AUCKLAND, Friday: TVNZ ceo Kevin Kenrick’s resorted to a personalised spam email campaign today to convince media readers of the state-owned broadcaster’s case in favour of the proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ.
In his email to M+AD (addressed “Dear David”) he didn’t bother to mention some of the troublesome details – like the sub-plan to gut Concert FM, dump its presenters, and move back to scratchy old AM.
Kenrick, who is basically a civil servant, has no mandate to support these quaint proposals – which have already been hit by a chorus of critics from across the social spectrum, including Helen Clark, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Sunday News columnist Oscar Keightley.
“Today, the Government has announced its plans to assess the viability of forming a new public media entity,” Kenrick wrote in his missive.
“Saner minds might think the State should have no role at all in the commercial funding of TV or radio.”
“The next step is the development of a detailed business case, further decisions about TVNZ and RNZ and the potential new entity will be made once the business case is completed around the middle of this year.
“It is important to note that commercial funding is expected to be part of the proposed public media solution. The Government is looking to strengthen public media, not weaken commercial media.”
State aid
Saner minds might think the State should have no role whatsoever in the commercial funding of TV and radio.
All commercial TV services in this country should be sold to proper commercial operators, and the State should focus entirely on the fine – and relatively inexpensive – non-commercial radio networks (including Concert FM) we have already spent decades building.
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