Hon Georgina te Heuheu MP
National Party Broadcasting Spokeswoman

1 May 2006

Charter funds should be contestable

TVNZ's move to generate programming ideas from a staff contest shows exactly why charter funding should be contestable, says National's Broadcasting spokeswoman, Georgina te Heuheu.

TVNZ has created an in-house 'Life's a Pitch' contest, which invites TVNZ staff to pitch programme ideas to TVNZ's content department.

"TVNZ has clearly run out of ideas and is now plundering ideas from its staff and ripping them off to pitch programmes at a cheaper rate," says Mrs te Heuheu.

"Charter funding should be contestable so that those who have the best creative programming ideas can get funding for them. Then at least we would have an equal playing field for our hardworking local production industry.

"Funding should not be handed to state television on a silver platter. In recent years, TVNZ has received millions of dollars worth of charter funding, with arguable outcomes and little transparency.

"Now, it is merely inventing ways to fulfil the charter. This is another example of why it is failing. The Minister, Steve Maharey, needs to admit that his model for state television is flawed," says Mrs te Heuheu.

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