Tag: Three Now

Broadcasters back on top in fragmented market

One of the pre-requisites of déjà vu is that you knew what happened in the first place.

I have a feeling that the people flooding the New Zealand marketplace with streaming platforms offering boundless content are blissfully unaware of what happened to radio in New Zealand in the 1990s.

In 1989 the local radio market was deregulated and the number of stations rocketed. In 1984 there had been 22 stations but by 1999 the number had reached almost 300. Something had to give, and it did. Rapacious networks began swallowing up stations and the market rapidly became consolidated again.

I feel we are at the 1999 stage with streaming platforms, although the numbers are nowhere near as high as in the heyday of independent radio. Nonetheless we have gone from one dominant operator (Sky TV) to an array of separate operators, each offering the world of your dreams…for a price. There are at least 15 video streaming platforms in addition to Sky’s offering and the on demand services of TVNZ+, Three Now and Māori+.

The top seven, according to NZ on Air’s Where Are The Audiences? 2026 report, are Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Neon, Skysport Now, Apple TV+, and CrunchyRoll (no, I hadn’t heard of it either because I’m not a fan of anime). Then there are nine ‘others’, including Hulu, Acorn, Stan and F1TV (for keen motorsport enthusiasts).

Th NZ on Air/Varian audience research was released last week. You can access it here.   It suggests, to me at least, that we may be at the proliferation zenith and are starting to see changes that could lead to some consolidation of the market. Continue reading “Broadcasters back on top in fragmented market” →

A painless way to cut newsroom costs

Last September I warned of the prospect of news deserts developing in this country. Among my recommendations was a policy offering tax credits to news media organisations for the employment of journalists. The report was met with indifference by the politicians in a position to do something about the hollowing out of our news ecosystem.

Yesterday, the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra released a report advocating the use of refundable tax offsets for the employment of journalists in Australia. It is an idea whose time has come – on both sides of the Tasman.

For two decades our news media have faced the profound effects of technological change on a business model that has become increasingly fragile. Part of their response to declining traditional revenue has been cuts to editorial staff. Those cuts have been made not with scalpels but with machetes. Our newsrooms are a shadow of what they once were, and regional newsrooms have suffered particularly deep incisions. Australia has suffered similar damage to its journalistic resource.

Payroll tax credits are not a new suggestion – such proposals have surfaced more than once in Australia. Canada and two U.S. states (New York and Illinois) have made them a reality. South Korea has an even broader scheme that embraces the creative industries, while France has tax incentives to encourage investment in news organisations. Continue reading “A painless way to cut newsroom costs” →

TVNZ’s digital war calls for urgent reinforcements

Like it or not, the Government must step up and help Television New Zealand compete in the fight for its life.

The state-owned broadcaster is in what military strategists would call a perilous situation: With weakened supply lines, it is facing enemies on both flanks and a pincer movement that could squeeze the life out of it.

On one flank it has Sky TV, which last week pulled off a brilliant tactical move in which it was effectively gifted the valuable brand equity that continues to reside in Three despite its financial woes.

On the other flank are streaming services which – in spite of fighting their own battle royal – take increasing numbers of viewers from traditional providers.

The pincer movement could place TVNZ in an existential crisis within an alarmingly short period of time Continue reading “TVNZ’s digital war calls for urgent reinforcements” →