Throng

It wouldn't have been much of a surprise for Rick Ellis this morning when he walked into the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee to review TVNZ's performance, to be grilled about the Spotlight on the Economy promos featuring Bill English.

Eager to bring conclusion to this story, Ellis told the committee:

"The promos are not part of the news and current affairs editorial process. That's marketing responsibility. So we might slip from time to time ... in the editorial sense. We learn from that and we move on."

While it may be construed as an admission of a poor judegment call, it is an admission that there are communication breakdowns within TVNZ where various departments go about their business without talking to, or consulting others.

TVNZ Corporate affairs chief Peter Parunssi, added:

Chris Trotter has blogged about the Plain English ads for TVNZ 7's Explaining the Economy Series and makes some interesting, if not accurate, observations about our state broadcaster.

First, there’s the network’s deeply ingrained anti-intellectualism: its reflexive hostility towards anything resembling a complex idea.

Then there’s the obvious, and very troubling, disconnection between TVNZ’s news and current affairs producers, and the people responsible for marketing their product.

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During November, TVNZ 7 is running a spotlight on the economy.  The above promo, however, has some concerned that it's a party political broadcast.

Bill English is adamant that the script was entirely TVNZ's idea.  TVNZ have confirmed this:

TVNZ 7’s New Artland charity art auction has contributed the $40,000 raised from last Thursday’s event to The Stroke Foundation.

Inspired by Chris Knox's (host of the series) recent stroke, an art auction was held to coincide with the launch of series two, with proceeds from the evening going to the Stroke Foundation to fund art therapy and other stroke rehabilitation work.

A number of artists from across the series of New Artland generously contributed works of art and items which sold at auction.

Tuesday 28th of July at 7.35pm

TVNZ’s USA Correspondent, Tim Wilson appears in a brand new TV show reviewing the news media’s performance.

The Media Project is a US show made by the producers of Mike Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and hosted by Emmy Award winning journalist Gideon Yago (CBS News, MTV).  It screens in NZ on TVNZ 7 and takes a hard-hitting look at how the news gets made and delivers an unapologetic perspective on what's wrong with the news today, delving into important news stories and analysing how leading news outlets reported on them.

To mark Maori Language Week the place names on TVNZ’s weather maps have been translated into Te Reo.

“We have included Maori place names on weather maps as a way of marking the week and recognising NZ’s other official language”, says TVNZ’s Head of News and Current Affairs, Anthony Flannery.

“ONE News presenters Wendy Petrie and Simon Dallow (Ngati Pukenga & Ngati Pikiao) will be incorporating a Maori greeting at the beginning of the 6 o’clock bulletin each day this week, as they’ve done in previous years.

So, not surprisingly, it is clear TVNZ is struggling with content for both of its new digital channels. This includes now having Te Karere on TVNZ 7 at 10:10pm on top of all the other previous times it repeats on the channel.

I have the perfect option for this time slot: How about have a 'Today in History' show from 10:10-11:00, in which the One News hour from 10 years ago(or another time frame) on that date be broadcast. We've seen the return of retro Shortland St, and I'm sure this new idea would go down extremely well with the news junkies TVNZ7 is aimed at.

Also, TVNZ own all the rights to their news bulletins, so they would not have to face the challenges of obtaining rights they usually do to get other programmes put on air!