[CCS]

Holy shit, Curran is still going on about an internet tax?! Jesus balls. She proposed this idea before the election as one of their policies. The difference then was that she said this tax would go toward content creators/copyright holders (a harebrained idea in its own right). It's unclear if she intends the levy would fund a public broadcasting channel either in whole or in part, but what she does says the tax would "enable a new service to embrace the broadband environment and develop more Kiwi content that is accessible to Kiwis." Fuck knows what that means. Sounds like a handout for people to make youtube lulz.

When Curran last proposed a public service channel, she said:

We don’t anticipate any extra cost to the taxpayer. We will asking the sectors how they think it should be funded. The outcome could be a mix of options. We are not prejudging or anticipating the outcome of this. The debate hasn’t been had. Many stakeholders are keen to have it.

It seems that now she has come up with a solution... internet tax! At no extra cost to the taxpayer!



Honestly, whenever Clare Curran talks about broadcasting, it makes my teeth hurt. She is drafting a private members bill to save TVNZ7 which she acknowledges would be lucky to be drawn before 7 is closed in about 9 weeks time. Good one.

She goes on to say that TVNZ7 "should be completely separate from TVNZ control and influence." I cannot understand this. The channel which she loves so much and believes needs to be saved and therefore must have been run very well by TVNZ is the channel that she believes needs to be removed from TVNZ. I cannot for the life of me understand why she thinks this would be necessary. What purpose could that possibly serve? Going from her blog, her train of thought seems to be as follows:
Curran: "TVNZ is bad! They are commercial and have bad programmes on their channels and it's so bad! Except for TVNZ7 which is non-commercial and TVNZ has done such a good job on running that it needs to be taken away from them!"
Anyone: "Why?"
Curran: "Because TVNZ is bad and commercial and... bad!"
Her argument seems to be one purely of ideology - that if public broadcasting is the champion then commercial broadcasting must be the enemy. Despite 7 having been produced by TVNZ since March of 2008, to acclaim from Curran herself, the enemy and the champion can surely not be bedfellows. Reality be damned!

She has not given one iota of thought to the extra costs of running this channel separately from TVNZ. There are the costs of doubling up on staff that perform the same roles. They'd need to house this new channel somewhere with all the overheads that entails. And what of the costs of actually broadcasting the channel? Curran quotes Judy Callingham:

The separate entity could still use TVNZ studios and staff and equipment if need be.

What do you mean, "if need be"? It will certainly need to use somebody's studios and staff and equipment.
Judy has the answer:

The separate entity could still use TVNZ studios and staff and equipment if need be. It would hire them, just as private companies do. It would, and should, expect mates’ rates, but it shouldn’t expect to use the facilities for nothing,

Why in the blue flames of hell should TVNZ give an external enterprise mates' rates? TVNZ is a commercial enterprise. It would charge a commercial rate because not to do so means that TVNZ takes a loss on the hireage of studios and staff and equipment.
Judy continues:

it shouldn’t expect to use the facilities for nothing, although perhaps the cost could be absorbed and become a paper addition to TVNZ’s annual dividend.

I need someone to explain this to me. Is Judy saying that TVNZ allow this public broadcaster use of its staff and studios and equipment for free and that becomes a paper addition to the dividend? I don't know how that works.

Undoubtedly those studios and staff and equipment costs are already provided for in the existing TVNZ7 budget, but I can't see how those costs would not increase if TVNZ7 were separated. No, the most cost effective way of continuing to run a public service channel is to keep it in-house at TVNZ. Keep in mind that TVNZ makes no money off TVNZ7. It receives only govt funding for 7 and makes no advertising revenue off it. It needs to be run in the cheapest way possible.