You have to feel for Mike Morrah. Being told you and your colleagues are losing your jobs is bad enough… but having to make a news report about it is something else.
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Surely, the government needs to step in here?
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Labour would have done something…Luxon and Lee couldn’t even show the slightest bit of empathy today and immediately went on the defence.
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This is really sad news, both for the huge numbers losing jobs, but also for the health of NZ’s media landscape, and indeed democracy. The idea that you could have a news media so dominated by so few players, and now only one national television news service, is pretty unprecedented in a country like NZ.
I would have to think there would have been opportunities to at least save something, a cut down news service that does less on a lot lower budget, but still keeps an alternative on air. TVNZ2 already offers what a newsless Three will become, and hopefully viewers treat WBD with the respect they give NZ and refuse to watch their programming.
I haven’t looked at the thread to see if something has happened, but maybe if Sky could employ a skeleton staff they might be able to keep News First going, and indeed maybe drag the whole platform up by being the only alternate choice.
This really sucks.
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Do they still use the lightning rig that NZ on Air funded for Melody Rules?
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Watching the news reports tonight they wouldn’t have had a great chance of getting any government help. The broadcasting minister didn’t seem too interested in the situation and for her life goes on.
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I doubt any government would. This is beyond a bailout required.
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I think the best option for Sky is to partner up with another newsroom (say, Stuff or NZME). I suggested this in the News First thread:
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I agree that Labour wouldn’t have directly intervened… though they might have engineered it so as to at least reduce the impact (say, making TV1 ad free or reviving the merger).
This new government being what they are, I have to wonder if they’re still thinking about selling off TVNZ at some point?
David Seymour immediately tried to raise it this evening I note. Probably academic because NZF won’t allow it.
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Basically the equivalent of if one of the commercial networks in USA shut down all news
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Someone on Reddit had an interesting take on the TV3 situation:
It does feel like a lot of the opinions in this thread are ill informed wannabe hot takes.
If you think NewsHub didn’t contribute to a healthy media landscape in this country, you are wrong. If you think they’re overly right wing, you’re wrong; ditto for left wing. And if think this is a harbinger for the rest of the NZ news industry, you’re wrong too.
NewsHub has been the staple of a network that launched in 1989 and has been in financial trouble since (checks notes) 1989; this decision was made by a parent company that has made a habit of shelving completed movies for tax breaks, and which has a rather large base of operations across the Tasman. They don’t care about the New Zealand media landscape.
This is the beginning of the end for Three. News and Current Affairs are the cornerstone of their workforce; without that programming, advertising will dry up further, sponsorships will disappear, their ability to cross promote evaporates. Local production companies will approach with caution, little to less original programming. Further layoffs will ensue as they realise just how much work they can actually do in Australia, and move jobs offshore.
I don’t believe this is a sign that another major company will collapse, certainly not something. The size of Stuff. The company who should be worried is Sky TV: not only have they lost their “First at 5.30” news (produced at NewsHub in a shared revenue agreement) but Warner Bros Discovery’s own press release admitted this is part of a plan to front foot ThreeNow. Why should Sky TV be worried? Neon is Sky’s digital lifeboat, and it is built on content from Warner Bros (primarily HBO and HBO Max content, as well as a huge amount of library) that they will likely bring back under their own roof in the next 12-18 months.
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Mostly fair analysis, although I can see WBD pulling out of the market entirely or selling those assets to Sky or someone else -knowing including a loss making newsroom sss not going to be attractive to buyers - not sure the lure of pulling the HBO Max lever is as strong now for them here but could be wrong
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Poor old Melissa Chan-Green breaking down straight away at the start of AM this morning.
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I can’t help but think they’ve squandered the past three years.
Instead of starting new bulletins at different times of the day, and filing stories on a stuffy, dull website, they’ve have been better off creating short, snackable news updates they can put on all social platforms (top and tail with an inobstrusive ad, and away you go). They could have used them in a show like RNZ’s The Panel, have people discussing the day’s news events (a bit like they did on The Project).
I really do hope a White Knight appears, before the eleventh hour please, that can keep the newsroom going in some form. I like what they do, I watch what they do (does that make me a Newshubber?) But the media landscape is changing, and this should be a warning-call to all bulletin-based newsrooms, evolve or fail.
Funnily enough I was thinking the same thing. I’m starting to wonder if, ultimately, 6pm will stay but everything else gets canned? Thinking very, very cynically, WBD could spin it as ‘hey, we listened to our staff and saved Newshub after all!’ whilst still cutting jobs and resources.
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Fucking brutal. I can’t imagine a country that would allow the only non-government-funded broadcaster to shut its newsroom down. Shockingly bad management and bad governmental oversight.
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Seven West Media or Nine Entertainment would have been a better owner for Three. hopefully one of these takes over from WB.
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