Funded Broadcasting Outcomes
The Crown funds broadcasting activities to provide services and content the commercial market would not deliver to New Zealanders. It also supports a standards regime to ensure freedom of expression and fairness in broadcasting.
Six broadcasting organisations receive all or part of their funding from the Crown. Follow these links for summary information about funded outputs
- NZ On Air (which funds Radio New Zealand)
- TVNZ
- Freeview
- National Pacific Radio Trust
- Radio New Zealand International
- Broadcasting Standards Authority
NZ On Air
Funding agency NZ On Air was established by the Broadcasting Act 1989. It invests contestable funding in projects and organisations that create or preserve NZ broadcast content. It also bulk funds Radio New Zealand. In 2009-10 NZ On Air will receive $127,666,000 (GST excl) in direct government funding. All its decisions are made public. You can search them here.
In 2009/10 NZ On Air funding will be allocated as per the following table. Click on the category for more detail.
| Television | $82,003,000 | 62.3% |
| Radio | $32,842,000 | 25% |
| Community broadcasting | $4,452,000 | 3.3% |
| NZ Music | $5,420,000 | 4.2% |
| Digital | $2,200,000 | 1.7% |
| Archiving | $1,370,000 | 1% |
The NZ On Air Annual Report lists all funding decisions by name, producer and broadcaster (where applicable). Its website also has a comprehensive search function for funding decisions.
NZ On Air also publishes research, ranging from quantitative local content reports to discussion papers on technology or cultural trends.
NZ On Air television funding
In 2008-09 nearly $75 million of contestable television funding was allocated to support 827 hours of programmes in six genres, and for disability services (including captioning) and project development. Check the latest funding decisions here. An additional $15.11 million was paid to TVNZ as direct funding. From 2009-10, that $15.11 million became the Platinum Fund. This is a contestable fund for programmes to be broadcast on the six main free-to-air channels that will inform, educate and entertain a good cross-section of New Zealand.
Share of funded hours by broadcaster
Broadcasters contribute to the production cost of most funded programmes by paying a licence fee for the right to transmit the programme. They must also commit to scheduling the programme at a suitable time. In 2008-09, by dollar- value:
- TVNZ (TV One and TV2) supported 58% of funded programmes
- TV3 supported 30% of funded programmes
- Māori TV supported 7% of funded programmes
- The balance was shared amongst C4, Prime and regional channels.
Planned allocation for 2009-10
| Television funding | Forecast Hours | Forecast $ |
|---|---|---|
| Drama/Comedy | 80.5 | 29,326,000 |
| Children's Drama | 6.5 | 2,730,000 |
| Documentaries | 89 | 8,508,000 |
| Children and Young People | 406 | 12,814,000 |
| Arts, Culture and Performance | 16.5 | 1,752,000 |
| Minorities, including Ethnic | 137 | 7,623,000 |
| Disability Services | 20 | 1,600,000 |
| Includes funding for captioning | 2,300,000 | |
| Development | 239,000 | |
| Total General Contestable Fund | 755.5 | 66,892,000 |
| Platinum Fund
(A dedicated fund for high quality public service broadcasting programmes. The first allocations from the Fund are being made in 2009-10) |
40 | 15,111,000 |
| Total Television Funding | 795.5 | 82,003,000 |
NZ On Air radio funding
The bulk of NZ On Air funding for radio goes to Radio New Zealand to support RNZ National and RNZ Concert. The balance is used for programming to address gaps in the schedules of commercial stations. In 2009-10 NZ On Air plans to support commercial radio projects in four main genres. Check the latest funding decisions here.
| Genre | Forecast Hours | Forecast $ |
|---|---|---|
| Drama/Comedy | 40 | 156,000 |
| Children and youth | 150 | 450,000 |
| Spiritual | 75 | 120,000 |
| Ethnic | 120 | 300,000 |
NZ On Air community broadcasting funding
This covers funding for regional television programmes and operational funding for access radio and other special interest broadcasting services. Check the latest funding decisions here.
Regional Television
Regional television is funded on a contestable basis. NZ On Air's current priority is for local news and information programming. For the 2009/10 financial year, allocations have been made as follows:
| Station | Programme | Funding $ |
|---|---|---|
| Triangle TV | TTV News | 150,000 |
| FTN Rodney | North City News | 150,000 |
| CTV | Today in Canty | 150,000 |
| CH9 | CH9 News | 150,000 |
| Cue TV | South Today | 150,000 |
| TV Central | Central News | 150,000 |
| TV Rotorua | Rotorua City News | 110,000 |
| Tararua Television | Undercurrents | 75,000 |
| Mainland TV | Local News | 75,000 |
| TV Hawke's Bay | Chatroom | 75,000 |
| Triangle TV | Beatson | 55,967 |
| TV Central | In Depth | 43,282 |
| TV Rotorua | Rotoview | 41,138 |
| Te Hiku Media | Far North News | 34,888 |
| East Coast TV | Kei Te Aha Country | 19,825 |
Access, Pacific Island and special interest radio
These services are bulk funded. Each station is also expected to contribute towards its operating costs. In 2008-09 14 stations received $2,538,338.
Access radio funding is divided into tiers to reflect the size of the potential audience. The tiers are:
| Tier | Description | Station |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Large metro | Auckland |
| Tier 2 | Large urban | Wellington, Hamilton, Christchurch |
| Tier 3 | Provincial City | Palmerston North, Hawke's Bay, Nelson, Dunedin, Invercargill |
| Tier 4 | Small regional | Kapiti, Masterton |
NZ On Air music funding
Singles, albums, videos, and radio and television programmes are funded to achieve the greatest possible broadcast exposure for NZ music. Check the latest funding decisions here.
Album funding
In 2008-09 NZ On Air funding supported 33 albums at an average of $48,000 per album, as follows:
| Artist | Funding $ |
|---|---|
| Annabel Fay | 50,000 |
| Brooke Fraser | 50,000 |
| Collapsing Cities | 50,000 |
| Dave Dobbyn | 50,000 |
| Deja Voodoo | 50,000 |
| Devolo | 50,000 |
| Gin Wigmore | 50,000 |
| Greg Johnson | 50,000 |
| Hollie Smith | 50,000 |
| Jon Toogood | 50,000 |
| Jonny Love | 50,000 |
| Julia Deans | 50,000 |
| Katchafire | 50,000 |
| Ladi6 | 50,000 |
| Midnight Youth | 50,000 |
| Motocade | 50,000 |
| Opensouls | 50,000 |
| Pluto | 50,000 |
| Sarah Brown | 50,000 |
| Shihad | 50,000 |
| Smashproof | 50,000 |
| Steriogram | 50,000 |
| Sweet & Irie | 50,000 |
| The Brunettes | 50,000 |
| The Checks | 21,625 |
| The Datsuns | 50,000 |
| The Electric Confectionaires | 50,000 |
| The Exiles | 46,500 |
| The Tutts | 50,000 |
| The Valves | 50,000 |
| These Four Walls | 50,000 |
| Tim Finn | 50,000 |
| Young Sid | 49,400 |
- 23 singles - all funded at $10,000 each (including a music video grant)
- 20 Radio Hits rebates - all at $5,000 each
- 170 music videos - all funded at $5,000 each
- 5 music television programmes - average of $104,000 per programme
Commercial radio airplay
NZ On Air works collaboratively with the commercial radio sector. In 2002, the Government and the commercial radio sector agreed to a voluntary 20% target for NZ music content on commercial radio and NZ On Air's music policies are designed to support this target. This was achieved for the 12 months to 30 June 2009 with 20.08%.
Nine of the top ten most played NZ songs on NZ radio in the same period were recipients of NZ On Air artist or album funding.
NZ On Air funds New Zealand music features on commercial radio as well. In 2008-09 the following programmes were funded:
| Programme | Funding $ |
|---|---|
| As Kiwi As on Classic Hits | 40,000 |
| Homegrown on Radio Rhema | 33,680 |
| NZ Number Ones on Classic Hits | 25,700 |
| Off The Record on The Rock | 50,000 |
| The Slab on The Edge | 36,000 |
| The Source on Flava | 50,000 |
| The Word on ZM | 49,400 |
| un-chart-ed on the b.net | 55,465 |
| Wired on More FM | 50,000 |
Seven specialist shows on Kiwi FM were also funded in 2008-09 ($300,000) and a special initiative with Sounz, the Centre for NZ Music, to increase New Zealand composed music on Radio New Zealand Concert ($100,000).
NZ On Air also runs a number of promotional schemes to help get more New Zealand music played on the radio. NZ On Air produces a monthly Kiwi Hit Disc radio sampler and has a New Zealand music promotions team based in Auckland.
Student radio stations
NZ On Air music funding is also used to support the New Zealand music work of the student radio stations. In 2008-09 it allocated $500,000 to five stations:
| Station | Funding $ |
|---|---|
| 95bFM - Auckland | 180,000 |
| Radio Control - Palmerston North | 55,000 |
| Radio Active - Wellington | 100,000 |
| RDU 98.5FM - Christchurch | 90,000 |
| Radio One - Dunedin | 75,000 |
NZ On Air digital funding
This funding stream comprises support for one platform and for a contestable content fund. Check the latest funding decisions here.
NZ On Screen is a website specially developed to stream archival local content and provides a showcase for the work of the New Zealand production industry. On average 1000 people per day visit the site. The site gives visitors access to over a thousand television and film titles, music videos and people profiles - more are uploaded weekly. The most viewed title in the first year was Britten - Backyard Visionary (1993). Around $1m is allocated annually.
The Digital Content Partnership Fund was established in 2007-08 to encourage the development of projects with a multi-media focus. Projects are funded after an annual call for submissions.
NZ On Air archiving funding
NZ On Air contracts with two registered archives to collect (archive) preserve and make publicly available NZ broadcast content likely to be of historical interest to New Zealanders. In 2008-09 $1,340,000 was allocated for this work. For information on the accessing this content, follow the links to the archives.
- The NZ Film Archive preserved 185 hours and archived 1,681 hours of television
- Sound Archives / Ngā Taonga Kōrero preserved 1,889 hours and archived 1,767 hours of radio
Radio New Zealand (RNZ)
RNZ receives $31,500,000 per annum via NZ On Air. It uses this funding to run broadcast services which deliver programmes to meet its obligations under its Charter. RNZ has two broadcast services.
- RNZ National - nationwide news, current affairs, drama and spoken features, and magazine service. In 2008-09:
- 49% of broadcast hours were news and current affairs
- 36.7% NZ music on rotate
- 354 hours of Māori language and culture content
- 300 hours of NZ drama, fiction and comedy
- RNZ Concert - nationwide fine music service. In 2008-09:
- 16% of broadcast music performance was by NZ performers
RNZ also runs Radio New Zealand News and its website provides access to podcasts and archives. In 2008-09 there were 9.9 million visits to the RNZ website, and 3.2 million audio-on-demand requests.
RNZ is required by statute to survey listeners and non-listeners about its services. This work is done by The Nielsen Company among all people aged 15 years and over throughout New Zealand. Detailed results are published here. The RNZ data on this age is based on figures published in the latest RNZ Annual Report. The weekly cumulative audience figures (excluding downloads and podcasts) are
- 538,000 people for Radio New Zealand (National and Concert combined)
- 473,000 or about 14% of the 15+ population for Radio New Zealand National
- 138,000 or 4% of the 15+ population for Radio New Zealand Concert
RNZ conducts on-going audience research throughout the year and provides regular updates on its website.
For comparison with commercial radio audiences, see the Research International survey results at radios.co.nz.
Radio New Zealand International (RNZI)
RNZI is part of Radio New Zealand and receives $1,900,000 per annum direct from the Crown. RNZI creates ands broadcasts its own programming for Pacific listeners - primarily news, current affairs and information, and also relays parts of Radio New Zealand National. It broadcasts to the Pacific via shortwave and has a comprehensive audio and text service.
In 2008-09:
- RNZI's signal was received by 13 Pacific nations for 18 hours per day
- 18 Pacific radio stations re-broadcast RNZI material each day
Television New Zealand (TVNZ)
TVNZ transmits four free-to-air national television channels, TV ONE, TV2, TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7, online channels TVNZ ondemand and tvnz.co.nz. TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7 are advertising free digital only channels that appear on the Freeview and Sky platforms. TVNZ also has a one-third shareholding interest in the Australian Seven Media Group subsidiary Hybrid Television Services (ANZ) Pty Ltd. Hybrid holds the Australasian licence for the TiVo, the personal video recorder and broadband delivered content device.
In July 2008, TVNZ had a 67% share audience share of the free-to-air (FTA) audience, and 56% of the total television market.
In 2008-09 all twenty top-rating shows for all people 5+ were on TVNZ, 18 on TV ONE and two on TV2. Of these, 16 were New Zealand shows.
95.5% of all people 5+ tuned to a TVNZ channel in an average month in 2008-09.
TVNZ is able to apply for funding from NZ On Air for programmes to be broadcast on TV ONE and TV2. In 2008-09 TVNZ, by dollar value.
- supported 58% of all NZ On Air contestably funded programmes
- produced 13% of all NZ On Air contestably funded programmes in-house
Digital service funding
Over the six years from 2007 to 2012, TVNZ is receiving a total of $79,000,000 for two advertising-free digital only channels, to be transmitted on the Freeview digital platform. As of July 2009, the channels are also available on SKY and can therefore be seen by about 65% of households. The channels are:
- TVNZ 6 with pre-school and family programming - 64% of the schedule is local content, of which 21% is original
- TVNZ 7 with news, current affairs, documentary and arts programming - 80% of the schedule is local content, of which 42% is original
Research in May 2009 showed:
- 47% awareness of TVNZ 6 and 39% awareness of TVNZ 7
- 10% of respondents were personally interested in Kidzone on TVNZ 6 and 22% thought it had public interest or societal value
- 12% of respondents were personally interested in TVNZ 7 and 22% thought it had public interest or societal value
Non-commercial transmission sites
The Crown provides $1,150,000 per annum to TVNZ to maintain these transmission sites so that New Zealanders in remote locations can receive free-to-air television. This service is then sub contracted to Kordia. In 2008-09 it maintained over 150 sites, with the ability to provide service to nearly 60,000 households (approx 4% of households).
Service to the Pacific
The Crown provides $607,000 to TVNZ to assist with this free service to 18 broadcasters in the Pacific. In 2008-09, it provided:
- 595 hours of programming, including the daily transmission of TV ONE news
National Pacific Radio Trust (NPRT)
The Crown provides $3,000,000 per annum to NPRT to operate radio services for Pacific peoples in New Zealand. Crown funding is supplemented with commercial revenue.
NPRT operates one national network - NiuFM, and two Auckland channels, 531pi for older listeners and NiuFM Auckland for the youth audience.
- The services broadcast programmes in nine Pacific languages
- Pacific Media News provides hourly news bulletins in English and bulletins in Samoan and Tongan language for 531pi
- 97% of Pacific people are aware of NiuFM and 531pi
- 44% of Pacific people listen to NiuFM or 531pi
- 23% of all people aged 18-24*
*From New Zealanders' Perception of the Importance and Contribution of Public Broadcasting, prepared for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage by Synovate Research International, July 2007.
Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA)
The Crown provides $609,000 per annum for the BSA - this represented 45% of its total revenue in 2008-09. The balance comes from broadcaster levies based on advertising revenues. The BSA provides an informed, relevant and respected complaints determination service. It determines complaints where complainants are not satisfied with the broadcaster's response. In 2008-09 it:
- received 162 formal complaints and issued 151 decisions, upholding 25 complaints and issuing 6 orders
- published research on Māori issues in relation to broadcasting standards, and perceptions of violent content in entertainment genres
- published the revised Free-to-Air Television Code, promoted the Election Programmes Code and issued two practice notes on Code interpretation
Freeview
Freeview is a free-to-air digital platform for television and radio transmission. Over five years from 2007 to 2012 Freeview will receive $25,000,000 in Crown funding to support national free-to-air broadcasters with the costs of simulcasting digital and analogue signals as New Zealand moves to a wholly digital broadcasting environment.
- As at 30 September 2009, 291,853 or 18.2% of households were able to receive Freeview, 177,917 via satellite and 113,936 via terrestrial (high definition) transmission
- Freeview's satellite service offers 13 TV and 4 radio channels
- Freeview's terrestrial service offers 12 TV and 3 radio channels