Comment

In eight weeks time the government will pull the plug on TV7 – arguably New Zealand’s best television station. In considerable contrast to other stations, each evening TV7 provides thoughtful and informative as well as entertaining programmes – many of which are locally produced.
These days evening television offerings mostly consist of endless imported programmes: cooking shows, unreal ‘reality’ shows, violent cops and robbers, game shows, grotesquely obese people and dysfunctional families .
Over on (free to air) TV7 viewers are offered relevant, locally produced programmes such as Media 7 –Russell Brown on what the media is currently covering – and how. The Court Report where Journalist/Lawyer Linda Clarke and guests discuss cases and various aspects of the law. The Good Word, a weekly programme on books and authors. In The Sitting artist Marty Welch paints a portrait of a well know New Zealander. Other locally produced programmes include Hindsight, The New Old, Artland, Tales from Te Papa, Use as Directed, to mention but a few.
The flagship programmes are the News and Backbenches. The news is at a sensible hour, from eight to nine, is not interrupted by endless adverts and taken by a single presenter, either Greg Boyed or Mariama Chapman. Main news items are covered at depth with the presenter, each of whom are excellent interviewers, discussing the topic with relevant specialists.
In the Back Benches, also a full hour show, Wallace Chapman and Damien Christie question three politicians on local current issues. Shot before a live audience at the Back Benches pub this is a lively show in which political waffle and platitudes cuts no ice.
To TV7’s local content is added excellent imported programmes, mostly English, on a wide range of interesting subjects.
Each evening TV7 draws a huge audience nevertheless the government is pulling the plug ostensibly on the grounds that it is not budgeted for. (Without any publicity an online Save 7 petition has received over 13,000 signatures.)
That there currently is no spare money floating around is not disputed. However TV7 runs on the proverbial ‘smell of an oily rag’ – much less than Maori Television for instance. If there was a will there is little doubt that the cookie jars could be juggled around to find the required cash. For instance; NZ On Air, with a budget of $100 million, subsidises programmes for commercial television stations, surely some of this could be better used supporting a public channel. Likewise Creative NZ seems to slash money around fairly generously, how about some of that? TVNZ made a 23 million dollar profit, how about cross subsidising some of this to TV7? The list could go on.
The government, quite rightly, finances the excellent Maori Television. That it refuses to do the same to provide a similar intelligent station for the Pakeha population would appear to be a case of reverse racism.