Throng on Media7

Throng blogs:

For the second time this week, Martyn Bradburyhas lashed out at a TV network that doesn’t employ him.  While his initial ire was towards TVNZ for failing to keep TVNZ7 running, it has now been directed towards NZ On Air (One of his employers?) and a different network that has stepped in to act as saviour for one of the channel’s shows when it goes dark.

I think this shows that the Save TVNZ7 movement is all about ego and politics, and has little to do with an actual desire to have good public broadcasting in NZ.

If a Saturday morning show on TV3 is the ghetto, what then does that make the unpromoted TVNZ7?  As David Farrar pointed out recently, the “others” rating of which Media7 is included in, is a fraction of what the commercial networks pull.  It isn’t unreasonable to expect that the audience TV3 will deliver to Media 3 on a Saturday morning will be higher than what the audience would have been on TVNZ7.  Certainly the Sunday night encore will be bigger.  You also have to wonder whether Media 3 will also deliver news bites for 6pm in a similar fashion as The Nation does.

Being on TV3 will give Media 7/3 not just higher ratings, but more impact. If a guest on the show says something newsworthy, it may then end up on the network news that night.