Latest news with #TVNZ
1News
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- 1News
New photo of Prince George released to celebrate 12th birthday
A new portrait of Prince George has been shared online to mark the royal's 12th birthday. His parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, published the photo taken by Joshua Shinner on Instagram with the caption: "Happy 12th Birthday to Prince George!" and the birthday cake emoji. Their eldest child posed leaning on a wooden fence, looking relaxed and happy in a white shirt and a brown vest-style fleece. A short video was also posted online of the future King walking and playing 10-year-old sister Princess Charlotte and 7-year-old brother Prince Louis in the same idyllic location. ADVERTISEMENT Watch the video of George with Charlotte and Louis on TVNZ+ For fans and followers of the monarchy, a new royal portrait traditionally released to mark birthdays and milestone events such as anniversaries or christenings is always a big deal. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including Ozzy Osbourne dies, a worrying find on Rakiura Stewart Island, and new Coke coming. (Source: 1News) They are often taken by the Princess of Wales herself, as she is a keen photographer. George's birthday celebrations come just over a week after the prince and his 10-year-old sister Princess Charlotte, who is third in line to the throne, made an appearance at the men's tennis finals at Wimbledon, accompanied by their parents.
The Spinoff
a day ago
- Business
- The Spinoff
Sky buys Three and ThreeNow to create New Zealand's most muscular media empire
WBD has sold its linear and digital TV assets to Sky for $1, giving the pay TV giant a powerful new brand to take on TVNZ. Duncan Greive breaks down the deal. Pay TV giant Sky has agreed to buy Discovery NZ in a deal which profoundly reshapes the commercial TV and streaming landscape in New Zealand, creating easily the biggest media company in the country by revenue, and potentially by audience too. Discovery NZ houses the second-most-watched free-to-air channel, Three, along with a popular ad-supported streaming service in ThreeNow. It also has eden, Rush and HGTV, more niche channels which play on Freeview and Sky, all joining Sky's huge range of pay-TV and streaming channels. All changing hands for less than the cost of a month's Netflix. Sky paid just $1 for the assets, which come across debt free, with Sky assuming the ongoing commercial contracts of the business. The Commerce Commission was privately advised, and saw no issue – an unimaginable situation even a few years ago. It's the second major media company to change hands at that symbolic value in recent years, after Stuff was sold for $1 in 2020. The price indicates that Discovery NZ's parent, WBD, simply wanted to exit the free-to-air business, which had been bought by Discovery from Mediaworks in 2020 for a price described at the time as 'more than a dollar'. Sources familiar with that deal peg it at US$20m, suggesting Sky has got a comparative bargain – or that Discovery overpaid. For Sky, it's a major move into free-to-air TV and ad-supported streaming, at a time when the company has placed far more emphasis on advertising as part of its revenue mix than ever before (it scooped the Beacon Award for 'best sales team' just last week). While it has long had free-to-air TV through Sky Open (formerly Prime), Three is a much more powerful brand, with far larger audiences, home to smash hits like Married at First Sight and David Lomas Investigates. It brings Sky into even more direct competition with TVNZ. Historically, despite being the two biggest companies in TV, they were well differentiated. TVNZ was purely ad-supported, big on news and mass entertainment, a minor player in sports. Sky was largely a subscription business, mostly paywalled and big on sports with only a very minor presence in local news. That changes from August 1, with TVNZ facing down the largest and most formidable direct competitor in its history. Sky has over a million paying customers across pay TV and streaming products like Sky Sport Now and Neon. It now has a major free-to-air presence to both function as a funnel into its pay products, and extend the reach of its advertising. While Sky Open has functioned as a shop window into Sky for some time, Three and ThreeNow will be a far more powerful version of that proposition, with the ability to take a mix of Sky's sports and entertainment products and attack TVNZ on quality and content mix. That's why longtime former Sky CEO John Fellet sought to buy Three a decade ago. Three can now put NRL, Super Rugby and cricket head-to-head with TVNZ's prime time line-up, and given that live sports is one of the last big draws for linear TV audiences, it represents a very powerful tool to grow Three's audience. For NZ on Air too, the consolidated business is a much more interesting and powerful way of reaching New Zealanders. It's not uncomplicated for Sky. The declining sale price tells you just how difficult pureplay ad-supported media models are now. And it adds yet more brands and platforms to what is already a very complicated mix. Sky now operates two different boxes, a puck, Sky Go, Sky Sport Now, Neon and ThreeNow from a technology standpoint. Netflix just has Netflix. Rationalising that will be a priority for Sky CEO Sophie Moloney and her team. There remain a number of other unresolved questions. Sky and NZ Rugby have still not announced a renewal of their long-term broadcast deal, though industry sources suggest it is signed, with only haggling over free-to-air screening remaining. Three and ThreeNow loom as potential solutions to some of NZ Rugby's audience accessibility issues, even if it reduces by one the plausible buyers of its rights. Similarly, Three currently contracts Stuff to produce its 6pm news bulletin. That has had challenging ratings for much of the year, but remains an important part of a well-rounded product offering and starts the channel's evening programming. Aaron Ibbotson, a senior analyst at Forsyth Barr, is a fan of the transaction for Sky. He says 'the deal makes a lot of sense. They're not paying anything for it, and there would be natural synergies across broadcasting and content.' He contrasts it with a failed attempted acquisition of Mediaworks in 2022, saying that the Discovery NZ deal is 'closer to what Sky knows well, its core business'. Sky's shares are up 11c in early trading today. It's the latest big change to a media ownership environment which is suddenly very fluid. Earlier this year, Jim Grenon launched a hostile board takeover attempt after buying 10% of NZME, which ultimately rolled the company's chair and reshaped its governance. Then QMS completed a takeover of outdoor and radio giant Mediaworks, Stuff sold 50% of its digital arm to auction site TradeMe, while Are Media, New Zealand's biggest magazine publisher, went up for sale. New Zealand's commercial media has long been considered too fragmented, given the size of the market. It now has effectively two major TV operators, two radio networks and two scale digital news providers. All staff are being ported across, with Three's leader Juliet Peterson now reporting into Sky CEO Moloney, but over time there will be efficiency gains from accounting to sales to programming. Yes, efficiency gains is code for job losses, of which the media has endured too many in recent years. But the real battle is not with cross-town rivals, it's with unregulated tech giants. The question is, will we even have local news and entertainment products at all? For an embattled local media, which endured a cataclysmic 2024, this deal creates a powerful and diversified new media giant – one which poses challenges for TVNZ, but should result in a more robust local media landscape as a result.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Media Insider: Sky TV buys Three for $1 in massive media shake-up
• Deliver Sky revenue diversification and uplift of c.$95m on an annualised basis, with ~25%from digital sources • Add to Sky's existing audience a growing digital audience via ThreeNow, a BVOD platform that recently recorded its 12th straight quarter of viewership growth • Grow Sky's combined total linear television advertising revenue share to ~35%1 and total digital television advertising revenue share to ~24%2 • Deliver material cost synergies primarily across Sky's content and broadcasting infrastructure • Deliver a pathway to achieve incremental, underlying free cash flow from FY26 and sustainable EBITDA growth of at least $10m from FY28. In a statement, Moloney said: 'This is a compelling opportunity for Sky that directly supports our ambition to be Aotearoa New Zealand's most engaging and essential media company. It positions us to scale faster, accelerates our growth, and further diversifies our revenue streams, particularly in advertising and digital. We are acquiring a business with complementary operations that is a strong strategic fit for Sky, in an accretive way for our shareholders.' 'In particular, acquiring the established and fast-growing ThreeNow BVOD platform adds an important missing component to Sky's portfolio, without incurring the significant brand and platform development costs and inherent revenue risks associated with building a BVOD service ourselves. The combined portfolio will give Sky significantly increased scale, diversity and mass reach that will unlock more opportunities in advertising and maximise the return on our investments in content through a strengthened, multi-platform approach.' Moloney said: 'Notwithstanding the ongoing challenges faced by the Discovery NZ business' Sky was uniquely placed 'to give effect to this opportunity to accelerate our growth strategy.' Sky TV chief executive Sophie Maloney. Photo / Alex Burton The state of Warner Bros Discovery's New Zealand finances was laid bare last July – a massive $138 million loss in 2023, including a $79.5m impairment. Its finances for 2024 are expected to be released new deal means Sky suddenly has a massive new free-to-air platform, for which it can compete directly with the likes of TVNZ for sales and audience. It also gives them massive leverage for a free-to-air platform in sports rights negotiations. Sky is on the cusp of signing a new rugby deal with NZR - until now, it had been reported that TVNZ might be the free to air partner for the likes of NPC games, but that now seems uncertain. Instead, the free-to-air component of the deal might be provided by Three. MORE SOON 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.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Mediawatch: Ministers' 'Helpful' Handouts Go Multimedia
, Mediawatch Presenter "Dear Prime Minister: the rise in crime and antisocial behaviour since COVID 19 struck is stark and confronting. We ask that you please take urgent action to support recovery and retain our reputation as a safe city and country." That was the message of a full-page ad in the Weekend Herald placed by groups representing Auckland businesses, accusing the government of failing to act on past promises. It was almost identical to a similar plea to a previous PM four years ago. The following day the current PM was the target of another open letter advert in the Sunday papers. This one - placed by electricity retailers, users and Consumer NZ - called on him to fix "a broken energy sector". That campaign also featured on TVNZ's Q+A show the same day, and in a front-page New Zealand Herald story the next day, the Minister of Energy - the aptly named Simon Watts - acknowledged our electricity market was "not functioning as well as it should". But it's not the first time that he's been singled out by a lobbying campaign in public. In June, pro-electrification group Rewiring NZ deployed AI animation to turn him into a superhero in ads that urged the public to make it an election issue - and it used a billboard near the Beehive to make sure that he didn't miss it. TVNZ's Q+A said lobby groups like Federated Farmers and the Sensible Sentencing Trust had used the same spot for the same reason in other campaigns. But do ministers targeted by these ads even notice them? "Yes, I do. On the way to the airport, out of Parliament and down onto the quays there - it's pretty hard to not to," National's Chris Bishop told TVNZ's Whena Owen. But are campaigns singling out individual politicians in public really effective? Most ministers are also lobbied behind the scenes by the same special interest groups. Being hectored publicly as well could make them more inclined to dig in rather than give in. "Lobby groups have always taken out ads in newspapers. Now they're moving it to digital billboards which can be up longer and can be cheaper," said Dr Claire Robinson, the author of Promises, Promises: 80 years of Wooing New Zealand Voters. "They can be located at traffic lights where ministerial cars have to stop. It's probably a really good way of getting something under the nose of a cabinet minister who may not open the newspaper anymore in the morning to see it there." "If you want to lobby a minister now you've got not only print, radio and TV - and you've got your own channels, social media and even LinkedIn posts. There's a complete industry in being able to disseminate your messages, hoping that one of them is going to get through," Dr Robinson told Mediawatch. Politicians going multimedia Politicians aren't shy about getting their own messages out to the media either - and have specialised staff to do it. Journalists' email inboxes are clogged with media statements from ministers and MPs hoping that their comments will make it into the media's coverage. And now they are going multimedia too. Last weekend reporters got video of the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio greeting Winston Peters, along with a media statement, after an ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Malaysia, which was attended by Peters. NZ First posted that footage on Facebook on the day of the meeting - and then there was another version last Tuesday featuring Peters looking statesmanlike, with a TikTok-type soundtrack added. The same day the streaming show Herald Now ran the Rubio footage during an interview with Peters. Should media be wary of airing images hand-picked by ministers' staff? "Yes, because by using it they're essentially using party generated pictures and feeding the beast - and exacerbating the rule-breaking of political parties," Dr Robinson told Mediawatch. "Anything that is generated through party social media channels really needs to be stopped at the door. "But at the same time the media loses all perspective when a PM or foreign minister meets a US president or Secretary of State. In 2014, photos of John Key playing golf with Obama were splashed across the newspapers . . . and nobody asked who took the photos back then." MPs offering mp3s Recently reporters have also received sound bites from ministers along with standard media statements. Last week, Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee announced anti-money laundering law changes to make managing property easier through family trusts. The release included a minute-long MP3 clip of her reading out some of the key points - and 'video on request'. In June her office also sent three separate sound bites about the 'Three Strikes' law coming into force. Why send selected comments rather than allow reporters to record their own in a media conference in the usual way? "Quite often we'll put out a media release, then we get all the phone calls looking for a grab. Why not give a grab ourselves?" McKee told Mediawatch. RNZ's reporters in the press gallery in Parliament told Mediawatch they wouldn't use audio supplied under those circumstances. "I believe it has been picked up by a couple of radio stations but I haven't actually tracked it myself." ACT leader David Seymour has spoken about bypassing the media because they "abuse their power to edit" and refused to allow ACT's ministers to appear on RNZ's Morning Report. He's even appealed for funds from ACT supporters to fund his own online media channels. Is McKee supplying audio comments as a substitute for interviews or media conferences at which she could be challenged or questioned by reporters? "That's not the reason. It's actually realising that our media are quite stretched - for time and for people," McKee told Mediawatch. On that issue of the family trusts and anti-money laundering laws, McKee was interviewed by RNZ news after sending out the statement and audio. "I've always made myself available to the media. Should they want a sound grab directly, I'm happy to give it. We just thought that this would help the media, especially if they do have those tight deadlines. And of course some have less staff now." "It doesn't take me long to add a couple of 10-second sound bites to the media releases we put out. And of course if it is being picked up then it is useful to some. So we'll continue to do it." McKee says she hasn't tracked which media outlets have used the supplied audio. Another minister handing out sound bites with media statements lately is Associate Minister of Transport James Meager. "Now is the perfect time to look ahead toward building a resilient maritime economy for future generations," he said in mid-June, announcing pumped-up investment in navigation services for shipping. One week later, Meager sent out three more sound bites, about a funding boost for lifesaving. Meager credits his press secretary, former Newstalk ZB journalist Blake Benny. "He came to me with the idea that if we include some audio grabs with our press releases, it makes the job of producers and radio reporters so much easier," Meager told Mediawatch. If so, it might mean not having to answer questions about contestable claims made in statements - or confront contradictions? "There's always the option for journalists who want to ring up and press on some of the details in those press releases. I'm always happy to take interviews. The only time I decline would be if it's outside my portfolio or if I literally can't do them." Few ministers ever issue statements on matters outside their portfolio - and Meager declined to say which outlets had broadcast his recorded statements. More to come? Before he became an MP, he set up an online archive of political ads - - with partner Dr Ashley Murchison, an expert who wrote a PhD about responses to political ads. Some of Nicole McKee's recent media statements said video was available on request as well. Meager doesn't offer that - yet. "But if we had the resources and that made people's lives easier then it might be something that we look into. I used to work as a press secretary and I think I wish I'd been smart enough to think of this six years ago," he told Mediawatch. But he says he and other ministers will be offering the media more multimedia stuff in future. "I'm doing a couple (of soundbites) this weekend for a couple of announcements we're making in the top of the South so hopefully they'll be picked up. In the weekend when staffing levels are lower, that might be a little bit helpful too." Exploiting a week spot "Political parties have always used new technology to try and get their messages across - even going back to Michael Joseph Savage in 1938 when he used film, which was a new technology back then," Dr Claire Robinson told Mediawatch. "I think that the politicians hope that the time-poor media will just insert (the content) into coverage. But there's something deeper going on here because they're exploiting the whopping decline in journalism employment," said Dr Robinson, who is also the current chief of Toi Mai / the Workforce Development Council, which published a development plan for journalism in 2024. "That decline is because of government-enabled inaction or policies that have seen that advertising money that used to sustain news media organisations go offshore. In the old days (they) would have more scrutiny and political parties are now exploiting that gap and creating their own media." Bending the rules for funding the ads In a recent piece for The Post, Dr Robinson said the public pays for political parties' digital media messaging - but shouldn't be paying for some of it. "The rules are really clear. You can only electioneer using public funds in the three months prior to an election campaign. The rest of the time parties are enabled to create information, but not to electioneer with social media," Dr Robinson told Mediawatch. She says the NZ First party publishing footage of Winston Peters in Malaysia as foreign minister on social media is an example of the problem. "It has their party logo and is using Peters' role in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs for party purposes. It doesn't say 'Vote for NZ First' but the boundaries are blurred. It is really saying our leader is a great leader because he can create amazing relationships with people."
The Spinoff
5 days ago
- Lifestyle
- The Spinoff
Eat Well For Less NZ couldn't have returned at a more appropriate time
Tara Ward watches the return of TVNZ's popular lifestyle series that teaches us how to eat healthier while saving money. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. Amid the all-you-can-eat buffet of depressing news this week, the revelation that the price of butter has doubled in a year had me crying into my dry toast. The cost of living crisis appears to be just normal life now, so even if you don't buy luxury food items like butter, cheese, eggs or milk, there's no better time for Eat Well For Less NZ to teach us how to make our hard-earned bucks go that little bit further. Food educator Ganesh Raj and chef Michael Van de Elzen returned this week for a fifth season of encouraging New Zealand families to cook healthier meals while spending less money. In the first episode, the pair were fizzing to help solo mum Laura from Hamilton, whose busy lifestyle means she often turns to takeaways and convenience food. It's a tale as old as time: life is full on, everything is expensive, and sometimes you just want your kid to eat something so you can go to sleep and do it all again tomorrow. But Raj and Van de Elzen are here to help. They watch Laura shop at the supermarket, even though they could just check her receipt to find out she spends $254 a week on groceries. 'She's buying a lot of ready-made foods,' they worry, pointing out Laura's shopping sins: chicken nuggets, chicken tenders and mac and cheese bites. The pair estimate a family of Laura's size should spend $260 a week to meet nutritional requirements, but it's the additional $176 a week on cafe food and takeaways they reckon is key to Laura saving thousands of dollars a year. The pair proceed to make simple swaps to save Laura money and teach her how to cook a variety of fast and healthy meals, using leftovers and simple ingredients with value-for-money recipes that viewers at home will appreciate. It's a familiar format for Eat Well For Less, but what's apparent this season is that it's becoming harder to find significant savings at the supermarket. Ditching processed cereal for a healthier home-made porridge saves $0.73 cents, while upsizing a satay tuna can frees up $0.64. The biggest saving of $6.24 comes from swapping spreadable butter for a budget brand of regular butter. Replacing a Maggi Spaghetti Bolognese packet with raw ingredients that need to be cooked from scratch saves a measly two cents. Last time I wrote about Eat Well For Less NZ, I was steaming mad that a show sponsored by a supermarket (which was part of a duopoly making one million dollars profit a day) was telling a young family living in a sleepout about how to save money on their groceries. Eat Well for Less NZ is no longer sponsored by a supermarket, and the show feels more authentic for it (apart from the scene where Van de Elzen recommends Laura's daughter give up her Vanilla Cokes for a Sodastream drink – Sodastream being one of the show's partners). And weirdly, while Raj and Van de Elzen tell Laura to stop buying unhealthy mince pies for lunch, there's a segment in the same episode where a panel of pie makers taste test a variety of mince and cheese pies (the winner was Dad's Pies Mince and Cheese, $2.15 per 100g). But Eat Well For Less NZ isn't here to rage against the machine, although sometimes I wish it would. Imagine if instead of watching strangers eat pies, Raj and Van de Elzen popped into the Beehive to ask Nicola Willis what she's actually doing about the supermarket duopoly? In the same way that Location Location Location skims over the unfairness of the housing market, it feels tough to be placing all the onus solely on consumers to eat and budget better, without acknowledging that our choices aren't made in isolation. Ultimately, Eat Well For Less NZ has its heart in the right place. Raj and Van de Elzen are full of energy and experience and reckon with the changes they suggest (mostly: don't spend money outside of your grocery shop), Laura's family can save over $9000 a year and live a healthier life while doing it. As food prices continue to rise, the show's practical advice will help many New Zealanders get through these challenging economic times – especially when the shopping receipts leave such a bitter aftertaste.
