Privatisation is unlikely, but the Government is looking at other ways for TVNZ to get friendly with the private sector.
The state broadcaster has signalled that it wants more joint ventures with companies in this country and overseas.
Chief executive Kevin Kenrick confirmed yesterday that TVNZ was looking at partners, and I understand it has had preliminary talks with at least one competitor.
The broadcaster is integrating its TV and online businesses, and Kenrick says its knowledge of video gives it an advantage over non-TV players. But it is not clear what expertise TVNZ might want from any joint venture partner.
There is nothing unusual in competing media working together as "frenemies". It makes sense as local media battle to maintain revenue and withstand global online players.
Last month, TVNZ chairwoman Joan Withers said she expected big mergers and other upheavals in the media sector in the year ahead. Interestingly, she has experience in preparing state ventures for privatisation, but the reality is that privatising TVNZ would be politically fraught and unlikely to deliver much cash.
Joint ventures would be one way for the state broadcaster to make its assets work harder. Significantly, perhaps, Communications Minister Amy Adams yesterday announced the Government would release regulatory reviews of telecommunications and broadcasting, which may have a big impact on both sectors.
TVNZ yesterday announced a $28.1 million full-year profit, up $10 million on the previous year, although revenue declined 2.9 per cent to $350 million, with advertising revenue down 1.9 per cent.
London calling
MediaWorks has confirmed that chief executive Mark Weldon is in London to attend several meetings. It is understood the visit is to update MediaWorks owner, Oaktree Capital Management, about the performance of the company, in particular its TV operations.
Input from Hutch
Marketing veteran Mike Hutcheson made a valuable contribution to an important Trans-Tasman Business Circle discussion this week about the future of New Zealand media. As someone who has read countless discussions about "the state of media" and the battle for survival, the discussion offered prescient views on the sector's future. "Hutch" pointed out that the usual focus of these discussions is on technology, when the public's interest is in stories - what is delivered, not the way in which it is delivered. Happily, this meeting of mostly commercial players recognised the anomaly. More on the topic next week.
Ad men work on the cake, not just the icing
2degrees used harbour bridge illumination to light up its campaign. Photo / Supplied
Advertisers are struggling with demands to create more one-to-one communication with clients, without costs ballooning.
Twenty years ago agency-land was seen as "the show business of business". There was a lot of attention on glamorous creative output, such as big-budget 60-second TV commercials.
Advertising was the promotional gloss at the end of product development.
Nowadays, says Communications Agencies Association (Caanz) president Simon Lendrum, agencies are involved in brands from their development onwards. It is about fragmentation of audiences, and advertisers demanding that agencies make brands talk directly with consumers, rather than talking at them.
"Agencies have become more embedded in brands," he says. As well as heading Caanz, Lendrum is New Zealand managing director of the global ad agency J. Walter Thompson. Like some other agencies, JWT is working to develop its own equity, sometimes in technological developments.
Unsurprisingly for an adman, Lendrum accentuates the positive. Over the decades, he notes, agencies have been through many changes. "And each time some would have said this is the end of the world for agencies.
"But in my experience, when you look in the rear vision mirror in five years' time, you will look at what you are going through now and it will look ordered and logical." Lendrum says New Zealand ad agencies are adjusting to "seismic changes". Digital advertising created very specific advertising and marketing services. There is a question about the extent to which these are provided by the agency, and how much by outsourcing.
Because of the growth of digital advertising, many small marketing firms focus on specific roles - particularly technology, demographic or creative skills. An example is Special Group, an agency that has won creative kudos with its design focused creative, which stretches into packaging.
That design approach is epitomised in this image used in a recent campaign for 2degrees, showing the illuminated Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Special Group has a design-led partner in Australia, with a view to doing work there too.
Auckland University marketing senior lecturer Mike Lee says this transformation is a global phenomenon. With a large portion of agencies in New Zealand being owned by global conglomerates, it is bound to have a big effect.
