News shows under a cloud as Maori funding reviewed

A Government agency has raised the spectre of rationalising Maori broadcasting, which could see one of only two daily Maori language news programmes cut.

Funding agency Te Mangai Paho (TMP) asked a consultant last year to look at the wider broadcasting landscape.

Part of the review discussed the viability of a single news broadcaster.

The move has been criticised by some as a backwards step in promoting te reo Maori, while others say it's an issue needing urgent assessment.

Te Mangai Paho funds two services - TVNZ's Te Karere, with $2.25 million a year of a contestable pool, and Te Kaea, whose budget comes out of an operational grant which takes a share of $5 million meant for four news shows at Maori Television.

Te Mangai Paho chief executive John Bishara said the upshot of the report was that while services wouldn't be cut tomorrow, the funder couldn't rule it out in the future.

"We're fortunate that the Government gives us $52 million for reo Maori [programming] and we have to look after it."

An industry insider said the Government telling Radio New Zealand its funding would be frozen for the foreseeable future, and TVNZ making cuts last year, meant there was a chance that Te Mangai Paho might be forced into "rationalising".

The source said "patch protection" was the reaction to the report.

"They didn't seem to understand that one day it's going to happen [a single news service] precisely because of the economics.

"I think pretty soon TMP will be looking at value for money."

Maori Television's chief executive Jim Mather said "paradoxically" he welcomed the report. He said he took that position because he was aware of the ratings difference between Te Karere and Te Kaea.

"It's a review that needs to happen.

"Now that Maori Television is established, performing well and growing, the question needs to be asked: 'Does the state broadcaster need to have a separate Maori programme replicating in many cases what Maori Television is doing?"'

He had been advocating rationalisation for some time, and news was crucially important to the broadcaster.

"It's fair to say that our news service represents not only our connection with the community but also represents the external credibility of the organisation."

In a statement, TVNZ's head of Maori programmes, Paora Maxwell, said Te Karere would be "well placed to prevail over any other provider, given the great success that Te Karere has enjoyed in attracting audiences both on free-to-air television and online".

That's not a path he wanted to contemplate, though.

Getting rid of one news provider would be detrimental.

New Zealand would be far better off with a "multiplicity of Maori perspectives", Mr Maxwell said.