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.

Seven broadcasting organisations receive all or part of their funding from the Crown.

• NZ On Air (which funds Radio New Zealand)
• TVNZ
• Freeview
• National Pacific Radio Trust
• Radio New Zealand International
• Broadcasting Standards Authority
• Māori Television

 

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 and online content. It also bulk funds Radio New Zealand and access radio stations. In 2010/11 NZ On Air will receive $126,926,000 (GST excl) in direct government funding. All its decisions are made public. You can search them here.

In 2010/11 NZ On Air funding is planned to be allocated as follows. Click on the category for more detail.

Television	$81,461,000	62.7%
Radio	$32,842,000	25.3%
Community broadcasting	$4,452,000	3.4%
NZ Music	$5,420,000	4.2%
Digital / Archiving	2,630,000	2%

 

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 2009/10 over $67 million of contestable television funding was allocated to support 830 hours of programmes in six genres, and for disability services (including captioning) and project development. Check the latest funding decisions here.

An additional $13.3 million was allocated through the Platinum Fund. This is a contestable fund for programmes which are to be broadcast on the six main free-to-air channels, and 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 2009/10, by dollar value:

• TVNZ (TV One and TV2) supported 55% of funded programmes
• TV3 supported 37% of funded programmes
• Māori TV supported 4% of funded programmes
• The balance was shared amongst C4, Prime and regional channels.

Targets for 2010/11:

Television funding	Forecast Hours	Forecast $
Drama/Comedy	95	27,375,000
Documentary	94.5	10,006,000
Children and Young People	418.5	13,529,000
Arts, Culture and Performance	30.5	2,830,000
Minorities, including Ethnic	124.5	7,310,000
Disability Services	21	1,685,000
Includes funding for captioning		2,400,000
Development		215,000
Innovation		1,000,000
Total General Contestable Fund	784	66,350,000
Platinum Fund (A dedicated fund for high quality public service broadcasting programmes. The first allocations from the Fund are being made in 2009-10)	101	15,111,000
Total Television Funding	885	81,461,000

 

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 2010/11 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	50	250,000
Children and youth	150	450,000
Spiritual	80	126,000
Ethnic	40	100,000
Māori issues (English language)	40	100,00

 

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.

Check out the latest allocations here.

Access, Pacific Island and special interest radio

These services are bulk funded. Each station is also expected to contribute towards its operating costs. In 2010/11, 13 stations from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island will receive nearly $2.5 million of funding support.

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	ProvincialCity	Napier/Hastings, New Plymouth, Palmerston North,  Nelson, Dunedin, Invercargill
Tier 4	Small regional	Kapiti, Wairarapa

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 2009/10 NZ On Air funding supported:

• 31 albums at up to $50,000 per album
• 22 singles - all funded at $10,000 each (including a music video grant)
• 170 music videos - all funded at $5,000 each
• 5 music television programmes - average of $96,000 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. By the end of the 2009/10 year the figure was 19.66%.

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 2009/10 the following programmes were funded:

Programme	Funding $
As Kiwi Ason Classic Hits	40,200
Backyard Beatz on Mai FM	40,000
Down The Back Of The Couch on Kiwi FM	45,000
Get Up on Kiwi FM	45,000
High Noon Tea on Kiwi FM	33,000
Homegrown on Radio Rhema	34,180
Independent, Alternative, New on Kiwi FM	45,000
Kiwi House on Kiwi FM	45,000
Off The Record on The Rock	50,000
Sidestreets on Kiwi FM	37,000
The Slab on The Edge	36,000
The Source on Flava	50,000
Voice From The Wilderness on Kiwi FM	50,000
Wired on More FM	50,000

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 2009/10 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 New Zealand content creators. On average over 1500 people per day visit the site. The site gives visitors access to over around 2,000 television and film titles, music videos and people profiles - more are uploaded weekly. The site now offers embedding and around 500 titles are available for that purpose. Funding of $997,380 was allocated in the 2010/11 year.

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

Over 2009/10, NZ On Air contracted with two registered archives to collect (archive), preserve and make publicly available NZ broadcast content likely to be of historical interest to New Zealanders. $1,485,000 was allocated for this work. During the year:

• The NZ Film Archive preserved 199, archived 1,681 and digitised 1,561 television programmes
• Sound Archives / Ngā Taonga Kōrero preserved 2,138 hours and archived 1,211 hours of radio

From 1 July 2010, the funding which had previously been allocated to the Film Archive by NZ On Air was transferred to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage as a direct funder.

For information on the accessing this content, follow the links to the archives.

 

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.

During the 12 month period to the end of June 2009 eight million programmes or programme segments were replayed via its website.  The volume of online listening - which includes audio-on-demand and podcasting - was almost double the level recorded in the June 2008 ending year.

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 weekly cumulative audience figures (excluding downloads and podcasts), updated as at November 2010, are:

• 536,000 people for Radio New Zealand (National and Concert combined)
• 473,000 or about 14% of the 15+ population for Radio New Zealand National
• 134,000 or 4% of the 15+ population for Radio New Zealand Concert.

RNZ Programmes

Weekly cumulative audience figures for particular programmes on Radio New Zealand National are shown below, and relate to 'live' broadcast listening of people aged 15 years and over. Station shares for these programmes in their time periods are also shown. For example, Morning Report, which is broadcast on Monday to Friday between 6am and 9am, has a station share of 13.1% for this time period.

• Morning Report has 342,000 listeners and a 13.1% station share
• Nine to Noon  228,000 (7.3%)
• Afternoons with Jim Mora  222,000 (5.8%)
• Checkpoint  211,000 (9.4%)
• Saturday Morning with Kim Hill 208,000 (13.7%)
• Sunday Morning with Chris Laidlaw  196,000 (12.8%).

Source: The All New Zealand Radio Survey, for February to November 2010, among people aged 15+, Nielsen Media research

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 2009-10:

• RNZI's signal was received by 16 Pacific nations for 18 hours per day
• 17 Pacific radio stations re-broadcast RNZI material each day.

Television New Zealand (TVNZ)

TVNZ transmits three free-to-air national television channels, TV ONE, TV2, and TVNZ 7, the online channel TVNZ Ondemand and tvnz.co.nz. TVNZ 7 is an advertising free digital only channel that appears on the Freeview and Sky platforms. TVNZ also broadcasts one channel – TVNZ Heartland – on the SKY platform. TVNZ 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 the 12 months to June 2010, TVNZ had a 63% share of viewers watching free-to-air channels in prime time (6PM - 10.30PM) and 51% of the total television market in prime time.

In 2009/10 all twenty top-rating shows for all people 5+ were on TVNZ, 17 on TV ONE and three on TV2. Of these, 16 were shows. 96.7% of all people 5+ tuned to a TVNZ channel in an average month in 2009/10.

TVNZ is able to apply for funding from NZ On Air for programmes to be broadcast on TV ONE and TV2. In 2009/10 TVNZ, by dollar value:

• supported 55% of all NZ On Air contestably funded programmes
• produced 12% of all NZ On Air contestably funded programmes in-house.

Digital service funding

TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7, launched in 2007 and 2008, were publicly funded channels to encourage Freeview uptake and move New Zealanders to digital television. Last year the Government agreed to the TVNZ 6 frequency being commercialised and funded from advertising, and to TVNZ 7 continuing to be publicly -funded until the end of June 2012.

TVNZ 7 has continued as an advertising- free public service channel showing news, current affairs, documentary and arts programming. TVNZ 7 now also incorporates some of the best programming from the former TVNZ 6.

TVNZ 7 is available on Freeview/TiVo channel 7 and SKY/Telstra channel 77. TVNZ will launch a new commercial youth focused channel, named “U”, on the former TVNZ 6 frequency on 13 March.

TVNZ 7 fosters learning, informs discussion and encourages debate for all New Zealanders.  The channel screens pre-school content, factual programmes, news and current affairs shows, documentary series, arts programmes and one-off specials. At least 55% of the schedule is local content, of which 24% is original.

A viewers survey (January - May 2010) showed in any one week on average 9.9% of all people 15+ tuned into TVNZ 7.

Non-commercial transmission sites

The Crown provides $1,150,000 per annum to TVNZ to assist in maintaining 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 2009/10 it maintained 148 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 20 broadcasters in the Pacific. In 2009/10 it provided:

• 877 hours of programming, including the daily transmission of TV ONE news and other programmes interest to Pacific audiences.

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 43% of its total revenue in 2009-10. 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 2009-10 it:

• received 210 formal complaints and issued 193 decisions, upholding 45 complaints and issuing 19 orders
• published research on public attitudes to the acceptability of swear words in broadcasting and started research on a study of reality television
• issued practice notes on interpretation of the Controversial Issues and Privacy standards in television and  carried out a public survey of awareness of the Codes of Broadcasting.

Freeview

Freeview is New Zealand’s free-to-air digital platform for television and radio transmission. Freeview was granted Crown funding of $25,000,000 for the five years from 2007 to 2012 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.  When the announcement was made that New Zealand will complete the switch to digital television by 2013, a further $7,900,000 funding was granted to Freeview to continue transmission subsidies until digital switchover is complete. 

• As at 30 June 2010, 420,000 or 26% of households were able to receive Freeview, 202,000 via Freeview satellite and 218,000 via Freeview |HD, terrestrial (high definition), transmission
• Freeview|HD offers 13-14 TV(depending where you live) and 3 radio channels  and Freeview satellite  offers 15 TV and 4 radio channels.

Māori Television

Māori Television is a broadcaster which has the promotion of the Māori language as its core objective and key responsibility. Māori Television operates two channels: Māori Television which broadcasts programmes in both the Māori and English languages for all New Zealanders; and Te Reo which aims to provide 100 per cent Māori language programming for fluent speakers and advanced learners of te reo Māori. A bilingual media website, www.maoritelevision.com, also has a total of 2,779 hours of on-demand viewing.

To recognise Māori Television’s distinct and unique role, the Crown provides Māori Television with approximately $33.3 million per annum in direct funding for operations and programming. This funding is provided through Te Puni Kōkiri ($16.6 million) and through the Māori broadcasting funding agency, Te Māngai Pāho, NZ On Air and others ($16.7 million). A further $20 million is estimated as the amount of contestable funding that independent production companies could obtain from Te Māngai Pāho or NZ On Air for the purpose of producing programmes for broadcast on Māori Television.

The Māori Television channel measures its audience by the Nielsen Media Research Peoplemeter Panel and regular audience surveys, with 1.7 million New Zealanders tuning in every month. Of those viewers, 23 per cent are Māori while 77 per cent are non-Māori. In an average month in 2009-10, 61 per cent of Māori 5+ and 44 per cent of all New Zealanders 5+ tuned in to Māori Television. More than 4,500 hours of programming is broadcast per year of which almost 88 per cent is locally produced.

Overall, Māori Television also achieves the following results:

• 61 per cent reo Māori across the Māori Television schedule and 53 percent during prime time.
• Approximately 100 per cent reo Māori across the Te Reo schedule.
• 72 per cent reo Māori combined on Māori Television and Te Reo during prime time.
• 60 per cent of Māori and 23 per cent of all New Zealanders believe that their understanding of Māori has improved through watching Māori Television.
• 76 per cent of Māori and 49 per cent of New Zealanders believe that Māori Television makes a valuable contribution to New Zealand’s sense of nationhood.

Māori Television broadcasts to 100 per cent of New Zealand via Freeview satellite and Sky satellite; 90 per cent of the population via analogue terrestrial; and 75 per cent of the population via Freeview digital terrestrial. The Te Reo channel broadcasts to 100 per cent of New Zealand via Freeview satellite and Sky satellite.