30 With Guyon Espiner: Netflix 'Doesn't Need Us' Or Our 'Silly' Levy

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Global streaming giant Netflix "doesn't need us" and a proposal to force them in to funding local shows is "silly," says TV production pioneer Dame Julie Christie.
Dame Julie, a founding force in reality TV and an internationally successful format producer, is the latest guest on RNZ's multimedia talk show 30 with Guyon Espiner.
She is critical of proposals suggested by industry groups and the government that would compel global streamers to invest more in local productions or face bans.
More focus needs go on funding ideas and formats that will garner international success, she says. People should not "stand around and whine, or do silly things like threatening Netflix - 'If you don't make more local productions, we'll turn you off in this country.' You can imagine the public reaction to that."
Christie, whose production company Touchdown helped define and export iconic shows like Treasure Island and Game of Two Halves, said New Zealand needs to be more realistic about its size and global influence.
"Netflix doesn't need us," she says, dismissing suggestions that a levy on streaming giants would fix the problem. "And who's going to decide what's made with that revenue? Netflix. I just don't think it will work."
Instead, the country should focus on producing globally appealing content in genres where New Zealand can compete - particularly in unscripted formats and documentaries.
"True crime is the biggest genre in the world … and we're not making it, because you usually can't get it publicly funded," she says. "As a result, we're not making what the world wants."
NZ On Air has become too narrowly focused on funding projects that meet too specific cultural criteria, often at the expense of international interest.
"The number one thing you have to have to get funded by New Zealand on Air is to reflect our cultural identity. Now, what is our cultural identity now?"
Highlighting her experience producing a docu-series about Auckland's Football Club, Forever FC, Christie says: "If you go to Auckland FC, it's very different [to NZ On Air criteria]. It's 20 immigrant families within one team. I think that we have to really open up about what we think our culture is."
New Zealand's small population, while a challenge, could be turned into a strength if the industry embraced creating distinctively local stories and tailoring them for international sale. "We're belly-gazing, basically," she says. "We don't think, 'If I adjust this show by 20%, I might be able to sell it to Australia or a smaller American channel.'"
NZ On Air needs to adapt to the new global content environment and stop treating cultural identity and commercial potential as mutually exclusive.
"There should be a massive tick if you've got international viability in anything," she says.
Scrambling for cash
Christie welcomes the increase in screen production rebates announced in the Budget, but says we should be aiming higher.
"It's working in bringing film production into New Zealand. That provides jobs. The problem is, it's working for wages," she says.
"It is less than half the cost to make shows here than most places in the world.
"We should be taking huge advantage of that, while creating our own IP … creating things we own."
New Zealand used to have a stronger international outlook, but the industry has become bogged down in local funding battles, Christie says.
"We were leading the world in creating formats in the early 2000s. Now we just don't do it because we're all scrambling to get that little bit of New Zealand On Air money."
* Watch the full interview with Dame Julie Christie on 30 With Guyon Espiner.