CanWest head focuses on change

By SIMON HENDERY

You could be forgiven for thinking media mogul Brent Impey is refusing to grow old gracefully.

Dropping in on the chief executive of all CanWest's New Zealand media interests means first rubbing shoulders with the fresh-faced and hip people of youth broadcaster Channel Z.

Z's live and loud sounds pump out of the office stereo as 49-year-old Mr Impey ushers you into his sanctum with an enthusiastic "let's rock and roll."

Previously the Canadian multinational's radio division head in New Zealand, Mr Impey was this month handed the reins of all CanWest's local media interests.

This means that as well as steering a diverse group of radio stations, he has inherited responsibility for turning around floundering television networks TV3 and TV4.

CanWest's revenue from its New Zealand assets fell 13 per cent last year, with TV3 and TV4 laying staff off and cutting local programming as they struggled to pry viewers away from state-owned broadcasting giant TVNZ.

Mr Impey, an Auckland lawyer with an extensive background in media law, says a key part of his newly broadened role will be ensuring the CanWest stations are allowed to operate competitively "in a fair and open environment" against TV One and TV2.

"The issues in television are very wide indeed. There is the Government with programming quotas, and TVNZ's charter, which could have a significant impact on the whole business depending on how it's administered or what sort of structure it has around it.

"And there is the complex issue of digital television, where there are myriad options."

CanWest Global Communications has appointed an insider from its Canadian arm as managing director of TV3 and TV4.

Rick Friesen, until now the general manager of Halifax-based Global Atlantic, the eastern portion of the CanWest Television Network, takes up his position next month, replacing Graeme Hunter, who was with the network for seven years.

Mr Impey says that while he and Mr Friesen are yet to sit down and work through issues of the company's direction, he does not rule out content changes at TV3 and TV4 - with the possibility of reassessing TV4's focus on the youth market.

"I'm a believer that in all media you have to change constantly. It's a dynamic business ... constant change and readjustment - absolutely.

"I agree that TV4 requires some back-to-basics work on it."

There has been speculation that CanWest in New Zealand could end up being run from Australia under a deal which would include a takeover by Australia's Ten Network, 57 per cent owned by CanWest Global Communications.

"There have been concept discussions as to whether that is a good idea," Mr Impey says.

"But no work has been done on it, and none is planned at this stage. It's not on the agenda [but] if it happened it might be a good thing for the business."

He says the concept could make sense with the transtasman advertising markets coming closer together, and possible advantages in the sharing of production facilities and programme buying.

Mr Impey is an old boy of Auckland Grammar and has law and arts degrees from Auckland University.

He spent four years overseas in the late 1970s before returning to practise law in Auckland, developing a specialty in media law.

Mr Impey represented several radio stations while they went through the process of gaining licences under the old tribunal system and acted for TV3 during the long Broadcasting Tribunal hearings in the late 1980s before it was granted its licence.

He says his legal background has been useful since his career focus shifted to broadcast management, "but I think passion for the media, and in particular to date radio, has been the driving force."

He has also spent time on the other side of the microphone, working as a talkback host for Radio Pacific in the 1980s.

At CanWest, Mr Impey says, he has worked hard to develop the flat management structure - the kind of structure, no doubt, which has led to his sharing office space with Channel Z reception.

"I have a very strong philosophy of developing people coming through and one of the major reasons for not having a hierarchical structure is to enable that to occur."