A new battleground is set to open for TV viewers; Who’s in line to be the new Stuff chief executive? Big business moves for Fair Go and NBR reporters.
TVNZ appears set to offer pay-TV services – and possibly enter the subscription sports rights battleground – in the next five years, competing head-on for the consumer dollar with the likes of Netflix and Amazon and opening a vital new lifeline of revenue.
It might also look to take on Sky in a more direct battle for sports rights, confirming “there may be some targeted pay options for sport that we’d consider in the future on TVNZ+”.
The state broadcaster – which is set to report a 2023/24 operational loss of between $28 million and $33m and a likely similar number for this current financial year – has confirmed to Media Insider that it needs to diversify its revenue to “better insulate” itself from a challenging advertising market.
Just as the NZ Herald, BusinessDesk, Stuff, the Otago Daily Times, NBR and others have done with journalism paywalls, as Sky does with sport and entertainment and as Netflix, Disney, Apple and Amazon do with movies and other entertainment shows, so, too, is TVNZ considering ways it can offer a direct-to-consumer pay service.
It doesn’t mean TVNZ shows will all suddenly go behind a paywall – far from it. A TVNZ spokeswoman said ad-funded free TV would always be at the core of its operation, as required by law.
However, one possible scenario is consumers being offered some form of premium pay TV service which offers programmes with few or no ads. Some of the content might well be offered exclusively for a period, ahead of broader release.
The TVNZ spokeswoman said: “Multiple customer propositions and monetisation streams will be required to meet the evolving content needs of our audiences and create a sustainable digital-first business model.”
She said 96% of TVNZ’s revenue came from advertising – the broadcaster was “vulnerable to recessionary impacts” on the advertising market.
“This is compounded as local digital advertising dollars are increasingly spent with global digital platforms such as Google and Meta. While we have an aggressive strategy to build greater capacity and products to compete for digital advertising revenue, we must consider other ways that we can diversify our revenue to better insulate TVNZ against fluctuations in advertising revenue.”
Subscription or pay products were a revenue stream most closely linked to the company’s core business, she said.
While there were no immediate plans, “we will consider options in this space as part of our Digital+ strategy.”
TVNZ’s Digital+ strategy involves an investment of up to $100m in new technology and a massive internal cultural shift to ensure the broadcaster has doubled digital audiences, trebled digital revenue and built a sustainable and profitable future business by 2030.
“For now, TVNZ+ is exclusively a free service with an ad-lite model, and this will always be the core part of our offering as required by the TVNZ Act,” says the spokeswoman.
“Our IP programme as part of our transformation will open up more options for us to be able to deliver new monetisation streams in the future.”
Media Insider understands a business case has been presented to the Government to show why the broadcaster won’t need taxpayer intervention – although the broadcaster has not paid a dividend for several years.
The TVNZ spokeswoman said the company had achieved “phenomenal scale” with more than 1.4 million New Zealanders watching TVNZ+ every week.
TVNZ essentially now has what is known in the industry as a “funnel” – a substantial catchment of viewers, some of whom it will likely hope to move into loyal, paying subscribers.
“Our focus will be on continuing to grow this scale while introducing and maximising ways to monetise our content,” said the spokeswoman.
“Any pay offering TVNZ introduces will of course need to complement existing players and provide new value to audiences. There are a number of SVOD (subscription video on demand) players in [the] market and we anticipate more direct-to-consumer models to enter in the coming years. We’ll keep a close eye on how the market develops.”
TVNZ has also had considerable success with sport over the past 12 months.
It was gifted cricket rights after the demise of Spark Sport, and it has shared netball and some minor rugby rights with Sky.
All New Zealand rugby rights are owned by Sky but that deal ends at the end of next year. Negotiations will start in earnest shortly. Sky has indicated the landscape has changed dramatically since 2019, when it paid a reported $500m for a five-year broadcasting deal.
Although the rugby price is likely to come down – or the package at least substantially reshaped – TVNZ is currently facing annual operational losses of $28m-$33m and seems unlikely to be a serious contender right now for, say, the All Blacks.
But other sports – such as cricket – might be in its sights.
“On sport specifically, the value we currently provide to sports rights holders is in the free space,” said the spokeswoman.
“TVNZ is unrivalled in its ability to deliver significant audience reach to rights holders. In year one (FY24), the TVNZ+ sports hub reached 910k profiles and generated over 15 million streams (13+). That said, there may be some targeted pay options for sport that we’d consider in the future on TVNZ+.”
Sources say TVNZ is also keen on some very high-end entertainment rights – this is where a new paywall might also come into play.
Right now, Sky’s Neon entertainment channel has HBO content, including hit shows such as House of the Dragon, White Lotus and Succession.
Media Insider understands TVNZ is keen on HBO programming. “We can’t comment on what content we may or may not bid for, this information is commercially sensitive,” said the spokeswoman.
But there’s a third player to consider in all of this – Warner Bros Discovery.
It owns HBO, and it owns Three (TV3) in New Zealand
In other big markets across the world, Warner Bros Discovery screens HBO content on its own relatively new Max streaming service.
If Max enters the Australian and New Zealand markets – and it might do so as soon as 2025 – then it will likely mean Sky (Neon) and TVNZ fall out of the picture.
Or, there is one other scenario: Warner Bros Discovery thinks it can actually make more revenue and margin by doing a content deal with one of its rivals, as it does now with Sky, and it keeps Max out of New Zealand.
The drums were beating about a big Stuff announcement yesterday and the departure of chief executive Laura Maxwell after barely a year in the role was certainly big news in the media and business worlds.
Stuff executives were playing cute ahead of Thursday’s “town hall” staff gathering, one saying it was “just the usual” quarterly meeting.
The working relationship between an owner and a chief executive is always intriguing, and media insiders have been interested to see how the Maxwell-Sinead Boucher partnership would fare.
It surprised me that Maxwell was not front and centre when Stuff and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) announced their new deal to partner up for the 6pm TV3 news bulletin. It is understood she played an important role in the deal later on, helping smooth waters as discussions and preparations became a little frayed.
Instead, Boucher fronted that press conference, alongside then-WBD New Zealand boss Glen Kyne. The pair were introduced by another Stuff executive, Nadia Tolich.
Newsroom co-editor Tim Murphy remarked on X yesterday that the press statement announcing Maxwell’s departure was polite but not effusive.
Maxwell left Stuff with “best wishes and thanks”, said Boucher.
She had “supported our executive team as we delivered significant change in the business” and “helped to set us up for the next stage as we look to invest in new technology, capability and skills for the future”.
Maxwell was full of praise for Boucher, describing her as “bold and brave”.
Maxwell has a massive role to move to, as boss of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Queensland operation. That includes overseeing digital and print, including the Courier-Mail.
The culture shock of moving from Stuff to News Corp – let alone to a new country – can’t be overestimated. At first glance, you’d be hard-pressed to find two more divergent news organisations.
News Corp said Maxwell would drive commercial revenue across the company’s digital and print portfolio in Queensland “with a focus on strategic partnerships, integrated content, and advocacy programmes”.
She starts the role in November.
So who will now become Stuff’s chief executive?
Boucher is filling the role in the interim but how’s this for a longer term scenario: Stuff masthead publishing managing director Joanna Norris – one of Boucher’s key executives – takes the role of CEO, and former NZ Herald premium editor Miriyana Alexander takes Norris’ role.
Stuff Digital managing director Nadia Tolich is another possible candidate for CEO.
Some experienced media executives believe Stuff needs to look outside the company to ensure it maintains fresh firepower and builds inorganic growth. They say elevating the likes of Norris or Tolich at this stage would hurt the company, as their skills and experience are needed right now to head their respective divisions.
Other names that might be top of mind for Boucher? Glen Kyne has just left Warner Bros Discovery and certainly has the skills and mana, although he’s also been looking forward to a break after a hectic few years; former Stuff executive Campbell Mitchell is now a high-flying chief executive in the insurance sector; and at NZME, Carolyn Luey - who has been leading the Herald’s digital subscriptions and publishing strategy with success - might well be a target.
Former Mighty Ape chief executive Gracie MacKinlay is a name to also watch.
Gracie MacKinlay has also been linked to a new board role on RNZ.
The broadcaster has three vacancies – it is understood veteran broadcaster and businessman Brent Impey is a frontrunner to fill one of them.
MacKinlay, who left Mighty Ape earlier this year, is another contender. The third role might well be filled by entrepreneur and professional director Mads Moller.
“The minister will make appointments in due course,” said a spokesman for Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith.
As Media Insider revealed last week former Sky chief executive John Fellet is set to fill a vacancy on the TVNZ board – just in time to help the organisation as it considers its own subscription and pay-TV options.
Two of New Zealand’s most respected reporters have new roles in the world of business journalism.
TVNZ Fair Go’s Garth Bray is now with NZME’s BusinessDesk, as an investigative reporter, and NBR’s Dita De Boni is moving to Stuff to be the Post’s Auckland business editor.
BusinessDesk editor Victoria Young said she was pleased to have an investigative reporter of Bray’s calibre on the team.
The former TVNZ star has more than 25 years’ experience of reporting on consumer affairs, business and politics.
BusinessDesk recently appointed property editor Maria Slade from NBR.
“The team is [also] eagerly awaiting the return of Pattrick Smellie, who will rejoin as founding editor next month after a four-month sabbatical,” says Young.
Bray said: “BusinessDesk has such a great and deserved rep. The team has been ahead on all the big stories we’re talking about right now, like the power crunch – or gas-tastrophe as I keep trying to get people to call it – but this is serious business journalism!
“It’s a great chance to dig into the issues that matter and make some new mates here at NZME.”
Meanwhile, Post editor Tracy Watkins says De Boni’s appointment – she makes the move after five years as a senior reporter for NBR – comes on the back of several other appointments.
The Wellington-based masthead is striving to make more inroads into the Auckland market.
“The Post has long been known for its exceptional reporting from the centre of it all in the capital,” says Watkins.
“Since launching digital subscriptions last year, we have been strengthening the Post’s position as a truly national news brand that delivers critical business and finance news with a lens from the corridors of power.”
The Government has already announced it will be lifting the ban on advertising on Sunday morning television – part of a range of packages to help the media industry.
And while the policy has been signed off by Cabinet, for some reason coalition partner New Zealand First now needs to take it back to its caucus. It seems some of the party’s MPs were not fully across the move.
The hold-up – while unlikely to hinder the move – is understood to have frustrated members of staff in Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith’s office.
Approached for comment yesterday, Goldsmith said in a statement: “I have no concerns. We are making our way through the normal consultation process.”
But, as senior sources told Media Insider, this sequence of events is hardly normal.
NZ First would not comment. “We don’t comment on coalition party consultation processes or matters,” said a spokesman.
New Zealand media did themselves proud with their coverage of the Paris Olympics.
The $34.99 Sky Sport Now package was a cracker – I found there were too many ads on the free-to-air Open channel (hey, I get why) but the other 11 channels were a sports fan’s paradise.
Sky TV’s commentators were on point, with Laura McGoldrick and Kirstie Stanway standout hosts for the morning and evening programmes.
Sky should be very pleased with its coverage – certainly the viewership was massive.
“A total of 2,819,200 people – 57% of New Zealand’s population – watched the Olympic Games throughout New Zealand, including free-to-air on Sky Open, at an average of 1.4 million viewers per day,” Sky announced this week.
“Sky’s digital platforms, Sky Sport Now and Sky Go, also experienced significant volumes of activity during the Games as more than 350,000 unique viewers flocked to both platforms to stream Sky’s Olympics coverage almost 21 million times, averaging 1.3 million daily streams.”
Some of the international commentary was hardly of medal vintage. Those commentating the kayaking sometimes needed an injection of Dame Lisa Carrington-like adrenaline.
The commentators calling the men’s high jump final were much more enthusiastic but sadly in the dark about the medal process – they called Hamish Kerr’s gold early when, in fact, he was headed to a jump-off. It certainly added to the drama.
And in the “You Had One Job” category, some of the camera operators in the Stade de France seemed to be asleep at the wheel, especially in the shotput qualifying and final.
How frustrating to watch several competitors hurl the shot – only for the camera operators and producers to miss its landing point. That included New Zealand silver medallist Maddi Wesche’s final throw which, initially, looked as though it had hit the gold-medal target.
Meanwhile, TVNZ’s team of reporters – anchored by Chris Chang – were extremely polished; each of them excellent. They had developed an obvious rapport with the Kiwi athletes and their families for interviews and human interest angles.
The same goes for the NZ Herald, Stuff and RNZ teams, each of which had several journalists on the ground, providing in-depth writing, audio and visual coverage.
Here at NZME HQ in Auckland, a special commentary room was commandeered for the team of Gold and ZB radio commentators. It was incredible to hear the likes of Jason Pine and Elliott Smith in full flight.
Gold medals all round.
Bravo to Special Wellington, the creative agency, and MBM, the media agency, for High Performance Sport New Zealand’s latest campaign. It captures the spirit beautifully.
I’ve no doubt New Zealand media will also do a sterling job for the Paralympics, which start in Paris in less than two weeks.
TVNZ is the official broadcaster of the event and NZME is the official digital and print media partner of New Zealand’s Paralympics team. The Paralympics run from Thursday, August 29 to Monday, September 9 (NZT).
TVNZ+ has five pop-up channels devoted to event coverage and TVNZ 1 will carry coverage each evening from 7.30pm; the NZ Herald will have a dedicated content hub on nzherald.co.nz.
With Scotty Stevenson and Dame Sophie Pascoe hosting TVNZ’s coverage, we’re in for another two weeks of world-class sport and broadcasting.
TVNZ has joined the NZ Herald and Stuff in partnering with outdoor advertising companies to offer news headlines on digital billboards.
1News headlines are now across oOh!media billboards; NZ Herald headlines can be seen on Lumo billboards; and Stuff’s headlines feature on MediaWorks billboards.
Lumo platform and partner strategy general manager Jack Plowright earlier highlighted the significance of its partnership with the Herald: “It’s not just about delivering news; it’s about integrating timely and relevant content into the public sphere, acknowledging that as a DOOH (digital out of home) network, we have a platform to serve more than just ads in front of people. We have the means to make the everyday commute more informative and more engaging.”
This week we catch up with Nick Vile, the general manager of oOh!media, to ask him about all these new deals between outdoor companies and news media organisations.
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.
'I can imagine people being outraged that TVNZ signed a deal with me.'