Irene Gardiner: SPADA President on the calls for the Government to help fund Kiwi reality shows

There's growing calls among industry experts for the Government to give NZ-produced reality shows a funding boost.

Local versions of shows like Married at First Sight and The Block currently don't get the 40 percent screen production rebate available to other programs - and Kiwi TV broadcasters are hoping to turn that around.

SPADA President Irene Gardiner says these shows were originally funded by advertising revenue - which has dried up in recent years.

"What's happened in our local industry is because of years and years of the big tech-ers operating here without regulation - advertising revenue has massively reduced and the spend that the big networks have for local content has basically gone down."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Head a duplicyl coming up nineteen past five. Now, the
government's being told it needs to help pay for reality
TV shows that are made locally. So at the moment,
local versions of shows like Maths and whatnot, they don't
get the full forty percent screen production rebate that is
available in New Zealand, and all of our major TV
broadcasters want them obviously to be able to get that.
Irene Gardner is president of Sparta, is with us. Now, Hey, Irene,

(00:23):
hi there. If they're not getting the forty percent, what
are they getting.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Historically, those big format shows were made with commercial money.
They were made with network money, which came from advertising revenue. Unfortunately,
what's happened in our local industry is because of years
and years of the big techers operating here without regulation,

(00:49):
advertising revenue is massively reduced and the spend that the
big networks are TVNZ and three for local content has
basically gone down by about fifty million a year, which
you know, which is like about half. So it's massive
and in a weird kind of a way, we've got

(01:11):
a weird situation that's developed in New Zealand where the
less commercial kinds of shows which have historically been funded
by our funding agencies. Ends it on air, et cetera,
are in a stronger position now. They're our more commercial,
more popular, more loved shows, including some of those big

(01:32):
format style. They're probably more the format entertainment end than
the really low end reality, because that's, you know, the
really low end of reality, the sort of you know,
real house wives of whatever. That's not what New Zealanders
tend to like. It's the more sophisticated ones like the Traitors,
the block Master Chef, and those shows are now super

(01:54):
super vulnerable. So what we have been advocating for is
a few enhancement to the screen production rebate that we
stick part of it so that those shows which have
historically not been eligible if they're based on an international format,
might be eligible to get that rebate back, which would

(02:17):
mean the networks would still have to put money in
and the producers would still have to find international or
other money to support that. So this is quite hard
to get together. So it's not like this is going
to suddenly be like a rush of millions of shows.
This is going to be the big ones that the
big production companies can get international money and get these

(02:37):
shows to happen, but the rebate will just be the
thing that will get them over the line so that
we get to keep some of those you know, popular
show shows.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Master Chef won't offend anybody. But are we talking about
shows like f Boy Island.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I would be very surprised if that's the sort of
thing that a New Zealand production company would do in
the current climate, because it just wouldn't really be pogular enough.
There is a sort of a weird I don't know
what the double standards is the right expression. I mean,
maybe a loophole where weirdly, the international rebate, which, which

(03:13):
to be fair, is an entirely business incentive, whereas the
domestic one has a little bit of a cultural attachment
to it, but the international one. Weirdly, if an international
production company decided to do one of those low end
reality shows here, they would get their twenty percent rebate. Yeah,
but if a New Zealand company tried to do it,

(03:35):
we wouldn't. So there's a sort of a weird little
twist there.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
It's a very complicated, isn't it. Iron It is a
little bit complicated. Yeah, we better go, thank you, and
I appreciate it, but we need, we need to move on.
We'll definitely check us onto the hard latter on this
Irene Gardener Sparta President. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
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