As we sit and contemplate if we should reform our funding bodies, how to rewrite their governing legislations, and look to squeeze funding out of the recalcitrant studios and streamers, the wonderful new world we work in moves on.
Streamers are now becoming digital TV stations, with a number scheduling their programming (the next episode drops on this day at this time). Read here.
They are also moving more mainstream in their content while offering a broad range from sports, reality, documentary and drama to feature films.
And advertising. But you have to pay for the ads on the streamers now, not get them for nix like you do with free-to-air broadcasters and their digital platforms.
Some streamers are seeing the value in theatrical windows for films—even Netflix—who is more and more caving in to auteur filmmaker demands. Read here.
Meanwhile, the US broadcasters at least are finding audiences and revenues in licensing their content to digital platforms, breathing new life into their aged operations. Read here.
While the ground under our screen feet feels increasingly shaky because of what’s going on internationally, I’ve sat in three Ministry of Culture and Heritage sessions so far related to the NZ Media Reform Discussion document, and I’ve got two more to go.
These meetings have essentially confirmed the view I’ve held for some time now: New Zealand is essentially ten years too late in adapting to what is happening in the global screen industry.
Peak TV, which started with Netflix’s House of Cards in 2013 and according to most pundits well and truly ended in 2023, is something New Zealand has completely missed the boat on creatively. Except for providing crews to international outfits coming here to make it with Peak TV money.
Change now is rapid, constant, and often catches us by surprise. Take AI.
Not much more than a year ago, many of us in the screen industry were wondering what the fuss was about.
Now we have jobs threatened and impacted, while Donald Trump and his cohort of tech billionaires are doing their utmost to ensure the US dominates the AI world. Chinese company DeepSeek out of nowhere may have upset that applecart.
IP is being scraped for AI use with scant regard for the creatives who laboured long and hard to develop it. The 82 year-old Sir Paul McCartney is just one of many Brits who are opposing proposed amendments to copyright legislation that would allow UK companies the right to scrape IP more easily in an effort for the British to keep up. Read here.
Our government has gone hands-off on legislation on how to deal with AI. Is hands-off now the new hands-on? The acting PM sitting next to me in the lounge this morning certainly thinks so.
While there are some elements of the Media Reform that will be useful in times ahead, the analyses conducted to determine the content in the document are already aging, some a touch inaccurate in my view, and by the time reform comes into play, the playing field will likely have changed again.
The nursery rhyme lines “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick…” couldn’t be more applicable for us all right now as we continue to navigate the fraught times ahead.
Isn’t it ironic that the “Jack” refers to Black Jack Smatt, an infamous English pirate who operated in the Caribbean, and who was more recently portrayed by Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director
Last updated on 28 February 2025
