Seven Sharp - TV 1

[James Deuce]

KB ... or 7 sharp ... ???

Yes.

That is all.

[FJRider]

Yes.

That is all.

That's what I thought ...

[Brian d marge]

Sharp 7 , the beckhams having a new baby ,or is it a book worth reading ?


Stephen

[MD]

Yeah, but ali is still nice to look at.:

Did I hear right Ali Mau is 47 ! Not bad. Not bad at all. Her doing the girl on girl thing has only made her more shaggable to us blokes. She needs to get her tits out to raise the ratings.

[Berries]

Mark Sainsbury tried that and look what happened.

[James Deuce]

At the age of 47, they won't look much different to Mark Sainsbury's.

[Winston001]

Pretty appalling so far.

TV1 is probably struggling to decide whether a quasi-serious tabloid news show should follow the 6pm news (as with Holmes/Closeup), or an infotainment show instead.

I'll be watching Campbell: he's a bit of an energiser bunny but at least the guy is a journalist at heart.

[Usarka]

The Crowd Goes Wild has more news content than either show.

And that's saying something.

[Maha]

Jesse Mulligan is way out of his depth, the other two should be able to carry it though, early days. Mulligan may be the week link here I fear?
I gave it 10-15 minutes on Monday night then left the room.
Only ever watch one episode of SS, (episode 1) thought it wouldn't last...fuck knows how it has, but there ya go...ratings eh

[puddytat]

Utter fucking drivel.....like most TV1 shit nowadays. You got to remember its not about or will be about, anything deep...its about ad revenue.
And we let TVNZ 7 quietly slip away.
Campbell is head & shoulders above that fascile shit. Maori channel is better again....
It will be used to rev up the Racists ,Rednecks & those with a I.Q of about 80 for John Keys re-election..

[bogan]

Just fired it up ondemand, got to the bit about bear grylls and I thought to myself, if they make a pee joke I'm turning it off. Guess what I'm not watching anymore

[Swoop]

Up to the usual journalistic standards of TVNZ.

It is just one large, descending slide into oblivion. holmes, The Walrus, 7 Sharp...

[unstuck]

Up to the usual journalistic standards of TVNZ.

It is just one large, descending slide into oblivion. holmes, The Walrus, 7 Sharp...

Dont forget Henry, paul that is. What talent.

[mashman]

I watched the first one last night and after they skipped over the fact that the banks plucked money out of thin air, the rest was shite. Even better when Ali said that they could have had any number of economists on, but decided that it'd be better to heard from the public. A comedy trio without the laughs. Boyd is such a Kiwi.

[mashman]

Well it looks as though TVNZ7 were shafted given the commercially sensitive OIA's they had to fight for. Shame really, it was the best telly I had watched in a while.


Monday July the 1st is the anniversary of the closure of TVNZ 7. No doubt you survived this calamity and have ‘moved on’.

But after a year it’s worth looking at what’s happened since – and revealing some of the secrets TVNZ tried to hide at the time.

So what’s been happening?

· Media7 went to TV3 and continued its excellent analysis of NZ’s pitiful media (making that programme must be like shooting fish in a barrel). Sadly this week’s Media3 will be the last for a while as it waits for further funding from NZ on Air. There is much to be said for the days when Media7 funding wasn't prey to the funding priorities (aka whims) of NZ on Air.

· After a long hiatus, Back Benches moved to Prime TV at 10.30pm on Wednesday nights with funding from NZ on Air. It seems the new channel and late timeslot means the programme hasn’t reignited the level of interest it enjoyed as TVNZ 7’s most popular programme. Back Benches’ funding runs out in a couple of months and they will be in the same position as Media3 reapplying for funding.

· TVNZ continues to plum the depths. Sunday was shortened and 7 Sharp replaced Close Up. There was much promotion of their flagship current affairs bulletin, unlike anything ever seen for TVNZ 7, and the was deeply ironic and stunningly shallow at the same time. 7 Sharp has failed to impress with its mix of news and entertainment.

· Privately owned TV3, on the other hand, has added more informational shows to their impressive weekend morning schedule. Despite having more of a reliance on commercial imperatives, TV3 recognises the sizeable audience for intelligent and informative television. Rumours are flying around Auckland that TV3’s new Board and ownership structure could bring more reality TV and less comedy and current affairs.

· Triangle TV found itself without a place on Freeview after Kordia gifted the one and only Auckland frequency for non-commercial use to World TV, who broadcast to Chinese audiences with a mix of local programming and propaganda from China. Triangle had no option to broadcast after the digital switchover so it took up an offer to move to SKY and has rebranded as Face TV. The problem Face TV now ‘faces’ is funding its operations and especially its roster of low-budget current affairs and interview shows. SKY is covering Face TV's broadcast costs but won’t say how much they are, and NZ on Air will not fund programmes on SKY that are out of reach to half of NZ (which seems appropriate when spending tax dollars). Although we love Triangle/Stratos/FaceTV the move to SKY is another loss to public service broadcasting.

· On the positive side Maori TV goes from strength to strength with a broad mix of programmes – from well-made reality TV (I admit, I'm biased) to intelligent current affairs and even locally made documentaries.

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And what's all this about secrets?

There's been quite a bit of background info that has surfaced since TVNZ 7 was shutdown including the latest revelation based on our latest OIA request. As a result TVNZ has admitted giving incorrect figures to the Minister of Broadcasting regarding the popularity of TVNZ 7. This significant error was repeated for over a year before being rectified ten weeks after the channel closed.

The mistake was in a graph showing levels of audience awareness and appreciation of TVNZ 7 which were just starting to grow as the channel gained a critical mass of audience. TVNZ told the Minister that 30% of all New Zealanders considered TVNZ 7's public value to be ’very important’ or ‘extremely important’.

But their research showed that figure was much higher - 50%. So TVNZ had research that showed half of all Kiwis thought TVNZ 7 was either 'very important' or 'extremely important' but failed to pass this on.

It's worth noting that a further 18% thought TVNZ 7 was 'quite important'. That means in May 2011, just after the announcement of its demise, 68% of the country thought TVNZ 7 was important to NZ. Tragically the Minister for Broadcasting was given a much lower figure. One can't help but wonder how much stock was put in this figure by the Minister and Cabinet as they reconsidered their decision to close TVNZ 7, and as potential funders offered to help keep the channel going.

This error was repeated in subsequent quarterly reports to the Minister until 16 July 2012, the following year. Curiously this incorrect graph was continually redacted from previous OIA requests under the auspices of being commercially sensitive, despite it only being audience research and non-financial information. It was only after the Ombudsman upheld our complaint on this and required TVNZ to furnish the reports that the information became available.

So that's new information but it's not alone. Previously TVNZ delayed sending (by more than a year) other crucial information, its own research which portrayed TVNZ 7 in glowing terms. This was reported late last year in the DomPost and elsewhere. At the time TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said the research was carried out as part of its reporting back to the Government, "the Government was fully aware of the contents of each survey." Perhaps not, as this latest error has revealed.

Of course all this is in addition to Jonathan Coleman’s initial error misquoting the amount of viewers for TVNZ 7 as he released the news that it would be closed down. This error framed the argument for closing TVNZ 7 for many months and was continually quoted in error by journalists and pundits. It was all part of a strategy to minimise public response to losing TVNZ 7, as outlined in this gem of an OIA.

The whole decision to close TVNZ 7 and the subsequent defence of that decision was a long and sorry catalogue of errors, half-truths and hidden information. It has affected more than 1.4 million New Zealanders who were watching TVNZ 7 at least once a month (and probably more frequently) and countless others who will not get the chance.

Worse news is that any future non-commercial television may not get a chance to broadcast at all because the frequencies are being taken away from us. In the digital switchover which is happening around the country right now, there is no provision for any frequencies to be kept free for use by non-commercial operators (like Triangle or a replacement for TVNZ 7). So non-commercial channels will have to buy frequency rights from existing broadcasters such as TVNZ, TV3 and SKY - not likely to give special deals to potential competition.

The new Coalition for Better Broadcasting will seek to address this and other issues soon. The CBB is close to making an announcement so please stay tuned.

In the meantime you can read more about the disappearance of non-commercial TV frequencies here, the Ministry’s lack of interest here (on page 29) and make comments to the Minister for Communications and Information Technology here.

Kind regards, all the best and we'll be in touch soon

Myles Thomas
Save TVNZ 7