News

It's been a busy couple of months and it's worth reflecting on industry successes this year, many of which we highlighted in the recent Annual Report. There's been a number of excellent new shows succeeding in prime time; some terrific new music; and some really valued special interest and community broadcasting services. Thanks to all of you for your passion and commitment to great content, and for the creative risks you take.

Telly musings

It was good to see many of you at the SPADA conference last month. Julie Christie did an excellent job in delivering the John O'Shea memorial address with useful, provocative ideas (but in her plea for no-strings-attached government grants for popular programmes, she strangely managed to overlook :) the highly beneficial terms of trade that NZ On Air agreed with producers only 18 months ago to help grow businesses).

Julie raised the interesting comparison with Trade and Enterprise, whose support is in the form of a grant. T&E mostly offers a 50/50 arrangement where T&E offers 50% and the applicant provides 50% of their own money.

Compare this to the NZ On Air TV deal where producers are rarely required to put up their own money. NZ On Air funding of less than $200,000 is treated as a grant. Projects over $200,000 must return 25% of net income to us. It's probably the most generous screen funding arrangement in the world, to acknowledge the special challenges facing NZ producers in building offshore business.

Julie also made some good points about production companies needing to increase international focus, being tougher in business, and making more commercial programmes. One point that still has me thinking is this, and I quote: "(Entertainment) shows are gone because the broadcasters simply can't afford to fund them. An evil word called 'yield' - the difference between what a programme costs and what it earns in ad. revenue - has invaded their and our working lives". Julie is right: the yield question is worth reflecting on.

Local content is always going to be less profitable than cheaply-acquired foreign content. If broadcasters only concentrate on the yield for each programme, then local content is threatened. This is despite a local programme's ability to attract significant audiences and its overall strategic value to the schedule.  Local programmes will generally be 'loss leaders' in our small market and NZ On Air's job is to subsidise some of that loss for the genres we are mandated to support.

We're (quite) flexible

To secure NZ On Air funding the immutable first requirement is straight from the Broadcasting Act - the idea must 'reflect and develop NZ identity and culture'.

The higher the level of funding sought, the more we will look at our core statutory priorities - drama, documentary, children's and special interest - to see if the proposal helps us meet those objectives. If the project doesn't clearly fit into those categories (such as some types of entertainment shows Julie spoke about), funding might still be possible if a good idea clearly can't be made without help. But the more commercial the project, the more we'd expect our contribution to be proportionately low.

Provided the NZ identity is obvious, the amount sought modest, and we've enough in the kitty! But if the Board sees that a good-sized audience is going to love a great, well-made idea, and the case for a subsidy is clearly made, then we'll be as flexible as we can.

So there's lots of things to think about in the months ahead.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas from NZ On Air's Board and staff. We hope that you get a decent rest - and have some fun - over the break.

Cheers,
Jane

NZ On Air closes on Thursday 24 December and re-opens on Monday 11 January 2010. If you can help us with the requirements below, we will be able to meet your payment needs.

Our last direct credit payments for 2009 will be Tuesday 22 December (correct and complete reports and invoices must be with us by 1pm on Friday 18 December).

Our first direct credit payments for 2010 will be on Thursday 14 January (correct and complete reports and invoices must be with us by 1pm on Tuesday 12 January).

If your production or activity is likely to need a drawdown payment prior to 14 January, please contact us by Tuesday 22 December to discuss how we can accommodate your requirements.

Wellington Anniversary Day is on Monday 25 January. We will process our direct credit payments that week as usual on Tuesday 26 January. Correct and complete reports and invoices must be with us by 1pm on Thursday 21 January, a day earlier than usual.

The normal payment processing procedures will resume from the following Tuesday.

Reminders to Producers

NZ On Air logo
NZ On Air's logo must be on all copies of funded programmes supplied to broadcasters. This particularly applies to TVNZ deliveries where an accelerated flow credits version is supplied in addition to the international version. BOTH versions must include NZ On Air's logo.

Invoices
All submitted invoices must contain the programme title, correct invoice number (it cannot be a duplicate number of an invoice previously paid) and the words "Tax Invoice", together with wording that clearly identifies which drawdown is being invoiced.  We cannot process invoices which do not conform to these requirements and your payment is likely to be delayed if it is incorrect.

The latest forms and guidelines
The most up-to-date versions of all our forms and guidelines are now available on the TV Apply for Funding page.  Please ensure that you use the website versions and not a version you have previously saved.  There are different contract initiation forms for development and production.  There are also different initiation forms depending on whether you're an independent producer or a producer/broadcaster.

Part 1: Board

In November the Minister of Broadcasting announced that Chair Neil Walter and member Nicole Hoey had both been reappointed to NZ On Air's Board, each for a second, three-year term.

Member Paul Smith has now retired from the Board after two terms. NZ On Air is grateful to Paul for the deep knowledge, experience and special insight he has brought to our work. The Minister will announce Paul's replacement shortly.

Part 2: Staff

We're delighted to announce that Legal Affairs Exec. Naomi Wallwork has been promoted to Assistant Television Manager, taking more responsibility for planning and funding assessment. You may also have seen our advert for a new TV support role.

These moves are part of a small rebalancing to help the very busy TV team. We had over 90 applications for the new position and are very pleased to welcome Benedict Reid who will start in late January. Benedict is a freelance writer, a news archivist for Maori Television and holds BSc and MA (Scriptwriting) degrees. He'll be looking after contracting, monitoring and reporting on funded projects.

Anna Cottrell has resigned from staff and will undertake various ad hoc projects on contract as they arise. Right now, for her sins, she's slaving over the Local Content Report 2009.

We released a funding review of the NZ Film Archive in November.

New Zealanders Professor Roger Horrocks and Stephanie Hopkins, and the Chief Curator of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Meg Labrum, analysed and assessed the environment around and issues facing the NZ Film Archive. The screen industry was also invited to comment.

The review recommends a number of changes to the arrangements governing the NZFA, its preservation priorities, and its funding arrangements.

Read the review here PDF (258 KB)