This. I don’t understand why they don’t sell the company, surely there isn’t enough value in keeping it if you’re just going to shut most of it down.
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Agree. It wouldn’t take much for Seven or Nine to reinstate a local news service in the country. Even if it’s only for an hour with updates throughout the day.
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I suspect this is heading that way but they know a newsroom isn’t going to be attractive to buyers if it’s not attractive to the current owners.
I think your affiliate idea of a a7/9 taking it on has merit.
Who does Newshub currently have contracts with for overseas news?
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CNN for US news (unsurprisingly!) and ITN in the UK. Plus others, probably, that I don’t know about.
It’s hard to watch presenters like Lloyd Burr (who recently joined back Newshub last year after Today FM shut down) and Melissa Chan-Green in tears that their news brand was gonna shut down. Not only Newshub shutting down (alongside the news bulletin/social platforms) but also their breakfast show too.
It’s been a extreme tough 24 hours or so for the many people who worked, past and present as it begun with 3 National News in 1989, 3 News in 1998 and as we know it now, Newshub in 2016.
The way we watch news has completely changed our habits. Many people are spending time online, advertising slumps or maybe the post-COVID recovery could affect.
This proposed closure reminds me of how Today FM’s shutdown played out on live radio; Tova O’Brien (former Newshub political reporter until 2021) was emotional, barging at Mediaworks was proposing to close down the station due to ratings never increased and budget costs.
If this proposal happens, the entire media landscape and its democracy of New Zealand will change in NZ media history. Especially, this could be the beginning of an end for its TV channel Three. There will be no competition, leaving only TVNZ the only sole state-owned broadcaster broadcasting New Zealand news with their flagship shows (6pm, Breakfast, Midday/Late bulletins, Q&A, Sunday and Fair Go).
So I deeply feel for the staff of Newshub across the country and overseas, especially for the WBD-NZ team who works at the same building which was built in 1989 to launch its TV channel and news brand and it’s still standing as of today, could be no more.
Much arohanui. 
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Well that’s not going to bring the advertisers back.
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It’s never a good idea to have a countries news be controlled by a broadcaster in a neighbouring, much larger, country.
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They’re also 7’s affiliate in NZ.
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The alternative seems to be working well.
Seven or Nine would be able to make this work. Both networks are a big advocate for local news and can turn a profit by doing this.
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If Seven or Nine bought a foreign channel they would do so to make a profit from it. If there is no legal requirement for news and no profit in providing it there is no reason for them to do so. They wouldn’t be in it to save New Zealand broadcasting.
The only thing that might be of value to them is to keep brands like MAFS NZ and The Block NZ going with the possibility they can air them back home.
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This is a very naive opinion, Australia and NZ need each other in this new global media world, they’re stronger together than alone. Long term it makes sense to join up media businesses to ensure the viability of both, and to grow them within the Pacific more generally as the leading English language media providers.
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You would hope 7 and 9 would be looking at it. Especially makes sense for 9 to expand Stan and sport coverage.
Especially since TV3 were producing shows like The Block NZ and MAFS NZ too
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Not only this, but Seven and Nine have been able to adapt their ad business as the internet has challenged their positions. Look at their offerings now - a lot of their upfronts to advertisers is not about television alone; it’s about the data they can harvest from audiences on 7plus and 9now, digital advertising, native advertising, cross-platform advertising, multi-channel campaigns, print, paid digital and radio integration etc.
These is an economy-of-scale to Nine that comes from owning a 5-city network, doing WIN’s advertising, owning two physical print papers and a half-dozen paywalled sites, the free Nine websites, Pedestrian, Stan, Stan Sport, commercial radio and so forth. Seven is getting there but still lacks SVOD and an equivalent to the SMH/The Age. Both networks invest heavily in news because it is a staple of that offering to advertisers. I strongly suspect news might even be a loss-leader for both but the boost it provides to primetime and exposure to the wider content offering of both conglomerates is worth it.
But all of that is miles away above whatever “+hr==” has to offer, because the NZ media market doesn’t appear to be big enough to fund that massive adaption to the changing times.
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I doubt 9 would be interested. They dropped Stuff like a hot potato. Yes, that’s a newsprint business, but it also had the most popular NZ website (by daily site visits). 7, maybe, but aren’t they dealing with a bunch of debt? Would that really put them in a better position overall?
When Disco took over the TV arm of MediaWorks, they crowed about local content, they knew they needed it to retain eyeballs. Now under WB, why has this opinoin changed? Surely the 6pm news is the biggest shop window they’ve got for +HR=E NOW, without it, you’ve effectively painted over it, giving no one any reason to go inside your shop. What’s in there, what’s on there, I dunno, who cares… it becomes just another TV channel full of American reruns.
They need news of some sort and they need to pivot to where the eyeballs are at. I don’t think Three Now is going to deliver that, with or without news.
When does the current lease end on Flower Street? If they’re only going to do sales, how long before they relocate?
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Zaslav might be the person to blame for this
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When Bond and Skase trashed the Aussie TV industry in 1989, quite a few Aussies left the uncertainty behind and went to TV3 to continue their careers. One would imagine most of those people are now gone but it was a rare example of the NZ brain drain going the other way.
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Agree, New Zealand’ smaller population and smaller economy means it will never adopt falling advertising dollars, digital media and radio advertising and print on a profitable scale which will make it far easier to close it all down such as Newshub which a population a size of Melbourne can leave a News and Current Affairs state owned.
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