Hard News: The digital switch-off
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Thanks Russell.
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I’m also inclined to wonder whether all those tax cuts were worth the social cost.
Understatement? Much?
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Perhaps we could "follow the money" on this. To me, there seem to be possible questions of propriety. Why are there people in circles of power spending their time looking after Sky TV? I cannot see any advantage to the people of New Zealand in pursuing this particular agenda other that reducing Govt. spending to the point of redundancy just to give more tax cuts to the few. What do we want? a "Law of the Jungle" society? You cannot run a functioning democracy on a shoestring, there has to be, at least, a semblance of social function in a civilised society and that costs money.
They have already placed an extra 2.5% on the bread now they want us to pay for their circuses.
Least they forget, without bread and circuses the people will get revolting. -
Others will muse that TVNZ 7 is to be axed at the same time as the crop of shows it has nurtured have reached some maturity: Back Benches, Media7, The Court Report, The Good Word; and when Damian Christie’s Hindsight has just begun to take an intelligent, engaging look at our TV heritage. I know that at Media7 we feel we’re doing something different and useful, and I’m sure the other teams feel that way too
You certainly are, maturity and a sense of engagement, and not delivered from on high.
And imo, most certainly useful, and different in a positive way. A direction that should be gathering more momentum not killed off. -
Yes. We are seeing the destruction of public broadcasting in NZ. We are still trying to explain to our 3 year old why "channel 6" isn't there anymore. We have gone from 84 hours/week of quality free-to-air programming for under fives to just 14 hours.
If you want the 84 hours you now have to pay for Sky.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
If you want the 84 hours you now have to pay for Sky.
Jeeze, what are the poor kids going to do with the other 12 hours a day, poor souls.
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Personally I would like to see a publicly funded channel showing only Documentary, Current Affairs and News with a daily discussion/forum type show discussing those shows with a satirical show for perspective.
There you go, a mission statement in three lines. ;-)
Who would be up for that?. -
Matthew Poole, in reply to
Who would be up for that?
Lots of people, I suspect, but unfortunately none of the men whose opinion matters most is amongst the number.
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There is no political alternative to Labour and National currently - except for the Greens and unfortunately many of their utopian policies might just sink the economy before we taste nirvana. The Greens are of course the only party to have the nous to posit a capital gains tax which helped them reach 38% support in a recent poll at www.interest.co.nz. for example.
Many left-wingers see a Hone Harawira-allied party as a potential avenue to gain at least some seats but many potential supporters wouldn't vote for him (me for one). A Matt McCarten and Sue Bradford-lead party would be okay. In reality though we need Russell to stand for PM. He needs a job next year and it would be lovely to watch National's decision to dump Media7 really bite them in the backside! -
Steve Barnes, in reply to
Lots of people, I suspect, but unfortunately none of the men whose opinion matters most is amongst the number.
So, you think my opinion is of no import... sob, whimper, sob sob... ;-(
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
In reality though we need Russell to stand for PM. He needs a job next year and it would be lovely to watch National’s decision to dump Media7 really bite them in the backside!
+1 vote here. :-)
They could definitely do with a kick in the incompetence pants. -
Matthew Poole, in reply to
So, you think my opinion is of no import
Not unless you have many millions of taxpayer dollars under your bed with which to fund this marvellous-sounding TV station. Sorry.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Not unless you have many millions of taxpayer dollars under your bed
Note to self... look under bed.
Come November, we can claim it back :-)
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While I think having Russell as PM might be interesting I am not sure that Russell would enjoy the down side
Taxing the rick pricks and then levying them can only go so far
I don't see it as a fun job frankly, as for leading the team, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Imagine a controlling a dog sledge team who want your job and are prepared to kill to get it -
andin, in reply to
prepared to kill to get it
Whaat? You mean just trample on one's reputation a bit dont you?
Or are they just "Being Human" up in the beehive. -
I think there are two possible explanations for this appalling (pending?) decision: TVNZ has pretty much lost its loyalty base amongst discerning older viewers (the 55+ category that we all get lumped into, in the name of ratings) and Sky has an effective, full-time lobbyist in Tony O’Brien. In respect of the latter, I would regard it as a form of insider corruption, in that O’Brien is able to sway politicians and policy-makers in favour of his company.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
We have gone from 84 hours/week of quality free-to-air programming for under fives to just 14 hours.
If you want the 84 hours you now have to pay for Sky.
That's why we have Sky: so we can plonk our under fives in front of the telly for 84 hours a week. Nothing less would do.
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People pay for Sky for different reasons. I have the basic package (under $50.00 per month without the optional magazine) because I wanted to watch Maori TV – which you cant view otherwise in my area of the Coast. My mother wanted it because she loves several UK programmes – which are not available on the 3 ‘major’ (audiences diminishing rapidly) channels. We’ve both found many other programmes that we enjoy – and we’re dab hands on the remote so the ads dont annoy us.
Geoff is right -we’re in the +55 category and there is very little indeed on TVNZ that we now find interesting viewing…but I am very sorry that TV 7 is going down the tubes (heh.)
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Worik Stanton, in reply to
Greens and unfortunately many of their utopian policies might just sink the economy before we taste nirvana.
What policies would that be?
Given the Greens are the only one of the three major parties to put online you can go and see which ones those are, and come back and tell me!
As a GP activist I am fed up to the back teeth of people making comments about our policies with out reading them! There is a word for that: Prejudice.
grumpy
W -
The TVNZ 7 programmes worth saving could find a home on Stratos, soon to be the only NZ non-state-owned national broadcaster. Bomber Bradbury and David Beatson are already there, I'm sure we could find a space for Russell and Damian and the rest.
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In the words of David Harris, “NZ is in real danger of becoming a McD’s nation – nothing more than a bland plastic replica of suburban America.” We’re not in danger of becoming one, we are becoming one
I haven't had a TV at home for at least several years, and I'll have even less reason to have one now. Max Headroom was right.
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Only a fool would have expected anything else from this government - it's ministers are made up of Shipley's incompetent hard line neo-liberal left-overs, two-dimensional cardboard dog whistle opportunities and corporate philistines.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
it's ministers are made up of Shipley's incompetent hard line neo-liberal left-overs
I thought that this post by British blogger digitalben on the Cameron government applied quite seamlessly to ours, all the more after Simon Power's can't be arsed moment. "These are the last dregs of neoliberal politics, the crew left behind to go down with the ship."
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There's an interesting discussion going on over at Kiwipolitico, with Pablo asking why NZ lacks so much he can take for granted overseas, and Lew replying. Lew knows a lot more about the NZ media environment than I do, but I think his assertion that New Zealand is too poor and underpopulated to sustain a quality media environment is underwhelming.
I don't feel like I know enough to challenge him on his own turf, however. One thing I can say about our current circumstance is that nothing is accidental. Value judgments have been made, and our environment results from those.
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That’s why we have Sky: so we can plonk our under fives in front of the telly for 84 hours a week. Nothing less would do.
I know, it's hard to argue against a decrease in hours kids can watch tv, but my 5 year old is pretty put out about it (just wait till she can vote, watch out National!). We're now at the point where if we want her to watch age-appropriate tv without commercials other than between 6-8am we'd have to get Sky or buy a lot of DVDs. But really burns me is the sheer lack of current Kiwi-produced programs for kids. What TV6 was offering, even if it was mind-numbing reruns of Suzie Cato and Buzzy Bee, was pretty much it for locally oriented programming. Where else are they going to hear Maori - Disney Channel? Personally I'm a little upset that I won't be able to watch Captain Mack, but perhaps that's just a mummy thing...
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