Broadcasting Council's role in television

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33873, 19 June 1975, Page 15

Broadcasting Council ' s role in television

The Broadcasting Council of New Zealand is not in the public eye—or ear —to the same extent as

the operating corporations, TVI, TV2 and Radio New Zealand. This is natural, but the fact remains that the Broadcasting Council is a vital part of public broadcasting, and provides much of the “nuts and bolts” that are so essential to the success of the whole system. The Broadcasting Council has not only taken over the functions and powers of the defunct Broadcasting Authority, mainly in keeping a watch on standards of both public and private broadcasters, but has also inherited many of the responsibilities of the head office of the former N.Z.B.C. It handles much of the finance, in receiving and allocating licence revenue, but also has authority to borrow from the National Development Loans account for re-lending to the corporations.

The council also purchases television programmes from abroad for both TVI and TV2, and adjudicates between them to ensure complementary programmes. The B.C.N.Z. also provides certain common services which would be uneconomic for the separate corporations to duplicate. These include news facilities —notably satellite bookings and

negotiations with news agencies — control of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (delegated to Radio New Zealand) and the “Listener”; ownership of all land taken over from the N.Z.B.C. and making necessary sites available to! the corporations. Perhaps the most im- ; portant function of the] Council from the viewpoint! of direct contribution to! what the viewer sees and! the listener hears, is to! transmit the programmes, which the corporations' produce. In this sense the respon-. sibility of the B.C.N.Z. is twofold:

1. To build and operate transmitters and network installations, and

2. To ensure full coverage; with satisfactory recep-i tion.

TVI was fortunate in inheriting a going concern from the N.Z.8.C., in that all transmission equipment was in existence and functioning, though requiring some relatively minor upgrading and improvement.

TV2 has to start from scratch — or rather, the' B.C.N.Z. has to start from; scratch on its behalf in pro-; curing, installing, testing and operating the “hardware” to carry the corpora-; tion’s programmes to the, homes of the viewers. [ The B.C.N.Z. has a highly! qualified staff of transmis-, sion engineers who, in the;

opinion of overseas experts, have performed engineering miracles in the past, and will no doubt perform more in the future to set up and maintain New Zealand’s television networks.