Broadcasting

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23807, 28 November 1942, Page 4

Broadcasting

No reduction of radio licence fees can be considered, the Minister in charge of Broadcasting has informed the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, until “ essential develop- " ment work ” planned by the National Broadcasting Service is completed " after the war. This formula does not grow more reasonable as it is repeated. In the last four years, after providing (in total) £ 171,150 for depreciation, the service has' produced successive revenue surpluses of £115,905, £140,840, £182,345, and £199,599. The transfer of this last sum to the Accumulated Fund will have raised it to £ 1,080,300. The process began well beforfe. the war. The annual figures showed that the licence fee was much heavier than a sound and provident policy required; but the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, when this was suggested, said it was too soon to reduce the charge, there was much to be done, services had to be improved first, and so on. Against what were described as “ heavy future commitments,” therefore, the Accumulated Fund continued to be built up by surpluses which have rapidly increased until they far exceed the amount spent on programmes. In 1939-40, the surplus was £30,000 more than programme expenditure; in 1940-41 it was £60,000 more; in 1941-42 it was nearly £90,000 more. The proportion of licence revenue spent on programmes has fallen to 30 per cent, and under. It was 26.5 per cent, last year; i.e., only 6s 7Jd of the 25s charge was needed for programmes. It is utterly impossible to defend these figures. The listener must bear the cost of programmes and the running and capital costs of the system, as a whole, which provides them; it may also be fairly said that he should contribute, not merely towards capital replacement, but towards capital improvement. But there is no justification whatever for a policy which compels the listeners of one decade to provide the complete capital cost of extensions to serve the listeners of the next. That is the result which the financial policy of the National Broadcasting Service is working out. Listeners were being over-charged five or six years ago. To-day they are abominably exploited—and poorly served while they are exploited.