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TVNZ bosses are trying to avoid saying haere ra to the Maori programming department.
Its future is hanging in the balance with Maori broadcasting funding agency Te Mangai Paho threatening to shift taxpayer cash for its shows to Maori Television.
The row affecting Te Karere, Marae and Waka Huia has come to a crunch with the funding agency promising politicians it will end a deadlock and decide next week.
Te Mangai Paho has been unhappy with a lack of fresh ideas and scheduling for Maori shows at TVNZ despite its obligation under its charter to reflect Maori.
There is a strong opinion - especially within the Maori independent production sector - that Maori programming will always get a bad deal inside TVNZ. TVNZ counters that more people watch Maori shows on TVNZ off-peak than watch the same shows repeated on Maori TV during prime time.
Maori TV, meantime, is committed to a new channel and is looking for new programming.
As the 12 month Te Mangai Paho commitment to the TVNZ shows approaches its end on December 31, tensions have grown with TVNZ.
Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia and Broadcasting Minister Trevor Mallard met Te Mangai Paho and TVNZ yesterday to sort out the scrap. An industry source said the ministers had "knocked heads together" at the two state broadcasting agencies. Horomia has said he believes Maori programming should be on both TVNZ and Maori TV but nothing was resolved yesterday.
Te Mangai Paho chief executive John Bishara said: "I acknowledge that there has been interest in this matter which may have created a level of uncertainty at TVNZ."
The Te Mangai Paho decision will go to the heart of Maori Television and to TVNZ's charter commitments.
Maori programming has always been on the back-burner at TVNZ.
It is 100 per cent taxpayer funded so causes no fuss and the department bosses have largely been compliant.
More to the point Maori shows don't make much ad revenue so that has meant they are regarded as largely irrelevant except in the annual report when they get a plug to keep politicians happy.
Former CEO Ian Fraser appointed a kaihautu, or Maori leader, to "guide the waka" of state TV so it reflected Maori needs. There has been lots of talk but not much action.
But the kaihautu and other TVNZ initiatives have been dismissed as a "mudguard policy". "It's all shiny on the outside and crap underneath," said one source from outside Maori TV.
How will the TVNZ v Maori Television row end?
One option may be a compromise. TVNZ is not interested in production and maybe Te Mangai Paho could move production from the TVNZ in-house department over to independent producers, possibly commissioned by Maori TV. The outcome will be important to Maori TV.
It is committed to starting a second Maori language channel in March, an approach that will allow it to continue making the main channel appeal to more general audiences.
The approach has been championed by programming director Larry Parr and backed by chief executive Jim Mather. But some at Maori TV and the wider Maori backers for MTS disagree with the Parr approach saying they did not fight for years "to make Maori television for Pakeha".
Maori TV executives recently returned from a hui on Waiheke Island where the top executives would no doubt have considered prospects for more Te Mangai Paho funding.
PLACEMAKERS LEAVES LOWE
Lowe Advertising and its direct marketing arm Rivet have taken a hit from the "its-definitely-not-a-merger" amalgamation with Draft FCB. In the past year Lowe has already lost big accounts Vodafone, and the New Zealand Lotteries Commission. Now Lowe has to give up Placemakers because Mitre 10 - Draft FCB's biggest account - refused to share advertising offices with its DIY competitor.
The two agencies owned by the US Interpublic Group with offices in Newton and Parnell respectively are moving under the same roof, at the old McDonald's New Zealand head office in Auckland's Freemans Bay. It appears that Draft FCB has become the lead Interpublic agency in New Zealand. Nobody will be surprised if there are even closer ties in the future. Change has been in the wind for a long time as Interpublic cuts back around the world to counter financial problems.
The move follows another Interpublic agency - McCann-Erickson - effectively closing down in New Zealand leaving Lowe-Rivet to look after its big multinational clients.
This includes the cosmetics sector market leader L'Oreal. Lowe expects an agreement with L'Oreal soon. PEARSON GOING ... NEARLY GONE ... The move will mean that group chief executive of Lowe and Rivet for Australasia Stephen Pearson and chief executive officer for Rivet in Australasia Judy Lewis will relinquish their CEO responsibilities for Lowe and Rivet in New Zealand to concentrate on building the Australian businesses. It must surely be disappointing for Pearson - a key player in the New Zealand business who merged his agency Lowe into the Lowe brand here from the early days with Pearson Davis. Pearson has done well to head Lowe in Australia.
Lowe says he will keep an eye on key accounts such as Genesis Energy. But while the company remains as a separate entity it is a diminished ad agency brand in this market.
TAYLOR CLIMBS SAATCHI LADDER
Saatchi & Saatchi has made the minder for the Telecom advertising, Dean Taylor, managing director of the Auckland agency. Taylor joined Saatchi & Saatchi four years ago from the Campaign Palace in Sydney. High falutin' job titles come dime a dozen in the advertising business but even people at competing agencies say Taylor has emerged with growing influence at the agency headed by Andrew Stone and Mike O'Sullivan and that he deserves accolades. In particular Taylor has played a big role repairing a troubled relationship between Saatchi & Saatchi and Telecom which is New Zealand's biggest advertiser. Some of the peripheral ad accounts such as ferrit.co.nz have drifted but Taylor and his team have has played a big part in stopping the rot. Taylor had shared a top rung position with general manager Andrew Scott who has moved on to become chief executive of TBWA/Whybin in Melbourne.
Scott was appointed chief executive of Draft FCB but defected to Saatchi before he got his feet under the desk.
MURPHY'S LAW
The New Zealand Herald's campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill has attracted the odium of Labour-friendly media such as columnist Chris Trotter and blogger Russell Brown. Radio New Zealand's MediaWatch last week asked an academic a question raised by some of its correspondents: Does the Herald have a vested interest in opposing the bill because it would reduce advertising revenue?
Editor Tim Murphy says the newspaper does not. He said editorial did not know and were not told how much advertisers did or did not spend. "What I do know, though, as a reader of the paper and follower of politics, is that election advertising is very modest relative to all our other advertising types. And of that, some political parties dominate. In 2005, the Labour Party took quite a few ads in Herald columns and National, from memory, took none at all."
He said that ads from what would now be called "third parties" affected by the bill would have been a fraction of the election ads that were a fraction of the Herald's total advertising base. "The party ads will be unaffected. Government department ads will also be unaffected.
"The decision to put an intense focus on this bill was mine, in conjunction with senior editors."
The editorial campaign over the bill was never discussed with anyone in the commercial or management side of the Herald or owner APN.
