Charter delivers less local content

Labour's fatally flawed dual mandate for Television New Zealand has been laid bare by figures that show a decrease in the level of local content on state-owned television, contrary to what the charter was designed to achieve, says National's Broadcasting spokesman, Jonathan Coleman.

"Total local content hours on TVNZ have actually dropped since the charter came into effect."

Dr Coleman is commenting on the release of NZ On Air's annual local content report, which shows that local content hours on TVNZ have dropped from 5,761 hours in 2002 (the year preceding the charter), to 4,930 hours in 2007.

"First-run hours of local content on TV1 in 2007 totalled 3,240 – exactly the same as the number of hours that were recorded in 2002.

"In 2007, TV2 screened 689 hours of local content. That's a massive drop from the 1,267 hours in 2002."

Dr Coleman says Maori programming levels on TVNZ also declined between 2002 and 2007, from 341 hours to 270 hours.

"Broadcasting Minister Trevor Mallard needs to face up to the fact that the charter has made absolutely no positive difference to local content levels on state-owned television."