More cuts on TVNZ agenda

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TVNZ staff are bracing for big job losses as the state broadcaster announces it needs to make an extra $30 million to meet government demands.

It is not known if any of the network's big names are under threat, or if any further shows will be cut. Local programmes, including Dancing with the Stars, have already been canned to save money.

The company yesterday said it would not reveal how many of its 1000 staff would lose their jobs until the new year, but that they were likely to be from several departments. Sources have told the Sunday Star-Times the job losses will be "significant".

Yesterday, none of the network's big names – including Mark Sainsbury, Paul Henry and Mike Hosking – would comment on the cuts.

It is the second major redundancy announcement at the company this year. In March, TVNZ announced it was axing 80 staff and cutting 100 hours of locally made programmes because it faced a $25m shortfall in advertising revenue.

As late as October, chief executive Rick Ellis was giving public assurances that no further restructuring or redundancies were on the cards.

However, the Star-Times has learned a series of meetings were held with TVNZ staff last week to update them on the company's financial position and the status of a number of projects aimed to meet government expectations.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister John Key put state-owned enterprises on notice to return an average 9 percent  on equity over five years – for TVNZ, that means generating an extra $30m. TVNZ's profit was just $2.1m in the year to June, well down on 2008's $19.4m profit.

Media commentator Paul Norris, head of the broadcasting school at Christchurch Polytechnic, believes trying to make another $30m is almost a lost cause.

"They will struggle to do that. It's pretty much cut back to the bone."

Norris said the news and current affairs department was the biggest cost to the company "and it needs to be if it is going to do its job and hold the powerful to account". He believed if job losses were to be made across the board, it would be unreasonable for news and current affairs not to be included.

"But it will almost certainly have an impact on news-gathering ability. I think it is really rather sad that a formerly proud public broadcaster is being sliced away at the core in this way."

However, TVNZ's head of news and current affairs, Anthony Flannery, yesterday said cuts were not on his agenda. "If anything, we will be looking at enhancing our newsroom."

TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards told the Star-Times six or seven major projects were being accelerated to get the company into the position where it could get out of the recession and survive and prosper.

"We used to think we had about 10 years to make the changes needed, now we believe we have two to five years to achieve them," she said.

The main thrust behind the change is to turn the company into the country's leading digital media company and Richards said a "plane-load" of new digital equipment was arriving over the new year.

Meanwhile, other projects to be fast-tracked include a review of the sales department. "There is some vulnerability around our advertising model and we are addressing that. We want to turn ourselves into a business that is in partnership with our commercial clients."

The future of TVNZ 6 and 7 – the network's poorly patronised digital channels – is also under review with Richards saying the company was looking at how they were funded and what they would look like in the future.

Richards insists the measures are not a response to the recession. "It's not like earlier in the year when the recession came out of the blue and we needed to chop $30m to stay in profit. This is looking at it from the other perspective – how to boost revenue and be sustainable in the future and get ahead of the game."

Any decisions on job losses will be finalised by the end of March. TVNZ executives are expected to work on proposals over Christmas and come back with broad outlines early in next year.

- additional reporting Lois Cairns

- © Fairfax NZ News