Michael Galvin plays Dr Chris Warner on Shortland Street. Photo / South Pacific Pictures
Michael Galvin plays Dr Chris Warner on Shortland Street. Photo / South Pacific Pictures
In the weeks since Warner Bros Discovery and TVNZ announced cutbacks in their newsrooms, much of the focus has been on what this means for journalism in this country - but it’s not only newsrooms fighting for survival.
The moves come amid wider belt-tightening across the television sector, as falling terrestrial TV ratings mean companies are now competing against global giants more than ever to hold our attention.
Even one of our biggest production companies, South Pacific Pictures - behind the likes of Shortland Street, The Brokenwood Mysteries and Far North - is facing challenges.
CEO Kelly Martin told The Front Page uncertain times mean we’ll be watching more Australian and American content and less New Zealand content.
“Something like Brokenwood back in the day, we would get 90 per cent of the budget from New Zealand On Air and 10 per cent from a licence fee from a broadcaster and we would make a show,” Martin said.
“And now you have to bring money from all sorts of different places. Particularly on the scripted side, we need to bring in international partners. And the tricky thing with that, and the thing New Zealanders and our funding agencies and Government need to be aware of, is we’ve got to find ways of doing that without losing the New Zealand-ness,” she said.
The cast of The Brokenwood Mysteries. Photo/ South Pacific Pictures
Speaking in March, TVNZ CEO Jodi O’Donnell said there are “no sacred cows” when asked if Shortland Street - the country’s longest running drama - would survive the cutbacks.
The soap opera remains popular on demand, but the linear broadcast is struggling, with Nielsen Data for the week of April 14 showing it was only just in the top 20 shows, with about 176,000 viewers.
The NZ Herald’s Media Insider reported in April that Shortland Street is eyeing the Screen Production Rebate as an option to keep the show afloat.
Martin says they’re asking the Government to fix how the rebate is structured so it not only favours international productions, but domestic ones.
“If we were an international company coming into New Zealand with a show like Shortland Street we would qualify for a rebate because they are able to be considered on their total spend. Whereas domestically, it has to be done on your per-hour spend.
“The per-hour limit or minimum for the rebate is $500,000 and Shortland Street is made on the smell of an oily rag because it’s fast turnaround and it’s genuinely made for very, very small amounts of money. So the total spend across the year is significant, but the per-episode cost is extremely low. We’re asking them to fix that.”
In the UK, Channel 4 has cut their soap, Hollyoaks, back to three episodes a week with a digital drop first, while Neighbours was resurrected last year with just four episodes weekly. Martin did not rule out similar changes here for Shortland Street.
“We’ve been doing nothing but to talk about all of those things. There absolutely is scope [to rethink how the show’s produced].
“The thing that really excites me about Shortland Street is that it’s incredibly adaptable, movable, and smart and it’s always been a progressive show.
“Those are things that are definitely on the table and up for discussion in the context of how it will work to keep audiences coming back for the show in a different format, on the digital platform, for example. What should that look like? How should that be?”
NZ comedian Rose Matafeo on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Photo / Getty Images
Cutbacks on production aren’t only affecting New Zealand-made television, but stifling the starts of some of our country’s up-and-coming stars.
Comedy Trust chief executive Lauren Whitney says TV is a chance for local comedians to get exposure.
“Broadcast TV allows comedians to create work... It also allows them to network, to collaborate, to write, to edit, to have direction and production,” Whitney said.
“It’s really amazing seeing that collaboration and relationships form, they’re working together all the time. So when someone like Rose Matafeo gets an opportunity to make her own rom-com with the BBC and HBO Max, she brings her friends with her.
“It’s a huge shame and it’s a real concern because if we start losing those local artists, local content, the opportunities to grow, for them to even be known by audiences are going to diminish and everything is really fragmented.
“We know that New Zealand content is loved and is appreciated, so it’s not an issue of desire for the content. It’s more an issue of how do we get this content out.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more about how cutbacks affect New Zealand’s production and comedy sectors.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
