Close to $6 million is being spent this year on designing the future of Radio NZ and TVNZ and the culture ministry is staffing up with contractors to advance the project
A price-tag of $5.96 million has been allocated in this year’s Budget for the Strong Public Media project, and has been confirmed by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
Currently a governance group, led by former New Zealand First Minister Tracey Martin and seven industry representatives, is working on design options for public media.
A proposed plan and business case is due to be presented to Cabinet late this year.
Yet that project is picking up in cost and scale with the $6 million dollar spend this year alone.
A spokesperson for the ministry's public media project says the spending is to undertake the business case, targeted stakeholder engagement, and planning for further work subsequent to a Cabinet decision.
“The costs include: Deloitte contract costs, Treasury assurance activity costs, Governance Group fees, travel and expenses, Secretariat costs, programme staff, facilities and overheads, Crown Law and legal costs, event management and logistics costs for the targeted stakeholder engagement activity,” said the spokesperson.
As well as Deloitte’s being contracted to work on the business case, there are currently 14 people from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage working on the Strong Public Media Programme. This includes 11 contractors and three employees.
MCH says the surge in contract staff is necessary.
“The Government expects formal business cases to be carried out when it’s looking to make large investment decisions. This is a mandated five-step process specified by Treasury that requires an in-depth analysis of an issue – including the economic, commercial and management aspects.
“It is common practice to supplement the standing capabilities of government departments with external subject matter expertise because of the scope and complexity of the work,” said the spokesperson.
The governance group is planning to run targeted engagement with key groups most affected by the proposed new public media entity, including getting early input into the possible charter.
MCH is also spending a further $2m this year on other media reform options, which is spending separate to the RNZ and TVNZ reform.
This work is likely to capture the attention of commercial media players as it will explore the financial and regulatory settings to sustain domestic media.
“For example, competition law, copyright and tax law, as well as anti-trust measures, are being applied separately in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States to address the power imbalance between news publishers and digital platforms e.g. Google and Facebook,” said a spokesperson.
“So far the work has focused on digital intermediaries and support for news media, and exploring issues around competition and plurality within the media sector,” she said.
