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Ghislaine Maxwell grilled and voting restrictions

Ghislaine Maxwell grilled and voting restrictions

NZ Herald25-07-2025
How Sky's $1 acquisition of Three could reshape NZ television
Today on The Front Page, host of The Fold podcast for The Spinoff, Duncan Grieve, is with us to discuss how this shakes things up.
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Media Insider podcast: Sky TV chief executive Sophie Moloney on rugby and netball rights, customer satisfaction, and buying Three for $1
Media Insider podcast: Sky TV chief executive Sophie Moloney on rugby and netball rights, customer satisfaction, and buying Three for $1

NZ Herald

timea day ago

  • NZ Herald

Media Insider podcast: Sky TV chief executive Sophie Moloney on rugby and netball rights, customer satisfaction, and buying Three for $1

'The Rebel Alliance is where we might be, with Three,' jokes Moloney, referencing Sky's startling announcement earlier last week that the pay-TV operator had bought free-to-air Three (TV3) and Three Now from Warner Bros Discovery for $1. The cash-free, debt-free deal is officially sealed tomorrow - Sky takes over Three, although, as Moloney suggests on the Media Insider podcast today, there will be a significant bedding-in period, and viewers should notice little change early on. But make no mistake, the new deal pits Sky TV in even more direct competition with TVNZ for audience eyeballs and still-lucrative free-to-air TV advertising revenue. At the same time, TVNZ is implementing a new digital strategy, which will see it have the capability to introduce subscription TV and take on Sky for more sports rights and possibly other programming. In today's wide-ranging discussion on the Media Insider podcast, Moloney talks about how the Three deal came to fruition and the dangers of thinking that programmes that work well on pay TV will also succeed on free-to-air TV. She discusses rebuilding customer satisfaction and loyalty following the satellite issues earlier this year. Sky customers certainly hold the company to account - there's even a Facebook page, with 10,000 followers, dedicated to complaints and issues. Meanwhile, investors have been very happy with the company's performance and the Three acquisition - the company's share price has sat at five-year highs over the past week. Where the company was punished three years ago for trying to buy radio and outdoor advertising firm MediaWorks, investors see far more natural synergies with a free-to-air and broadcast-video-on-demand (bvod) business in Three. We start the podcast by delving into sports rights - another headline-dominating issue for Sky. Moloney discusses the announcement this week that Sky has lost domestic netball rights next year - and the factors behind that - as well as the latest discussions for lucrative rugby rights. Moloney still expects TVNZ to have rights for some New Zealand rugby matches over the next five years, despite Sky's acquisition of Three. She expects TVNZ will screen some NPC domestic games - matches that Sky has declared it does not want in the new five-year deal. Instead, Sky will focus on All Blacks and Super Rugby games - with the free-to-air rights for those games now likely to appear on Three. Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand's most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME. Watch Media Insider - The Podcast on YouTube, or listen to it on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All the backstage selfies from The Spinoff's live events, ranked
All the backstage selfies from The Spinoff's live events, ranked

The Spinoff

time3 days ago

  • The Spinoff

All the backstage selfies from The Spinoff's live events, ranked

Season two of The Spinoff Live event series is now on sale, and we couldn't think of a better way to highlight this than shamelessly leveraging The Spinoff's most popular format and Kim Hill slaying with a half-smirk. There I was, trapped in a dressing room with Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Kim Hill. The vibes were immaculate. The chat? Surprisingly dirty. All I kept thinking was, I gotta get this selfie. It was the first event from season one of The Spinoff Live. I had been tasked with setting up 10 events across Auckland and Wellington to see if anyone would come to see our writers in the flesh. Toby, or not Toby, that was the question. In the end, our Wellington events sold out, and the Auckland events were bursting at the seams. Today, we are launching the first events for Season two of The Spinoff Live. Join us in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (with more shows to be announced) to hear some clever Spinoff people and special guests debrief on the state of the world. In Wellington, we'll be staging a live version of Joel MacManus's popular column Windbag; In Auckland, our new video journalist Robbie Nicol will be lifting the curtain on his attempt to explain the world in his series Now You Know; the Gone By Lunchtime crew are bringing their popular political analysis to WORD Christchurch; and in November we're running the first ever Big End of Year Spinoff Pub Quiz in Auckland. Tickets to all these events are on sale now. I tried to take a selfie at each of the shows in season one. Head of audience Anna Rawhiti-Connell offhandedly remarked to me that I should rank them, and as stipulated in my contract, I must obey. So to celebrate the launch of our new events, here are my selfies from the last ones, ranked. Note this is no reflection of the shows themselves, all of which were equally fantastic. See you soon. 10 & 9. Singles Club Launch Party and Help Me Hera live in Auckland Good start, no selfies at these ones. 8. Help Me Hera live in Wellington We did two live versions of Hera Lindsay Bird's popular advice column, in conversation with Mad Chapman. I'd missed the moment at the Auckland version of the show, so in Wellington I was determined to get a pre-show snap with these two legends. Only one problem: I'd never met Hera, and Mad and I were still warming up. I interrupted their conversation to make it all about me (deeply embarrassing), resulting in an awkward and out of focus photo of Mad, Hera, Ben and a clothes horse. 7. Year in Review in Wellington Much less awkward but a bit buttoned up. Why didn't we do a silly one? Maria Williams is very silly and Joel MacManus was wearing a hat with a propeller on it for goodness sake. We could have hung onto his arms and pretended like we were all flying away together. By this point, I had nailed the perfect time to get a selfie, moments before chucking everyone on stage. The perfect time for me, but probably the worst time for everyone else. Such is life. Charlotte Cook looks remarkably poised for being roped in that afternoon. 6. The Fold live in Wellington Can you believe we got four generations in one photo? Chills. Lucy Blakiston and Spinoff staffer Te Aihe Butler separately made the joke that it was their dream blunt rotation. I don't want to speculate on Bernard Hickey's dream blunt rotation, but I do want to point out the vintage box TV on the wall of the Hannah Playhouse green room. Not sure why Duncan Greive looks so uncomfortable. 5. The Spinoff Book Club in Wellington This photo has it all — confusion from Duncan Sarkies and Carl Shuker. Susanna Andrew leaping into the frame. The gang signs from Claire Mabey! Especially pleasing are the books gripped by Courtney Johnson, Melissa Oliver and Duncan. They're book people and they've brought books. It's book time. 4. Year in Review in Auckland Worn down by a long year, here are two media rockstars, one real-life doctor and me, all willing to dress up, nut up, and face an equally drained Auckland audience. It should be noted that the premise of these two shows was to recap the entire year, by far the most prep-heavy of the formats we trialled across these events. Nothing scares Anna Rawhiti-Connell, though, in a suit that was described as 'red with the blood of her enemies'. Horns, bells, hat, shaka. 3. Best TV Show Ever in Auckland 'Can I throw lollies into the audience?' Alex Casey asked me. 'Will they like the show more?' She is dressed in props boy's original shirt and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith is dressed as the dog that learned to drive. Of all the selfies this one is framed the best between two walls of Q Theatre posters. Note the shiny flatscreen TV on the wall, we're not in Wellington any more. Stewart Sowman-Lund with the collared shirt of a senior journalist and Rhiannon McCall with the tall drink of a comedian. 2. Gone by Lunchtime live in Wellington The event that started them all. Back when I still thought The Spinoff was fancy. Look, I put a blazer on and everything. Toby and Ben are serving unexpected fierceness, or maybe the lights were in their eyes. Kim Hill slaying with the half smirk, and a coquettish look from Annabelle rounds it out. Truly 10/10, no notes. 1. Gone by Lunchtime live in Auckland Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire were sick at this show. Very sick. Toby described Ben as being held together purely by pseudoephedrine and he himself had brought back some kind of European pox from a recent trip. Minutes before going on stage he turned to me and rasped out one word ' Water'. I held my breath in and out of their dressing room so a selfie was out of the question. A more fitting end to these 10 events was a hasty, dark piccy in the ops box at the back of Q Theatre with podcast manager and all round gc Te Aihe Butler, and senior producer/when-she's-involved-all-my-problems-melt-away Jin Fellet. It's fun to take a swing at a big project like this, or in Te Aihe's words 'it would have been hard for someone not as good as us'. Thanks to everyone who was involved. The first events from season two of The Spinoff Live are on sale now.

Fast Favourites: The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman
Fast Favourites: The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman

RNZ News

time5 days ago

  • RNZ News

Fast Favourites: The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman

Madeleine Chapman will be stepping down from her role as editor of news and culture website The Spinoff later this year. Chapman has been in the position for four years and first started at the website in 2016 as an intern. Of Samoan, Tuvaluan and Chinese descent, Chapman also co-wrote basketballer Steven Adams' autobiography and in 2019, wrote a biography of then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern, A New Kind of Leader . Madeleine Chapman joins Culture 101 for Fast Favourites, sharing her cultural recommendations.

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