Herald on Sunday editorial: We need a contest for serious TV

Jesse Mulligan (left) will host Seven Sharp this year alongside Toni Street and Mike Hosking.

Opinion

Competition generates higher standards in most commercial activities, including television. Viewers looking for a higher standard of current affairs coverage will have high hopes for the return of the 7pm programmes on both broadcast channels this week. Campbell Live on TV3 will face a revamped Seven Sharp on One. Last year, John Campbell faced no contest for the serious news interview of the evening. This year he might.

We can say only "might" because it is not yet clear that the producers of Seven Sharp intend to compete with TV3's flagship for hard, insightful interviews with a newsmaker of the day. TVNZ's publicists would not allow one of Seven Sharp's new presenters to be featured alongside Campbell in today's Herald on Sunday because they want their programme to be different.

It is bound to be different as Mike Hosking and Toni Street have replaced Alison Mau and the succession of guest and stand-in presenters they tried last year. But with Hosking on board, it is hard to believe he, for one, will not give Campbell some competition.

Hosking seems not the type to let himself be limited to the light and trite material that was Seven Sharp's standard fare last year.

He, like Campbell, has attitude. And since their attitudes are diametrically different, viewers would relish the choice. Hosking must be given opportunities to use his intelligence and wit in proper interviews.

TVNZ seems convinced viewers no longer want serious discussion on television at 7pm. There is a high risk they mean to continue the format of frivolous exchanges between three presenters and distracting text messages on screen as soon as any item threatens to be thoughtful.

Digital communications pose a challenge to television as much as to other forms of mass media. The challenge has to be met without losing the essential strength of each form.

Television's strength - the information it can transmit better than any other medium, including hand-held devices with their tiny screens - is the face-to-face interview.

There is still nothing to match television for putting important people under scrutiny and letting us see how they respond. The language of facial expression and bodily movement adds a dimension to information that words on radio or in print cannot as readily convey. Radio and print have different strengths.

To dispense with serious interviews on TV would be as foolish as radio forsaking breaking news or hosted conversation, and printed media forgetting that a great deal of information can only be absorbed in words, pictures or graphics that stay in view as long as a reader requires.

TVNZ believes Seven Sharp's real competition is other sources of entertainment and information available these days.

If it persists in this belief it may soon find nobody watching what passes for its current affairs television. Those content with brief, fleeting news feeds will be watching digital devices. Those still longing for good, engaging interviews will be watching TV3.

Campbell Live is not everyone's cup of tea but it thinks, it cares about its subjects, it offers a considered point of view. A thinking programme is better than twitter on a big screen.

TVNZ may be a commercial operation but it is publicly owned. It ought to be ashamed that a private broadcaster is offering more substantial political discussion at prime time every weekday evening. Seven Sharp needs to smarten up.