A top New Zealand Rugby leader resigns on the eve of TV rights re-negotiations; John Campbell gives his opinion of people’s opinions of his opinion column; Laura McGoldrick’s new assignment; Seven bewildering ad complaints; NZME, Sky and Stuff on their financials.
The boss of New Zealand Rugby (NZR) appeared chipper as he approached the Sky TV executive table at the glamorous black-tie Halberg Awards in Auckland last week.
NZR chief executive Mark Robinson made a beeline for Sky TV chief executive Sophie Moloney - pleasantries, a quick social chat, lots of smiles and then greetings to the rest of Moloney’s table.
Behind the scenes, though, it’s more hard-edged - the two organisations’ leadership groups are already starting to rally for a critical 18 months ahead, in which far more serious meetings around tables will determine their companies’ fortunes.
Sky and NZR are about to start re-negotiating their collective golden goose - All Blacks and rugby broadcasting rights. Sky reportedly paid in the vicinity of $500 million for a five-year deal starting in 2020.
The talks will determine the biggest sports broadcasting deal in this country and just how rugby is served to the New Zealand viewing public, which - as every sport is now finding - is more mobile than ever (with a digital screen in every fan’s pocket) and perhaps less inclined to sit for two hours in front of a TV screen.
The backdrop to the new negotiations includes NZR’s recent launch of its own digital channel, NZR+. While the streaming channel does not feature live coverage of the likes of the All Blacks, it is a content and audience data play, with behind-the-scenes footage, exclusive interviews and bespoke shows.
NZR may well want some live rights for NZR+ as part of a new broadcast deal.
In the meantime, Sky has not been shy about revamping its own strategy. It launches this weekend a regular and live free-to-air Saturday night Super Rugby Pacific match on its Sky Open channel, starting with the Highlanders v Moana Pasifika.
Sky will show 19 Super Rugby games and 28 NRL games live and free this season as it strives to build an advertising revenue model alongside its long-successful subscriber base. With advertising included, there will be a total delay of about 12 minutes by the end of each game.
Sky’s premium customers will still see the games live on Sky pay channels, uninterrupted and without ads.
Throw in TVNZ’s live (and free-to-air) rights for cricket - gifted to it after the demise of Spark Sport last year - and suddenly the landscape for sports rights has altered dramatically.
It will be fascinating to see Sky’s ratings for the Chiefs v Crusaders Super Rugby match at 7.05pm tonight versus TVNZ’s ratings for the Black Caps v Australia T20 cricket clash at 7.10pm.
There’s been another fascinating - and surprising - move behind the scenes at NZR this week.
Ged Mahony, the man who led negotiations for NZR for the last two broadcast deals, resigned on Monday and left the business yesterday, after 10 years.
Mahony, NZR’s broadcast and media rights general manager, is highly regarded - “a really good bastard,” said one of three sources who approached Media Insider about his departure.
Mahony himself said he could not comment, other than texting that he had had an amazing decade at NZR, was proud of what he had achieved and “am ready for what is next”.
His departure comes as NZR’s relatively new commercial arm New Zealand Rugby Commercial, led by Craig Fenton, takes the lead in negotiations with Sky for the new broadcast deal.
Mahony would still have played a critical role in those discussions but several sources pondered whether the structural changes had played a part in his decision.
They all confirmed he left on his terms. “Ged is a rock star,” said one highly placed source.
In an internal note to NZR staff, obtained by Media Insider, Fenton wrote that it was his “bittersweet task” to announce Mahony’s resignation.
“Though I’ve only known Ged a short time compared with most of you, I’ve come to appreciate his whole-hearted passion for the business, his deep expertise and network across the media landscape. I’ve heard many people in the industry sing his praises - his reputation is exemplary and he is highly regarded.”
The 2019 TV rights deal, wrote Fenton, landed NZR “one of the largest broadcast deals in the industry”.
Mahony’s departure follows the departure of New Zealand Rugby chief communications and brand officer Charlotte McLauchlan late last year.
Meanwhile, two other senior female leaders are also leaving NZR - Claire Beard leaves this week as head of women’s rugby while chief people, safety and wellbeing officer Andrea Brunner is joining Southern Cross as a senior executive.
The departure of three senior women in relatively quick succession - McLauchlan and Brunner have been on the NZR executive - raised eyebrows in some quarters yesterday but the union says they are all unrelated.
Sky TV meanwhile, enters the negotiations with a pleasing financial result under its belt for the first half of its financial 2023-24 financial year.
It yesterday announced a half-year profit of $29m, up 10 per cent on the same period last year.
Forward-looking guidance was mixed.
“We remain on track to deliver FY24 ebitda of $150m to $165m and net profit of $45m to $55m, in line with the full-year guidance provided to the market on August 23, 2023,” Moloney said.
In an interview with Media Insider last year, she discussed the pending rugby rights negotiations.
While Sky has been, publicly, very relaxed, any plans by NZR to have live coverage on NZR+ would without question impact the price Sky is willing to pay.
“I absolutely understand the desire to connect with fans, particularly offshore,” Moloney said.
“Part of the Silver Lake investment [in New Zealand Rugby] is the ability to have really supercharged engagement with the All Blacks brand.
“There’s always a premium for exclusivity and we will be going into a renewal understanding what our customers really enjoy and about what they’re watching. That’s the data that should dictate the value. Whereas in 2019 we were in a very different place.
“I think there’s a real opportunity to think about the market and all of the competitions and think about how we might partner up with New Zealand Rugby to get the best outcomes.
“From a broader thing around value, that’s obviously a confidential conversation between the two parties.”
Leading broadcaster John Campbell has defended his TVNZ opinion pieces following criticism in some quarters that he has overstepped his mark as the state broadcaster’s chief correspondent.
Former Dominion editor Karl du Fresne thinks TVNZ should sack Campbell for a series of columns that took strong aim at the National-led coalition Government.
“This is extraordinary and unprecedented,” wrote du Fresne on his blog. “The Government’s most potent communications medium has been hijacked by one of its employees and co-opted in a highly personal political mission.”
He acknowledged Campbell was entitled to his opinion as much as anyone else.
“The crucial difference, in his case, is that his personal opinion is seen as carrying the weight of a major state media organisation which is supposed to be apolitical. He would be in a very different position if he worked for a privately owned media outfit, but employment by a state-owned organisation imposes a special obligation of impartiality.”
TVNZ - including its new chief executive Jodi O’Donnell - has defended Campbell and now the man himself has written about the controversy.
“Journalism is a human process,” Campbell wrote in a short essay/response to North & South writer journalist Jeremy Rose for the magazine’s latest edition.
“The (usually) right-wing Pākehā men railing against me, were they always able to recuse their world view from their journalism? Bet they thought they were. Or they didn’t realise they weren’t because they mistook their own view as universal or objective. That’s how cultural hegemony works.”
He wrote that every decision in journalism - “every headline, every photo, every guest” - is made by someone.
“It’s all human. And to pretend otherwise is to promulgate a myth of objectivity that’s most convenient to the status quo.”
He quoted a famous Washington Post journalist, Wesley Lowery, who previously wrote that decisions on what stories to run and resources to invest were “limited by the people who make the decisions and the interests they serve”.
Those decisions, wrote Campbell - quoting Lowery - were made “almost exclusively by upper-class white men”.
Campbell wrote of himself: “Those men aren’t objecting to me having an opinion, they’re objecting to my opinion. Mike Hosking has expressed his opinions most workdays including when he was working with TVNZ. I don’t remotely agree with most of them. But whatever. I don’t argue he doesn’t have a right to do that. Nor, funnily enough, do the people criticising me.”
It is an elegantly constructed response.
As I recently wrote, I have no issue with Campbell’s opinion pieces or that TVNZ has given him a platform.
But TVNZ does need to be ultra careful about how it uses Campbell in future - and how it defines the role of chief correspondent. He couldn’t present the 1News at 6pm bulletin again, in my view. Even hosting a show such as Q+A would be questionable.
TVNZ will also want to ensure its news website carries a broad range of columns and opinions, spanning the political spectrum.
There are a little over 150 days to go before the Olympic flame is ignited in Paris and Sky TV has today revealed its line-up of Games hosts and commentators.
In a Media Insider exclusive, the broadcaster - which won exclusive New Zealand TV rights for the event - has revealed Laura McGoldrick and Kirstie Stanway will front shows at both ends of the New Zealand day.
McGoldrick hosts live coverage each evening from 7pm while Stanway will front an early morning review show.
Sky’s travelling broadcasters and commentators in France include The Crowd Gows Wild hosts Andrew Mulligan and James McOnie.
Rikki Swannell will call All Blacks and Black Ferns Sevens rugby games, while Kimberlee Downs, Jeff McTainsh and Courtney Tairi will be across commentary of New Zealanders in other live events. Around 200 Kiwi athletes are expected to compete for gold in about 20 sports.
“The Olympics is an incredibly special event, so I’m thrilled to be part of the Sky team presenting it to New Zealanders,” says McGoldrick.
“We all know that the athletes we’ll be watching will have worked so hard to earn their spot at the Olympics, so it’s awesome to be able to help share the experience of watching some incredible people achieve their life goals.
“I expect every evening will be action-packed!”
Sky says it will have multiple 24-hour channels hosting live coverage, replays, highlights and special features. A special, curated channel will screen on Sky Sport 3.
Sky’s recently rebranded, free-to-air channel, Sky Open, will play “virtually round-the-clock” Olympics content, says the broadcaster.
“The Olympics is an event like no other when it comes to broadcasting,” says Sky chief executive Sophie Moloney.
“Across 18 days of sporting drama, power and passion, there are thousands of stories and moments of joy to share. Our approach gives Sky customers the choice to view in the way they want - immersing themselves totally in Olympics coverage...”
The Olympics run from Friday July 26, to Monday August 12. As well as Paris, more than a dozen French locations will host events - including the surfing competition in Tahiti.
The drums are beating strongly that radio station Senz is keen to have the highly respected Scotty Stevenson host its radio breakfast show, alongside former All Black Israel Dagg.
A sports broadcaster of Stevenson’s experience and esteem would be an astute change in strategy for Senz, which until now has relied on high-profile former sports people to headline their key shows - Dagg initially teamed up with former Black Caps star Brendon McCullum and then league legend Tony Kemp.
The TAB took ownership of Senz from Australian-based Sports Entertainment Group this month and the new owners are focusing on a strategy to turn around its financial performance.
Stevenson already has a high-profile sports commentating role with TVNZ so it remains to be seen whether Senz will get their desired target. Senz certainly doesn’t seem to mind its broadcasters having other roles away from the radio microphone.
A slightly amusing exchange unfolded this week as analysts questioned NZME chief executive Michael Boggs and chief financial officer David Mackrell after the media firm - owner of the NZ Herald - declared a 2023 financial-year profit of $12.2m.
Australian-based analyst Roger Colman, referring to Stuff, said: “How’s the competitor... who bought their business for $1?”
Boggs: “They are a strong competitor, they continue to compete with us in news, audience and revenue every day. We are pleased to have overtaken them on a daily basis from an audience perspective. We are continuing to focus on how we can improve our overall audience. At the end of the day that’s what we use to monetise the business. We are making good gains.”
Colman: “Do you get to see some figures? Are they profitable or unprofitable?”
Boggs: “I do not get to see any figures.”
Colman then asked Boggs if he was across any of Stuff’s digital subscriber numbers, after the media firm put three of its mastheads behind digital paywalls last year.
Boggs: “We don’t get to see any of that data, Roger, but there might be many people on this call who have it. I welcome them.”
Colman: “Well if they can spill the beans, it would be fantastic.”
Stuff is a privately owned company and is therefore under no obligation to report its financials.
There are suggestions in the market of it recently receiving lending support.
Stuff chief executive Laura Maxwell did not address this or other specific financial questions that I sent her yesterday.
But she said: “Stuff Ltd is, and expects to continue being, a profitable business despite, as NZME discussed in its financial reporting this week, a challenging market.”
Maxwell also referred to Stuff as the country’s biggest digital news site, but that appears now to be questionable.
Stuff was ahead of the NZ Herald in overall digital audience based on monthly Nielsen numbers for January, but nzherald.co.nz has been well ahead of Stuff based on Nielsen’s daily numbers for the past four weeks - ever since Stuff’s website was revamped.
The monthly February Nielsen numbers - due out in mid-March - will make for interesting reading.
It’s fair to say Stuff has received a lot of feedback about its website overhaul. The change was enormous and the feedback expected, says Maxwell.
“It’s been heartening to hear about what [our audience] love and also what features they would like to see and so we’re actively building this customer feedback into our development work.”
Jarden head of research and respected analyst Arie Dekker kept NZME on an overweight rating following its annual results this week.
“The audio business had a solid year (revenue flat, ebitda +2 per cent), while the brunt of the economic impact was felt in publishing,” wrote Dekker and fellow analyst Vishal Bhula in a research note that Jarden released to Media Insider.
“OneRoof was hampered by listings that were down ~10 per cent but ongoing penetration lifts for upgrades saw a modest level of digital revenue growth achieved. NZME’s digital progress in publishing has been significant, with digital advertising revenue up to 50 per cent of publishing ad revenues and digital subs reaching 130k - these revenues can absorb the full journalism cost base of digital platforms.”
Dekker and Bhula noted that digital advertising revenue “did not escape the cyclical headwind and digital sub revenues were impacted by softer yields, particularly around corporate mix”.
“There is work for NZME to do here. In audio and OneRoof, it has established two new $10+m digital revenue lines.”
They kept NZME on “overweight” rating, with a targeted share price of $1.20 (up from $1.16).
NZME’s share price sat at 99c before opening on Friday, up three cents on its pre-financials announcement price of 96c on Wednesday.
“We see the strength of NZME’s franchise, scale and financial position in the NZ media market as a source of competitive strength that is having a positive marginal impact on the business’s outcomes over time,” the analysts said.
“Whilst it is difficult specifically to factor in, option value in NZME extends beyond OneRoof to market rationalisation in the broader media market. We are for NZME maintaining a conservative balance sheet given some of the opportunities. Against these favourable catalysts, we call out the importance of managing publishing print decline and ongoing growth in the profitability of the publishing digital business to help offset that.”
The senior executive who led Stuff’s Pou Tiaki endeavour, and apology to Māori in 2020, has resigned.
“While we are sad that Carmen Parahi will be leaving us in a full-time capacity next month, we are really pleased for her that the enormous impact she has had on our business will now be on offer to other Kiwi businesses through her new consulting role at Te Amokura,” said Stuff chief executive Laura Maxwell.
“In the interim I will be leading the Pou Tiaki kaupapa and have asked Carmen to continue to advise us in a consultant capacity to keep me, and the business, on track.”
In a note distributed to staff by Maxwell, Parahi said her decision wasn’t easy.
“I’ve gained so much from everyone and been given so many opportunities to do what I have always loved - journalism, the business of the news media and upholding its fourth estate role. I hope everyone will continue to love and use Pou Tiaki in their everyday mahi. There is so much more to do...”
We’re less than two months into the year, and the Advertising Standards Authority is already dealing with some - in my view - bewildering complaints.
Recent complaints include:
In all seven cases, the chair of the ASA ruled there were no grounds to proceed with the complaints.
“The chair considered the context, medium and audience of the advertisement, the product or service being advertised and when applicable generally prevailing community standards. The chair also considered decisions about similar issues or advertising.”
This week we connect with Advertising Standards Authority chief executive Hilary Souter.
Ryan Bridge’s new 7pm show, Bridge, may not be on air until June.
That’s a huge delay, well beyond what was expected, partly caused by a hiring and rehiring freeze at Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of Three.
I put the specific suggestion of a June start to Warner Bros Discovery.
“Nothing’s changed since you last asked,” said a spokeswoman. “We have no fixed date for it airing. For us, the actual start date is not as important as getting it right from the start.”
You have to feel sorry for Bridge - a huge talent sitting on the sidelines right now at Three.
The New Zealand Film Commission says it has “robust” systems in place for assessing funding and rebate applications.
The commission revealed in November that it had referred to the Serious Fraud Office concerns about the reliability of documents provided to it by an Auckland-based applicant.
“The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) confirms that material provided by an Auckland-based applicant for the New Zealand Screen Production Rebate (NZSPR) is being investigated and the matter has now been referred to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO),” said the commission at the time.
“In the process of reviewing a prior application for an NZSPR for a New Zealand production, concerns arose about the reliability of documents provided to NZFC. NZFC immediately referred those concerns to the SFO.”
I went back to the NZFC for an update this week. “NZFC is confident it has robust systems in place for assessing funding and rebate applications. It has no further comment to make at this time,” said a spokeswoman.
A Serious Fraud Office spokesman yesterday confirmed the agency’s involvement in the matter. “The SFO has no further comment beyond our previous statement confirming we received the complaint from the New Zealand Film Commission.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
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