Heather du Plessis-Allan: It looks like trouble is not nearly close to being over for TVNZ

Yeah, it looks like the trouble is not nearly close to being over for TVNZ, the news out today is that they've made the loss that we were expecting about 29,000,000 bucks and it is not ending there.  

They now have to find another $30 million worth of savings to make another 30 million, which basically what they've just done and they need to do that fast. So I would say brace yourself. Because it's almost certain shows are going to be cut again and staff are going to be fired again already the rumours are that breakfast is in the boss's sights and the reason  that everybody's worried about breakfast, is because the contracts for that show run out in December. 

 And to be honest they’ve pretty much made this rumor worse because they've put up an advert looking for a foreign producer for breakfast and in bold in the ad it says this is a fixed term contract until the end of the year. I mean, why would you be hiring somebody? What is it August just through to the end of the year, right, it started. To raise the questions all over again, now TVNZ said this is there's nothing to see here, but you know $30 million worth of savings says there is something to see here and pretty much almost everywhere.  

The reason that we can say with confidence that shows have to be cut is because that is the only way that you're gonna come anywhere close to finding $30 million worth of savings. And even then, you're not gonna come close by cutting shows. That's that gets you the closest, but it's still way away. Remember all that cutting that they did with fair go and Sunday and the staff and reducing Shorty St and just everything else. Doing that only saved them $10 million, that's all.  

So, as you can see, they're going to have to cut pretty deep this time around and they can't be rescued all that much by trying to find new and income off the Internet streaming service, TVNZ Plus. Because from what I've been told today, sticking anything behind a pay wall there to make money is years away. They haven't got the digital ability to do that yet. So that's years away. They have to find money this year. 

 So this is my prediction. They will cut shows and the shows that they will cut will be local shows because local shows are way more expensive than foreign content. Maybe they will even cut some of their expensive stars because as I say, $30 million is a lot of money to find all over again. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, looks like the trouble is not nearly close to
being over for TV and Z. The news out today
is that they've made the loss that we were expecting
about twenty nine million bucks and it is not ending there.
They now have to find another thirty million dollars worth
of savings to make another thirty million, which basically what
they've just done, and they need to do that fast.
So I would say brace yourself because it's almost certain

(00:22):
shows are going to be cut again and staff are
going to be fired again. Already, the rumors are that
Breakfast is in the boss's sites. And the reason that
everybody's worried about Breakfast is because the contracts for that
show run out in December. And TVNZ has pretty much
made this rumor worse because they've put up an advert
looking for a foreign producer for Breakfast, and in bold

(00:43):
in the ad it says this is a fixed term
contract until the end of the year. I mean, why
would you be hiring somebody what is it August just
through to the end of the year. Right. It started
to raise the questions all over again. Now TV and
said this says, there's nothing to see here, but you know,
thirty million dollars worth of savings, says, there is something
to see here and pretty much almost everywhere. And the

(01:06):
reason that we can save with confidence that shows have
to be cut is because that is the only way
that you're going to come anywhere close to finding thirty
million dollars worth of savings. And even then you're not
going to come close by cutting shows. That gets you
the closest, but it's still way away. Remember all that
cutting that they did with fair Go and Sunday and
the staff and reducing Shorty Street and just everything else
they were doing, that only saved them ten million dollars.

(01:29):
That's all, so as you can see. As you can see,
they are going to have to cut pretty deep this
time around. And they can't be rescued all that much
by trying to find new income off their internet streaming
service TVNZ plus, because from what I've been told today,
sticking anything behind a play well there to make money
is years away. They haven't got they haven't got the
digital ability to do that yet, so that's years away.

(01:49):
They have to find money this year. So this is
my prediction. They will cut shows, and the shows that
they will cut will be local shows because local shows
are way more expensive than for content, and maybe maybe
they will even cut some of their expensive stars, because,
as I say, thirty million dollars is a lot of
money to find all over again. For more from Hither

(02:12):
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