Throng

National has announced policy that under their government, TVNZ will have to compete for charter funding from NZ On Air along with every other broadcaster but maintains that it isn't part of a wider plan to sell the state-owned asset.

The charter itself hasn't really worked. Trying to maintain the face of a public broadcaster while also having the expectation of turning a profit was always going to be a tall order and while we may have seen more New Zealand Made shows produced, they've tended to have been aired in terrible time slots.

It is one thing to have New Zealanders on every screen but as has been said time and time again, if no one has those screens turned on at that time then surely that is a waste of money. Rude Awakenings, Ride with the Devil, The Hothouse and even Moon TV and Eating Media Lunch have all suffered with poor time slots and have been relegated to either very late at night or very late on typically low viewing number days.

I doubt anyone would disagree (other than Jack Frost perhaps) that having New Zealand culture on TV is important. Having other networks be able to bid for that funding should [theoretically] mean that networks should have to justify why they should get it by ensuring it gets a prime time slot. Because if something doesn't deserve a prime-time time-slot, there is that subliminal thought that suggests it can't really be worth watching then. In which case the funding should be put into something else that does justify "8:30pm on a Monday night".

On the other aspect, I doubt that National would sell part or all of TVNZ in a first term. There are some interesting things to come out of regulation in the TV sector yet so I do think it'll be a case of watch this space.