John Campbell's Radio New Zealand appointment has long been the topic of speculation. Photo / File
John Campbell's Radio New Zealand appointment has long been the topic of speculation. Photo / File
Host back on radio - with pictures.
Radio New Zealand has shifted Checkpoint host Mary Wilson (aka "Scary Mary") into Executive Row.
It is making room for a new show "with a visual element" featuring the "Marvellous" John Campbell.
The Checkpoint host has been taken off air and promoted to head of news programming in this, the latest makeover at RNZ.
Campbell's appointment has been rumoured all year. He has been hired as RNZ faces a ratings slump across the day, and as his old employer, TV3, struggles in early prime time and is about to launch a replacement for Campbell Live. That show starts on August 10.
It is understood the deal was agreed two weeks ago.
Campbell's appointment is part of a long-in-the-planning shakeup to fix some of the problems with the changes to Morning Report.
Simon Mercep was pulled from the morning show and placed in Afternoons, but he never really fitted there and Jesse Mulligan took over last month.
Jim Mora was moved off Afternoons to make way for Mercep and has not been happy co-hosting Checkpoint. Under the new arrangement he will continue to host the afternoon panel, one hour each weekday.
Campbell has qualifications in spades for the undefined new show, though I hope he will temper some of the stylistic tics he developed on Campbell Live. While the new show will have a visual aspect - radio with pictures, a bit like the Paul Henry show - RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson said the focus would be on Campbell's interviewing skills and passion for journalism, not his TV skills. An RNZ source said Campbell, who starts in a month, did not have issues about pay, but wanted to maintain editorial independence.
In my opinion the change may bring a new edge to Radio NZ.
Taking Wilson off air may be a relief to some politicians, but the fact that the changes include appointing political editor Brent Edwards as director of newsgathering will do nothing to ease National Party tensions with RNZ.
To every season ...
Piri Weepu and Ma'a Nonu celebrate their 2011 Rugby World Cup win. Sky will be hoping this year's event brings it similar good news. Photo / NZME
Sky TV interim results to June 30 are likely to show the first scars from serious competition in the pay TV market.
Spark-owned Lightbox has been around nearly a year, but Sky took its big hit when Netflix arrived on March 24.
It launched its own Neon video on demand service about the same time.
So financial analysts can be expected to take a particular interest in churn - the number of people who are leaving Sky - when the result is issued on August 21.
The Rugby World Cup, which kicks off on September 19, could help Sky avoid some potential damage.
Sky TV chief executive John Fellet said it would be surprising if the subscription video on demand (SVOD) competition had no effect on Sky.
Forsyth Barr analyst Blair Galpin said the issue for Sky was developing its on-demand service for existing customers, to encourage them to stay. Sky has been slow to develop its digital offering and its on-demand offering has been plagued with problems.
Fellet believes many people are treating new services such as Netflix as add-ons to their linear pay TV services, and that explains why US SVOD services such as Hulu have faced horrendous churn rates.
Lightbox has the bonus of being subsidised by Spark, with a free service for many Spark broadband customers. Netflix's focus is on developing a global service.
Meanwhile, the first SVOD service in New Zealand, Quickflix, has been going through change. The company's founder and CEO, Stephen Langsford, insisted moves - vaguely defined, so far - to purchase a Chinese film and TV production company did not indicate any loss of interest in the streaming market. It was just the opposite, he said, because the company was looking at expanding into a global service.
The move follows a collapse in the reseller deal between Quickflix and Foxtel's streaming service Presto.
Langsford insisted the company was not being shut out of content and had the capability to deliver strong growth.
No idea
Pacific Magazines still has not decided whether it will continue to distribute New Idea magazine in New Zealand.
NZME's licence to produce the weekly women's title ends on September 30, and despite early indications the New Zealand magazine might continue in some form, it appears no final decision has been made.
NZME sold most of its own magazine titles to Bauer Media, which owns the NZ Woman's Weekly and Woman's Day.
Bauer NZ chief executive Paul Dykzeul said the company was not interested in taking over the New Idea licence.
