BROADCASTING: Licence-fee cut hits local content on TV

Scrapping the annual $110 television licence fee may be a vote winner but critics say the saving will be at the cost of New Zealand culture on screen and radio.

And there are doubts people will pay their current bill knowing the fee goes from next July.

The fee brings in $87 million a year, after collection costs of $11 million, and is distributed by New Zealand On Air and Te Mangai Paho, for Maori broadcasting.

The Government says it will match the broadcasting fee out of direct taxation.

The Screen Producers and Directors Association has asked why the $11 million enforcement costs are not added to the $87 million to bring the fund up to real levels.

NZ On Air said it was worried about the entire future of funding and broadcasting independence.

Disappointed chairman David Beatson and chief executive Jo Tyndall warned fund cuts meant cuts to television, film and radio.

Free-to-air broadcasters representatives said the "dramatic" change put a cloud over local television programmes which relied on funding from the fee.
- Louisa Cleave