Media: World Cup decider for TVNZ sports

Mexi-Doug gives an old ad favourite new spice.

Pressure is on Television New Zealand to win free-to-air rights to the Rugby World Cup in 2011. TV3 is interested in bidding and Prime is not ruling it out.

If TVNZ does not bid or misses out on the free-to-air rights up for grabs for 14 to 16 cup games, state TV will have turned a corner.

The sports operation might as well hang up its boots and have a long shower.

After indicating earlier this week it was interested in the World Cup, TVNZ yesterday pulled back and would not confirm it planned on bidding or hoped to win rights.

"It is a work in progress," said spokeswoman Megan Richards.

Prime TV, whose owner Sky has host broadcaster and pay-TV-rights to all 48 games, says "at this stage" it is not planning to bid for the free-to-air rights.

Earlier this week TVNZ announced it was ditching its pay TV, free-to-air and new media rights to the Commonwealth Games in India.

It is negotiating for Sky to take over the rights for the Commonwealth Games to avoid a $5 million shortfall.

Sky has rights to the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Games in London.

So if it wins free-to-air rights to the World Cup, this could be the swansong for TVNZ sports.

ALL IN THE ADS

The Government is relaxed about the Commonwealth Games pullout - dropping another public service commitment because of commercial considerations. The obvious reason is that a financial loss for TVNZ would be another hole in Government revenue.

Covering sports events like the Commonwealth Games requires big sponsorship deals so broadcasters can plaster coverage with sponsors messages while retaining its normal advertising revenue in ad breaks. In this tight ad market neither revenue stream is secure.

A long list of setbacks is not a result of TVNZ's errors but a sign that the dual remit of a commercial and non-commercial role for TVNZ, supported by both National and Labour, is not working.

CREAMING IT

Big multinational record companies get the lion's share of copyright fees collected from bars, cafes and restaurants because they are paid out to the companies based on the proportion of radio airplay they get.

But it is not wholly clear that cafe goers - sipping on their long blacks and sweeping up biscotti crumbs off their table - are listening to big commercial radio hits.

Many cafes prefer to play New Zealand music. In which case, the small local independent labels will be missing out to the big multinationals when the record industry collections body Phonographic Performances New Zealand doles out cash to its record companies.

PPNZ executive Kirstan Bowman confirmed that the system based payouts on radio airplay. Loop Records, whose artists include Fly My Pretties, has raised the matter.

But Bowman says that small cafes and bars could not be expected to keep a log of music use and it was difficult to think of another way to collate allocations. Bowman stresses that PPNZ is working with users and musicians when looking at a review of the system.

TELLY V PRINT

Television New Zealand is in disputes with three newspapers.

New Zealand Truth and Sunday News last week made allegations about TVNZ and the Tony Veitch confidentiality agreement with Kristin Dunne-Powell.

"We are considering our options in the face of a number of defamatory newspaper articles," said TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards. She would not specify publications but said "Truth is leading the charge".

Sunday News deputy editor Lee Umbers said there had been no communication from TVNZ.

Separately, TVNZ lawyers have been communicating with National Business Review over a September 4 article that mentioned interest by senior Government ministers over rumours TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis would be stepping down.

On August 21, the Business Herald reported TVNZ chairman Sir John Anderson saying: "I confirm that the rumours have no substance whatsoever and Rick will be CEO of TVNZ for the foreseeable future."

DISCLOSURE

Legal rows come and go, but questions about TVNZ's handing of the Veitch matter have lingered. How can TVNZ show that it has done the right thing? Maybe TVNZ chairman Sir John Anderson could promote a public inquiry with the expectations that the broadcaster could prove assertions that it handled the matter well.

Like a defamation hearing, a public inquiry would require disclosure of all facts and documents confirming who said what and when.

Such an idea might well seem unlikely in the New Zealand context.

But it is easy to imagine a public broadcaster in any other country going out of its way to clear questions that go to the heart of a public broadcaster, dominant media player and good corporate citizen.

THE OLD TROUT

The New Zealand Lotteries Commission has been revisiting the ad campaign shown when Instant Kiwi began in 1989.

The ad - made by Saatchi & Saatchi's Wellington office at its creative peak - features a Kiwi fisherman catching a trout by bungy jumping off a bridge, promoting our can-do spirit. Which presumably meant we had the gumption to go to the dairy and buy some scratchies.

To mark the 20th anniversary of this ad, the commission's ad agency DDB has laced together the old ad with "Mexi-Doug", the Latino alter ego of shy office worker Doug, who is famous for the line "Get a Perm" in the later Instant Kiwi commercials.

DDB's advertising executive creative director said there had been complications because the agency could not locate the "mastered" finished tapes and had to rely on the actual footage from when the fish segment was shot by the ad director Lee Tamahori. As a result the new footage of Mexi-Doug atop the bridge with the Kiwi fisherman had to be roughed up a little so that the two segments merged flawlessly.

SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Toby Talbot, who has judged several ad competitions internationally, says the bungy-fishing ad is very smart and remains one of the best made in this country. But he believes the Mexi-Doug character is giving it a run for its money.

Talbot says that the actor playing Doug's alter ego - Leand Macadaan - is a key part of its appeal. DDB had gone to Los Angeles to cast an actor but eventually found Macadaan in South Auckland where he is a care worker.

"All the Mexican actors came across as white frat boys," Talbot says.

Macadaan is originally from the Philippines but is part Mexican and helped out during shoots with advice - such as "a Mexican would not say that".

"Without doubt, Leand makes the ads. We'd have been sunk without him," says Talbot.

ZAP HAPPY

The Instant Kiwi anniversary campaign shows the dangers for TV networks from digital video recorders like MySky, My Freeview and the new TiVo.

The DVRs allow people to record programmes and fast-forward through ad breaks. The ads were shown many times over a two-week period, yet because of my habit of using MySky and fast forwarding though ads I only noticed one once.

A Sky TV survey found that just 22 per cent of MySky users were time-shifting programmes. With Prime reliant on ad income like other free-to-air channels, users were not asked about ad skipping.

The survey found 76 per cent watched programmes as they were played, which seems to avoid the point of DVRs.

It may be, as television commercial makers tell us, that we New Zealanders love watching TV ads on high rotate and have no wish to reduce our intake.

Talbot has an optimistic take on DVRs' impact on TV advertising - that they will encourage smarter, more likeable and more memorable ads. TV networks are confident it will not be a big problem.

In the meantime, the challenge for DVR users who want to avoid the ads will be deft handling of the fast-forward function, so that they can go from 30 times normal speed back to normal without overshooting the restart of the show.

One suggestion is to limit yourself to six-times fast-forwarding. It is a real art. Another hint, if you have not already discovered it, is that the free-to-air channels almost always run a programme promotion at the end of an ad break - a warning to have your thumb ready.