Troubles on the TV

Hit television reality spoof The Mothership is in crisis mode as it battles falling ratings. In the latest plot twist, Gandalf (Ian Johnstone) and the cryogenically renewed cast from Cocoon have switched off their hearing aids to lay siege to the dark glass fortress.

They've found unlikely allies in a disparate bunch of fans of high-brow drama, comedy and docos. Clutching video recordings of Brideshead Revisited, The Forsyte Saga and The Sky at Night, their mission is to seize control of Studio One and play endless reruns to prime-time programmers until their demands are met.

Although they all want to watch different things, on one issue they are united: no advertising.

Meanwhile, in his Wellington bunker, their apparent nemesis, Dr Evil (Steve Maharey), is searching for a digital platform that will beam the dissidents, Star Trek-like, into their own television niche. If he chooses the right box, Granada political satire 1973-89 will become the default channel for all viewers with an aversion to an American accent.

The latest storyline at least makes a change from the network's disturbing penchant for killing off core cast members and poorly rating shows.

The endless bloodletting - victims include Paulus the Woodgnome (Paul Holmes), Mary Poppins (Judy Bailey) and David Brent (Ian Fraser) - was becoming tiresome.

Like the best cliffhangers, how it will end is anyone's guess - even the scriptwriters are Lost. Will Dr Evil negotiate the political fog to flick on a digital free-to-air future? Or will Helen, guardian of The Charter, with one withering glance force the network to play Mataku and Front Seat every night in prime time with saturation advertising?

For the besieged staff of Television New Zealand, last week's open letter to Broadcasting Minister Maharey from 31 prominent New Zealanders - and the torrent of supporting letters from viewers of all ages - was yet another body blow.

Staff can lampoon the nostalgia for Close to Home, and point to the dramatic changes in audiences and technology, but they cannot argue with the ratings. One News, TVNZ's flagship for advertisers, is in ratings freefall despite the introduction of fresh talent.

Television, says Maharey, is our most important cultural institution.

"It's bigger than ballet or music or film - more people watch TV than any other form of culture."

But the state-owned broadcaster is under siege not just from disillusioned viewers but from technological advances which threaten the concept of channel loyalty - and with it the notion of free-to-air television paid for by advertising.

As the public support for the Group of 31 shows, the amount of advertising (13 to 14 minutes an hour in prime time) is clearly a turn-off.

Other concerns surround scheduling and quality - the reliance on "cheap, voyeuristic" reality shows and "lowest common denominator television". The disillusioned also lament the decline in "local programmes of worth".

Viewers are deserting TV One not just for TV2 and TV3, they're signing up to pay TV. At least part of the problem is the conflicting remit required of TVNZ by the Government - to implement the charter, which requires programming that contributes to New Zealand's cultural and national identity, while maximising advertising revenue.

But the solution of the Group of 31 - make TV One a commercial-free public service broadcaster - is off the spectrum. New Zealand lacks the population to sustain a "pure" public broadcaster such as the BBC.

The estimated $200 million shortfall of lost advertising revenue would have to be met by all taxpayers. It would be likely to attract only 10 per cent of viewers.

And replacing one form of revenue with another wouldn't allow an increase in New Zealand content.

Many of the programmes the critics say they would prefer, such as quality docos and drama, are already out there - on Sky TV's expanding array of niche digital channels. New set-top boxes such as MySky allow viewers to pick what they want to watch when they want to watch at the push of a button.

"The whole debate is about the past and there's bugger-all about the future," says veteran programmer and producer Andrew Shaw. "In my own household my sons are frequently using the DVD player, the PlayStation, the internet and a television all at once - the family just doesn't gather." Appointment television is now a rarity.

"For all the debate about TVNZ, the unspoken debate is about how quickly and efficiently do you make it a digital platform business. Without that, the future is very bleak."

But the expansion of digital channels controlled by global networks is no reason to give up on the state broadcaster, or traditional mass market channels, says Maharey.

In this environment, the state broadcaster becomes "the way you hold your country together - culture is now the number one policy issue for all countries.

"As you sit in your place in Auckland and access virtually infinite TV and radio from around the world, what is it you actually want from your public broadcaster?

"You want New Zealand content but you also want a brand you can trust that will help you get the best of what's out there. The most important thing to hang on to is the brand."

Maharey does not accept that the charter is the problem. "The opportunities to earn a living from this without actually compromising television choices is quite large.

"We're a long way from knowing if it's a frustrating model or not when we're only two years into it and there are major decisions to come."

Those decisions include the type of set-top box needed (viewers would have to pay $200 to $300) and the phasing out of analogue transmission. But instead of unblocking the barriers to a digital future, the Government seems as transfixed as viewers with the organisation's internal turmoil - from the rows over salaries, high-profile departures and select committee revelations to the frustration with the charter.

"I'd like to see them out of the news," says Maharey. "I think they have had their eye off the ball a bit and I'm glad to see that despite that they're now coming out with some good clear direction in terms of what they want to do next."

Maharey is at least pledging more funding to help TVNZ fulfil its charter obligations.

"But any change in the level of funding relies on a sound strategic plan from the board which would have to include digital television, which means more content they've got to source."

At least until the digital issues are resolved, viewers will be served up what TVNZ believes it is obliged to do - ratings-driven programming.

Back in the Mothership, associate chief executive and head of programming Stephen Smith, and scheduling head Annemarie Duff, stage a robust defence of their craft. Smith sets the Herald reporter a poser. "When was the last big, broad appeal comedy to come out of Britain?"

"Umm, The Office," is the reply.

Wrong. "It never rated that well."

Like many other runaway hits, The Office was buried in a Friday late-night slot until word-of-mouth spread, and it was repeated. Evidence surely that schedulers are too timid?

They do take risks, they argue. But when they test the boundaries - with news debates, panel shows, arts programming and educational children's programmes - not enough people watch, says Duff.

"We have to secure programming that's attractive to large portions of the New Zealand population. We don't want to be alienating viewers."

How do they know what audiences want? Viewers now live in a global world, she says. "The whole of New Zealand knew about Desperate Housewives before it screened here.

"We try to purchase the most successful programmes we can from around the world."

Viewers have come to prefer big- budget American programmes with their "enormous" production values, says Smith. That applies particularly in the under-54 age demographic which advertisers covet. Even in Britain, audiences lap up US shows.

"The generalisation that US-made programmes are less quality is a complete fallacy. TV2 at the moment is by far the biggest rating network in the country so New Zealanders are choosing to watch that sort of programming."

And what of local shows? "Viewers are not going to give a New Zealand programme any kind of break," says Smith. "[Programmes] must compete against the best in the world."

Which explains why New Zealand drama and comedy is mostly shown after 9.30pm.

"We are also looking to protect them, 8.30pm is a minefield on all channels," says Duff. "Local drama with a half-million dollar budget would really struggle to compete against a $4 million episode of CSI or Desperate Housewives."

How depressing for the Group of 31 and fellow travellers - but there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Flashback to last October and chief executive Ian Fraser's memo to the board days before his resignation. When Green MP Sue Kedgley leaked the memo in December, media coverage focused on the political fallout and Fraser's frustration over the inability to fulfil charter obligations while being required to broadcast 13 to 14 minutes of advertising an hour.

But buried in Fraser's memo may just be the future of TVNZ. He outlined three options to create a better public broadcaster.

* Option one - making TV One a fully funded, non-commercial public broadcaster charged with delivering the charter, supplemented by a fully commercial TV2 - was seen as too costly.

* Option two - a "hybrid" with One carrying some advertising while delivering the charter, also would need significant new taxpayer funding.

* Option three - One and TV2 would operate much as they do now, but with at least two extra digital channels operating as pure, non-commercial public broadcasters.

One would be a factual channel with a range of minority programmes and high local content; the other could be a children's channel with its night-time schedule devoted to serious drama and arts.

The third way - similar to the approach adopted by the BBC - would need $40 million to $50 million in new public funding.

Maharey says option three is "pretty much what we've settled on". He intends to put to the Cabinet this year a broad paper about digital television and a specific paper about TVNZ and hopes to see "practical moves by the end of the year".

He's anxious that the public broadcaster channels do not become a ghetto but offer something most people will want to watch.

"There's emerging excitement about New Zealand culture and identity.

"I wouldn't want television to be removed from that by just servicing one group's aspirations."

Cut to Ian Johnstone, buoyed by the public support for the Group of 31 stand, but still kicking himself for raising Close to Home as a benchmark.

The BBC model would be a good outcome, he says. "I would be delighted if we could get two or three [channels] within a year.

"If the money which the Government has taken out of TV in the past 16 years had been available to TVNZ we would, like the BBC, be leading the country into digital television with a publicly responsible attitude to programming.

"Let's get on to it - we're falling way behind."