New Zealand TV

RNZ-TVNZ merger has been scrapped, as announced by PM Chris Hipkins this afternoon. RNZ and NZ on Air to receive more funding.

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Called it.

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Guess you lot will be happy. You can turn on TVNZ1 and you dont have to see any of those pesky historical documentaries, and end up learning something. Hooray for MasterChef!

As for RNZ, it will just end up airing the same shows over and over, and not start up any newer services.

But I guess we can all just go on YouTube, can we not?

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Would have been OK if there was some sort of compromise, but he had to go and chop it altogether. And we are still going to have the same repetitive garbage on our screens.

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I’m not convinced you’ve actually watched another public broadcaster before. The only public broadcaster I know filled to the brim with documentaries and (allegedly) factual content is in North Korea.

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I doubt that public broadcasters in the rest of the world have all to wall MasterChef.

…or infomercials after midnight.

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hooray, a win for common-sense!

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More like a win for the makers of reality crud, informercials and the overseas owners of TV3 and MediaWorks.

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I feel you’re quite pessimistic about NZ media in general.

On Saturday night alone, TV1’s schedule has a game show (the very good Tipping Point Lucky Stars), three dramas (Call The Midwife, The Capture, The Split) and a comedy variety series (One Night In…).

Sure they’re all British imports, and yes I do agree we need more documentaries but my god man, pick up a TV Guide and see that it’s not just endless reality and infomercials that you think occupy our free-to-air channels.

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I guess SBS Australia is just a figment of my imagination then

It was way better between 1975 and 1989, before the whole profit thing was brought in.

The government could have at least got TVNZ to bring back TVNZ6 and 7. I would be happy with that.

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And that has a very very different remit to what any NZ pub caster would ever have.

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Good decision!

Have to wonder how long before Warner Bros Discovery start making big cuts to Three … I would have thought the TVNZ - RNZ merger is what they’ve been holding out for in the hope they get a bigger slice of the pie …

You think it is good that we are going to continue to get more reality dreck on our TV screens. Quite frankly, I think we can do better.

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You don’t have to watch reality TV, you know that?

And the nature of SBS is a world apart from solely documentaries - there’s the world news remit, Cats Does Countdown, a food channel… and a joint venture with VICE for goodness sakes.

Also, still funded by advertising.

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I would prefer it not to be on TVNZ which is a publicly owned broadcaster. TVNZ really needs to start showing better quality TV. I really have no idea why you do not seem to get that.

Because ‘better quality’ is entirely subjective. That’s why I don’t ‘get’ it.
You’re making the classic mistake of thinking that your tastes are better because they’re high-brow.

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C’mon Labour have failed to deliver on pretty much everything, what makes you think this half arsed tvnz- rnz merger would have been a success

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