Mike's Minute: Linear TV in NZ is in trouble

The stark reality of linear TV in New Zealand, if Irene Gardiner was right on yesterday's show, is fairly simple. 

Here is how the calculation works: you make a product, you stick it on air, you get an audience, and you sell advertising based on that audience. 

Some programs can never hope to get the sort of audience to pay for the cost of the show. Enter Government support or brand sponsorship – in other words, a financial support mechanism to make a show that would not have otherwise been made. 

I made a show called ‘Sunday’ years back. It was on TV3 on the weekend off peak. It didn’t rate very well, but it was never going to, but it rated fairly well for what it was, which was a niche program talking about the arts. 

It was made with NZ On Air money. 

Now, does Treasure Island attract more viewers than that? Yes. 

So if you are going to toss money at something why not that? You get more bang for buck. 

But the money tree hasn’t got more money, so someone loses. Maybe it's an arts program. 

The really scary thing is the calculation around peak time i.e. prime time. 

This show makes money and quite a lot of it. Newstalk ZB is profitable. TVNZ and TV3 are not. 

So what about pay-per-view? SkyTV is profitable, but they have sport. 

What does TV3 or TVNZ have that you would pay for? Would you pay to watch Treasure Island? Of course you wouldn’t. 

So prime time linear TV is not profitable because the advertising dollars have vanished to Google and TikTok and Meta. 

That is not changing and that’s the problem, because all that's left is the taxpayer. 

The big question is to what extent should the taxpayer fund your evening's entertainment? And when I say you, I mean those who are left watching the TV as opposed to YouTube or Netflix. 

If linear TV can't make a buck at 7.30pm on a Wednesday, how long before the lights get switched off? 

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