Television in 2000: When newsreaders were the big news

Lights, camera, action ... in this fourth of a five-part review of the year, television editor LOUISA CLEAVE rewinds a bizarrely unforgettable year in television.

It was a year when those reality television programmes ruled the schedules and state broadcaster TVNZ faced a reality check courtesy of the Coalition.

But has the bark of Helen Clark - who has said there was little worth watching on TV - been worse than her Government's bite?

The Government's draft charter disappointed many in the industry, and progress on its implementation and decisions on quotas and budgets have happened at a snail's pace.

GOVERNMENT


Labour's broadcasting policy, released in late September 1999, signalled a new era for TVNZ. After 10 years of being required to make money, it would focus less on profit and more on viewers.

We would have fewer advertisements, more local content, quotas for television and radio, and a charter requiring TVNZ to broadcast programmes that promoted New Zealand culture, made viewers think and reflected the country's diversity.

Both Helen Clark and future Broadcasting Minister Marian Hobbs said then that TVNZ could keep more of its profits in return for providing a quality service.

A year later, Ms Hobbs released a draft charter for public consultation. There was no mention of how the wish-list would be paid for nor any discussion of quotas.

A one-man show which we came to know as the Hawkesby affair kept the Government occupied early in 2000.

Newsreader John Hawkesby seemed to put the serious business of broadcasting reform on the back-burner as details of his hiring, firing and $6.5 million compensation from TVNZ emerged.

TVNZ became a political punchbag as presenters' salaries came under scrutiny and it stayed in the public eye for the rest of the year.

Chairman Dr Ross Armstrong promised to cut paypackets to a more reasonable size - although in Paul Holmes' case the paypacket still outsized the employee.

TVNZ did not stand idle while bureaucrats tinkered behind the scenes with a draft charter. It tried to appease the Government with talk of a regional news service, promises to reduce the amount of commercial sponsorship on TV One (still waiting) and a low-ad zone (setting targets which it failed to meet).

It reviewed its commitment to children's shows and reshuffled the roles of powerful commissioning editors, who talked of buying and producing more local programmes.

Ms Hobbs - while overcoming the early fumbling in the House which earned her the nickname Boo-Boo, the fifth Tellytubby - has been slow to deliver new policy, and the natives in TV land are restless.

George Andrews, producer of the award-winning Nga Tohu: Signatures, is scathing about the draft charter in the latest edition of the industry magazine On Film.

The charter, he says, is naive and "pretty damn gutless."

"There is nothing in the charter as drafted that would require TVNZ to change their ways ... The answer is to require them to schedule a range of NZ programmes in prime time."

This year will bring more official papers - on quota, the charter and funding issues. The future structure of TVNZ will have to be determined.

But a decision on whether to separate TVNZ and its profitable transmission business Broadcast Communications (BCL), turning it into a standalone SOE, will not be made until after April.

These key decisions, say commentators, cannot be made in isolation and should be made fast.

LOWLIGHTS


Nothing grabbed the headlines faster than payouts and punch-ups this year. Scandals, from the massive Hawkesby settlement to the fracas between Bill Ralston and a couple of TVNZ employees, ensured people were kept interested and entertained off screen as well as on.

A parliamentary select committee grilling of TVNZ executives over the Hawkesby affair surpassed Shortland Street as the year's best soap but, unlike the long-running series, there were no sackings.

Shortland Street axed a dozen actors - old faces and those who were simply old. Jacksons Wharf rid itself of "veteran" actors in a bid to freshen the second series and target TV2's younger audience.

Lucy Lawless also found herself out of a job after American company Pacific Renaissance pulled the plug on Xena: Warrior Princess.

Not so sad was the decision to drop Gary McCormick's variety show after two episodes and about $250,000 of taxpayer money.

At the annual television awards, TVNZ and TV3's failure to produce enough one-off dramas in the year ended June 30 led to this category being scrapped. Nga Tohu: Signatures, which was bumped from the TV One schedule on Waitangi Day in favour of America's Cup racing, swept the awards.

HIGHLIGHTS

Local producers took New Zealand television international, with home-grown formats like Popstars and Treasure Island selling overseas.

Screentime's Popstars, which created the all-female pop group TrueBliss, made history as the first Kiwi format exported to the United States.

The sale followed dizzying ratings here and in Australia. England, Canada, Germany, Italy and Denmark also bought the format.

Touchdown Productions sold its Survivor-style gameshow Treasure Island to Australia's Channel 7, and then crossed the Tasman to make the show for the network.

Uplink Sport and Television signed a 26-episode deal to produce a golf programme for ESPN Star Sports, a network with a potential 46 million viewers throughout Asia and the Pacific.

And Wellington-based Cloud 9 continued to successfully market The Tribe overseas and put a new teenage show, Atlantis High, into production.

We may have lost the American production dollars of Xena, but the BBC has confirmed it will film a $25 million television production of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel The Lost World in New Zealand.

New Zealand On Air was given breathing space after the abolition of the licence fee with a Government grant of an extra $7 million in May.

The funding authority also reaped an extra $6 million from better-than-forecast broadcasting fee payments and established an Innovation Fund to foster New Zealand programmes.

WHAT WE WATCHED


TV3 failed to capitalise on the free-to-air rugby and cricket rights but backed a winner with the David Tua fight.

The channel pulled the biggest audience in its 12-year history, with about 1.3 million viewers for each round.

In comparison, the Olympic Games opening ceremony drew about 979,000 viewers and the closing event 809,000.

TV3's delayed rugby matches lifted the channel's performance on weekends but failed to have an overall effect on the network's disappointing ratings.

TV3 earned accolades for its news programmes - winning best news programme (3 News) at the Qantas media awards and best presenter (John Campbell) at the annual television awards - although the ratings difference between 3 News and One News remains a chasm TV3 cannot bridge.

TVNZ continued to dominate the ratings with local shows such as Location, Location, Location, The Zoo, Whose House Is It Anyway?, Treasure Island and Changing Rooms. Coronation Street remained a favourite and celebrated 40 years on air.

NEW FACES

Dr Armstrong, the hands-on TVNZ chairman, was not slow to criticise his new charge after taking the reins in February.

In his first days, he joined the choir of public and political voices chastising the pay of top TVNZ presenters and promised to slash their salaries.

He did not, however, go so far as to demand the heads of management over the Hawkesby debacle, preferring to blame the previous board.

By publicly berating news bosses over the One News coverage of the lyprinol debate, saying it had been driven by ratings rather than social responsibility, he trod close to the line of editorial interference, according to some media watchers.

He delivered on his promise to scrutinise the salaries at TVNZ, and in some cases cut them by 20 to 30 per cent.

Leadership at competitor CanWest also changed during the year, with the departure of general manager Graeme Hunter to start his own media company. Rick Friesen came from Canada to replace Mr Hunter and by the end of the year had done little other than scrutinise costs.

His boss is New Zealander Brent Impey, appointed chief executive of all CanWest's New Zealand media interests in September.

DIGITAL TELEVISION


TVNZ moved to secure its digital future before Christmas by signing an agreement with Telstra Saturn to provide a free-to-air digital service this year.

The few New Zealanders without access to TV One or TV2 via the analogue system will be the first to benefit if they buy a decoder, or set-top box, for about $200 to receive the digital signal.

The set-top boxes will give viewers crystal clear reception of TV One and TV2, and any other free channels, such as Prime and TV3, which decide to be carried on the system. It may also offer free e-mail.

The plans could yet be scuttled by the Government, but if the agreement goes ahead then TVNZ said it would like to have the service running by March or April.

But the cost, coupled with the fact that a "switch-off" date for analogue has not been set and will not be likely for at least 10 years, may cause many viewers to stay with the existing system.

PAY TELEVISION Dominant pay TV network Sky increased its subscriber base by 17,000 between June and October, to a total of 392,000.

Of those, 200,000 take its satellite service.

In January, TV3 went on Sky's digital platform, and TV4 followed in March.

Sky introduced several channels, including the 24-hour kids' entertainment channel Nickelodeon.

Herald Online features:

2000 - Year in review

2000 - Month by month

2000 - The obituaries