rule changes could cut $15k from new build costs

13 Jul 04:00 AM
Premium
Opinion

Phil O'Reilly: NZ business must rethink how it sees Europe

13 Jul 03:00 AM

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

Premium
Company that lends flexible line of credit for divorce proceedings launches in NZ

Company that lends flexible line of credit for divorce proceedings launches in NZ

13 Jul 05:00 AM

Aussie lender JustFund aims to bring over 100 Kiwi law firms on board by the end of 2025.

Insulation rule changes could cut $15k from new build costs

Insulation rule changes could cut $15k from new build costs

13 Jul 04:00 AM
Premium
Phil O'Reilly: NZ business must rethink how it sees Europe

Phil O'Reilly: NZ business must rethink how it sees Europe

13 Jul 03:00 AM
Premium
Sasha Borissenko: Is gig work freedom or friction?

Sasha Borissenko: Is gig work freedom or friction?

13 Jul 12:01 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP