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:

"the head of marketing and I have discussed how when we do the usual review of the campaign at the end of the month that we need to talk about processes, so that in future those campaigns are done appropriately"

One might suggest that it's not just about this campaign.