Lot of twaddle in local Tellyland

At least we didn't have to put up with all the fine words of 1997.

In 1998, our ratings-driven industry has churned out its wildly variable offerings largely unaccompanied by self-justification. The networks are still promoting themselves to saturation levels, of course, but thankfully haven't attempted to portray their endeavours as leading to some new, improved small-screen world.

Back in 1997, TVNZ had a newly appointed Neil Roberts oversee the replacement of Horizon with MTV and articulate in typically colourful fashion his vision of what TV One and TV2 could be. TV3 had earlier launched TV4 with brave talk of assembling a new "mass" audience.

Four months into 1998, Roberts quit. MTV shut down the following month; TV3 stumbled early, losing John Hawkesby just as it relaunched its news, and then suffered a bad ratings year. No wonder the networks have been a bit quiet.

Instead, they've concentrated on doing what our unregulated environment demands they do - try to deliver an audience to advertisers.

The good news was that the weapon of choice in this battle was increasingly locally made shows. The bad news was that so many of them were assembly-line pap aimed at a ratings-defined lowest common denominator.

We're talking formats - often imported - which have a presenter out front but rely on ordinary (ie unpaid) New Zealanders to provide lots of the "entertainment." Think Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, April's Angels or a host of others. TV2, in particular, did well from this trend.

We were also given more local documentaries, TV One offering a regular slot in the style of TV3's Inside New Zealand, most notably the excellent New Zealand Wars.

Again, though, the increased quantity too often seemed to mean a drop in quality.

And all the entertainment shows and documentaries couldn't make up for the lack of local drama, the venerable Shortland Street again providing the only constant.

Also missing was Fraser - or at least something like it. We desperately need political interviews in greater depth than can be managed on Holmes.

The Government's hands-off approach at least allowed the establishment of Prime, an alternative to TV One if not much of a contributor to local content. TV4, too, has continued to fill a niche ignored by the more mainstream channels. And, oh yeah, Sky has been able to fill the suburbs with satellite woks.

But it's still hard to find the coherence in a broadcasting policy which seems to consist mostly of ministers wondering when they might get away with selling TVNZ. Labour, meanwhile, is promising a local content quota, but hasn't yet filled in the details.

Maybe this year's campaign will bring decent debate on what kind of television we want - and whether those wishes should be judged by anything other than all those bums on seats in front of Garage Sale.
- Bevan Rapson, television editor

Pictured: Suzanne Paul hosted Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? from the format factory of TV2.