B.C.N.Z. would back Maori TV channel

Press, 19 September 1985, Page 37

B.C.N.Z. would back Maori TV channel

PA Wellington The Broadcasting Corporation will not lose financially if it spends $B4 million backing a Maori bid for the third television channel, says the B.C.N.Z.’s chief executive, Mr lan Cross.

The money would be lost to the corporation anyway if it was faced with a highly commercial competitor because advertising revenues would fall, he told Parliament’s communications committee.

He was answering Mr Jim Gerard, National member for Rangiora, who asked how the corporation could justify its pledge to back financially the bid of the Aotearoa Broadcasting Sys-

tem at the same time it was seeking a licence fee increase.

Mr Cross said the other applicants for the third channel had estimated they would take between $3O million and $9O million a year in advertising revenue.

That advertising would be taken from existing media, he said.

While the corporation saw the Aotearoa Broadcasting System as a private enterprise applicant, it did not see it as highly competitive commercially, Mr Cross said.

The corporation’s motives in backing the Aotearoa bid had been questioned but it would supply a service which was complementary

to the present two channels instead of dishing up “more of the same.” Television New Zealand did not have the resources or air time to devote to the emerging demand for Maori programmes, he said.

If Aotearoa was successful in its bid, programmes such as Te Karere (the Maori news) would probably disappear from TVNZ, but more general Maori programming would continue to feature.

The director-general of Radio New Zealand, Miss Beverley Wakem, told the committee that Radio New Zealand was considering setting up Maori radio stations to cope with the emerging demand for long programmes in Maori.