Game over for the charter

In the last few months we have had commentator after commentator and industry expert after expert say that Labour’s strategy with the TVNZ Charter was not working – that one can’t have TVNZ with conflicting imperatives of being a commercial broadcaster, but also have the fluffy charter about national identity.

Well thanks to the Greens, we now know that no less a person than the outgoing CEO of TVNZ agrees. This is a damning indictment on the policies which brought in the charter, and Maharey’s reputation in broadcasting must now be heading towards his one for tertiary education.

Fraser’s memo states that TVNZ local content will shrink markedly next year to pre-charter levels, that priority will be given to commercially valuable programmes and other programmes will be scheduled in “inhospitable” places.