Hard News by Russell Brown

This just in!

Rick Ellis has resigned as CEO of TVNZ:

Mr Ellis will be leading a new Telstra division called Telstra Digital Media, as group managing director – Digital Media, with responsibility for Telstra’s Sensis, Bigpond, Trading Post and IPTV businesses, and Telstra’s partnership with Foxtel.

I just dropped Telstra after many many years; along with Voda probably the worst company I have ever had to deal with, except Telecom...Sky can be pretty gnarly too. Hmmmm all these companies have some things in common.

I watched the show this morning on TVNZ7 and love the idea of Maori TV becoming the state television station of choice. They've shown they can do inclusive, intelligent television that represents a wider New Zealand perspective.

And soooooo not surprised that Rick Ellis jumped back into IT (with a media twist), but it will be interesting to see what does happen to TVNZ after the election.

My thought has always been that if TVNZ wants a 7-type channel on the cheap, using it to show all they stuff they own the rights to as part of package deals, but won't (or no longer) will air elsewhere seems a place to start.

Close TVNZ7, and TVNZ will still have the rights to air ABC World News or SBS' Dateline, for example, it just won't. I can't imagine it would be greatly expensive just running these and the repeats of Sunday, and old Country Calendars and the like, and if it gets funding for a Back Benches or a Court Report or Media 7 it can then air those as well.

If the National Party has an outright majority after the election and doesn’t need support from the Maori Party, I am skeptical that Maori TV will not go the same way a TVNZ 7: funding cut.

Why would they keep it around when their are crony pockets at Sky and Mediaworks to fill?

“Tough times, you know….” and “The market, the market…”

The Nats can just use the growing debt their tax cuts have helped to create to justify anything…and their voters lap it all up more or less uncritically (or they wouldn’t be at 50% in the polls in the first place).

Bloody hell. Who will replace Rick Ellis? A job for one of the boys, if National get back in?

I had better go have my 'talk' about my pitch with TV ONE whilst there is still someone left there.

Spreading the news about the Media 7 SPADA Special around media teachers.

Bloody hell. Who will replace Rick Ellis?

Guyon Espiner? :)

One News really stuck the knife into Rick Ellis in tonight's item about his leaving.

If the National Party has an outright majority after the election and doesn’t need support from the Maori Party, I am skeptical that Maori TV will not go the same way a TVNZ 7: funding cut.

Yup. Though, that said, I could see MTV surviving by hitting up the various iwi corporations for support. It runs on the smell of an oily rag, and there's some hefty money floating around in the various iwi. Not entirely sure what its annual budget is, but $10m/year from each of the three biggest iwi would surely be enough and their annual revenues are all sufficient to not be impacted by such payments.