3 August 2006

Declines show that TVNZ Charter is failing

The latest New Zealand On Air local content television survey, which reveals steeply declining levels of local New Zealand programmes on TV2, is an indictment of current broadcasting policy, Green Party Broadcasting Spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.

The amount of non-repeat New Zealand programmes on TV2 fell almost 3% to 15%.

"It is time to admit that the TVNZ Charter is not working, and is failing the youth audience in particular. This is occurring despite all the Charter's fine words, and the millions of taxpayer dollars going towards charter programming," Ms Kedgley says.

"The whole point of having a state broadcaster is to reflect New Zealand to New Zealanders, not to show the same incessant diet of foreign programming already available on commercial TV.

"When the Charter was introduced, we were told it was going to usher in a new era of more quality local programming and 'reflect New Zealand to New Zealanders,'" Ms Kedgley says.

"Instead, the quality and amount of New Zealand first run local content has continued to decline, and 85% of the programmes on TV2 are foreign made. It appears that TVNZ isn't even giving lip service to the Charter anymore.

"TV2 has become almost indistinguishable from any other commercial television channel.Indeed, the commercial channel TV3 screened 5% more first run local content than the publicly owned TV2."

Ms Kedgley pointed out that our levels of local content are much lower than what other broadcasters deliver world-wide.

"Australia has local content quotas of 55% for all its commercial television channels. The United Kingdom has on average 91% local programming, Italy 83% and Canada has 75%. By contrast, New Zealand has a pitiful 26.7%."

ENDS

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