Labour’s broadcasting policy

Labour have announced:

Kiwis will be asked to help shape a new, non-commercial, modern public broadcaster to be established under a Labour Government.

Labour said it would bring together elements of non-commercial public broadcasting that already exist, including the statutorily independent functions of TVNZ7 and Radio NZ, to both strengthen and broaden them in the digital environment.

The new broadcaster, which may also include a nationwide news service, will be based on the outcomes of a nationwide public debate, to be completed within one year of Labour winning office.

This is not so much a policy, as a concept. No details, and no costings.

I actually do support the concept of a unified public broadcaster, if it can be funded from existing budgets. I blogged in September how the current spend is $233 million a year.

But Labour are talking of having Radio NZ retain its own seperate board and structure. Hello, you can’t have a unified national broadcaster without a full merging of television and radio together. BBC Radio does not have its own board separate from the BBC.

After full public discussion, Labour will have a clear view of how to proceed and will implement the new model.

This sounds like they just had this idea at the last minute. A decent policy would at a minimum have a budget and set out two or three distinct models for consultation.

There has been an ongoing debate in New Zealand for some time around volume and consistency between featured programmes and commercials on TV, where there are concerns that the audio of television commercials are broadcast at louder sound volumes than the television programme
material they accompany.

You are kidding me? Labour thinks the Government should intervene over the the audio level of advertisements?

Can they also do something about the static on the radio?