Broadcaster says jobs at risk

Mediaworks chief Brent Impey. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Job cuts are on the cards as one of New Zealand's largest broadcasters aims to slash an estimated $10 million from its budget.

Heads of departments at Mediaworks, which owns TV channels TV3 and C4 and radio stations including More FM, The Breeze and RadioLive, met staff early this week to tell them of the proposed cuts.

The Herald on Sunday understands they were told the company had to save $10m, but chief executive Brent Impey refused to confirm the figure.

Impey said ad revenue had dropped 15 per cent. "We are trying to get the cost of the business as tight as we can and, yes, there is cost-cutting in many areas," said Impey.

Asked whether there would be redundancies, he said: "We are seeking to minimise job losses."

Impey said cuts had been made to the business' TV arm and the process was still under way in radio. He would not comment on what cuts would be made to programming.

The Herald on Sunday understands job losses will mainly focus on regional journalists and at least 70 people are set to go but Impey refused to comment.

Australian private equity firm Ironbridge Capital bought Mediaworks from CanWest in 2007. Initially Ironbridge kept out of operational matters, but in June put its own directors on the board, reportedly concerned at how Mediaworks was coping with the downturn.

Mediaworks' holding company, Ironbridge subsidiary HT Media, is $500m in debt.

Media commentator Martin Gilman said it was no surprise the broadcaster was facing budget cuts because it was financed by so much debt.

"Mediaworks is probably suffering a little bit more because they're so highly leveraged," said Gilman. "It seems likely that the third quarter will be the worst so far."

TVNZ announced plans for 88 redundancies in March in a bid to save $25m.

Although the Mediaworks cuts are expected to be smaller, Gilman said the company would feel the effects just as much.

"The problem with Mediaworks, especially from the TV side, is they run a pretty lean ship as it is. They don't have the depth of resource that TVNZ has."

The TVNZ cuts hit news and local programming hardest, and Gilman predicts Mediaworks will follow suit, although he predicted head of news Mark Jennings would fight hard to save his staff.