KEY POINTS:
Massive cuts to TVNZ's budget are likely to eat into its leader's $720,000 pay packet - but Shortland Street will be safe.
Other local programming is considered vulnerable as the state broadcaster searches for savings to counter a big drop in advertising.
It needs to shave $25 million
from its budget - a huge 10 per cent reduction - in just four months.
The Government yesterday effectively ruled out easing the pain for TVNZ by allowing it to avoid paying the dividend it returns to taxpayers. Last year that was $10 million. TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis said he would be "very surprised" if the cuts failed to affect his salary. Other cuts were planned but Ellis refused to speculate on where the axe would fall.
He said viewers would not notice immediate changes because the company had already paid for this year's programming.
But he said there had been no decision on "local content cuts" because the process for future programming had not begun.
He said the company would go through that in the next few months.
Asked if much-loved soap Shortland Street could be in the firing line, Ellis replied with an emphatic: "No way Jose. Shortland Street underpins the TV2 schedule and will continue to do so for many years. We have a very strong and long-term commitment to Shortland Street."
However, he would not be drawn on other shows. Wheel of Fortune has been named as one likely casualty by commentators but TVNZ's former head of news Bill Ralston said news and current affairs would take a hammering.
He predicted a wave of redundancies in the section he once oversaw but hoped job losses would focus on "non-productive" staff.
"The last time I looked, about half the company's overheads were the non-productive, bureaucratic areas of the company.
"It's a pretty savage amount of money. It's a difficult situation they've wedged themself into there."
TVNZ's former parliamentary advisor Richard Griffin also believed it likely news and current affairs would take the biggest hit.
Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman said he would talk to TVNZ bosses about the budget cuts in the coming week.
Of the dividend he said: "In the longer term, we think that we want TVNZ to be making a return for the taxpayer on all the public money that goes into it."
