NZ On Air (NZOA; mi, Irirangi te Motu), formally the Broadcasting Commission, is an
autonomous Crown entity and commission of the
New Zealand Government
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, image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg
, image_size=250px
, date_established =
, country = New Zealand
, leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
, appointed = Governor-General
, main_organ =
, ...
responsible for funding support for broadcasting and creative works. The commission operates largely separate from government policy but must follow directions from the
Minister of Broadcasting. NZOA is responsible for the funding of
public broadcasting
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
content across television, radio and other media platforms. It is also a major investor in New Zealand independent producers.
NZ On Air is the operating name of the Broadcasting Commission formed in the
Broadcasting Act 1989
The Broadcasting Act 1989 creates a system of broadcasting standards and the Broadcasting Commission to fund public broadcasting and New Zealand independent producers.
It established the Broadcasting Standards Authority which oversees the broa ...
alongside the
Broadcasting Standards Authority
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA; mi, Te Mana Whanonga Kaipāho) is a New Zealand Crown entity created by the Broadcasting Act 1989 to develop and uphold standards of broadcasting for radio, free-to-air and pay television.
The main ...
, meant to encourage individuals to pay the historical
Broadcasting Fee that funded public broadcasters. In 1999 the Broadcasting Fee was abolished, and NZOA now receives funding directing from the
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the arts, culture, built heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting sectors in New Zealand and advising government on ...
.
Activities
NZ On Air's activities can be broken up into several areas:
Public broadcasting
NZOA funds New Zealand-focused radio, television, New Zealand music and digital media production for a range of public and private broadcasters and platforms. This includes drama, documentary, children's programmes, and programmes for special-interest groups.
Programmes funded by NZOA often have an announcement about the commission's support for the programme. Initially the announcement was: "This programme was made with the help of your Broadcasting Fee – so you can see more of New Zealand on air". After the abolition of the Broadcasting Fee, the announcement often said: "This programme was made with funding from NZ On Air". More commonly, at the end of a broadcast, a programme will say: "Thank you, NZ On Air, for helping us make (name of the show)."
The agency funds
Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa), commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and c ...
, and the independently-owned
Access Radio Network
The Community Access Media Alliance (CAMA) (formerly the Association of Community Access Broadcasters (ACAB)), also known as the Access Radio Network, is a group of twelve New Zealand community radio media organisations. The stations were establ ...
,
Student Radio Network
Radio broadcasting began in New Zealand in 1922, and is now dominated by almost thirty radio networks and station groups. The Government has dominated broadcasting since 1925, but through privatisation and deregulation (in 1989) has allowed comm ...
and
Pacific Media Network
The Pacific Media Network is a New Zealand radio network and pan-Pasifika national broadcasting network, currently owned and operated by the National Pacific Radio Trust and partly funded by the Government. It includes the PMN 531 radio network, ...
.
Cultural promotion
NZ On Air focuses on "local content" – New Zealand programmes that are expensive or risky to make which the broadcaster market cannot fully pay for. These programmes are primarily drama, documentary, children's programmes and special-interest programmes.
Archiving
Funding for audiovisual archiving is now administered directly by the
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the arts, culture, built heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting sectors in New Zealand and advising government on ...
. Centralising such archiving funding was a key recommendation of the seminal Horrocks review led by NZ On Air and published in 2009. In 2008 NZOA funded the establishment of
NZ on Screen
NZ On Screen is a state-funded online promotional showcase of New Zealand television and film. Funded by NZ On Air, it provides free worldwide access to NZ-produced television, film and music videos. Content is streamed and the webpages provide ...
to enable easy online access for past New Zealand screen production. NZOA has since funded a similar NZ music history site
Audio Culture
AudioCulture is a New Zealand On Air funded online project billed as the "''Noisy Library of New Zealand Music''". Working with artists, historians and music industry people, the website tells the story of nearly 100 years of New Zealand popula ...
, which launched in 2013.
Promotion of New Zealand music
Aimed at increasing the diversity of New Zealand music on diverse platforms including radio.
Broadcasting fee
NZOA was established under the Broadcasting Act 1989, initially funded by an annual 110 licence fee known as the Public Broadcasting Fee, paid by each household with a television set.
A strong campaign developed in the late 1990s from a section of the public against the Broadcasting Fee.
The reason behind the campaign was to prove "whether the broadcasting fee is a tax and the legality of applying
GST GST may refer to:
Taxes
* General sales tax
* Goods and Services Tax, the name for the value-added tax in several jurisdictions:
** Goods and services tax (Australia)
** Goods and Services Tax (Canada)
** Goods and Services Tax (Hong Kong)
**G ...
to this tax". In the end the fee was scrapped in 1999, and the Commission has since been directly funded by the government. The fee was collected from those people who owned a television set although the fee was funding much more than television work, especially radio. Some campaigners believed this was unfair.
Music production
NZ on Air produces and distributes the Kiwi Hit Disc to showcase new funded music. NZOA provides "Making Tracks" funding for recording songs and their associated music videos. Funded music is chosen by a monthly, rotating panel of broadcast and music professionals.
Controversies and criticism
NZ on Air has attracted criticism over claims of misuse of its funds. In mid-2010 it spent $75,000 on two events celebrate 21 years of activity and between 2006 and 2011 it gave $80,000 in funding to help produce recordings and music videos for
Annabel Fay, daughter of one of New Zealand's richest men,
Sir Michael Fay. The Fay controversy contributed to the scrapping of the NZ on Air Album funding scheme in December 2010. NZ on Air was also criticised in 2012 for helping fund the production of ''
The GC
''The GC'' is a New Zealand reality television series that premiered on TV3 on 2 May 2012 in New Zealand. The series follows the lives of a group of Māori living in Gold Coast, Queensland.
The series has been compared to the American reality s ...
'', a
TV3 documentary series about young
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
New Zealanders living on Australia's Gold Coast and for granting $30,000 to assist recording by
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...
, the winner of a radio competition to create a boy band.
In early 2012,
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
MPs accused NZ on Air of a potential conflict of interest when NZ on Air board member and Prime Minister
John Key
Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to 2016. After resigning from bo ...
's electorate chairman Stephen McElrea questioned the timing of the NZ on Air-funded documentary ''Inside Child Poverty'', broadcast four days before the
2011 New Zealand general election
The 2011 New Zealand general election took place on Saturday 26 November 2011 to determine the membership of the 50th New Zealand Parliament.
One hundred and twenty-one MPs were elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives, 70 from sing ...
. Two days after the broadcast, NZ on Air CEO Jane Wrightson had written to broadcaster
TV3, expressing her disappointment with the show being broadcast days before the election. Complaints were laid with the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
, which found the documentary did not come under its jurisdiction so it could not rule. The
Broadcasting Standards Authority
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA; mi, Te Mana Whanonga Kaipāho) is a New Zealand Crown entity created by the Broadcasting Act 1989 to develop and uphold standards of broadcasting for radio, free-to-air and pay television.
The main ...
also received a complaint, but found the documentary did not break its rules on fairness, and law and order.
''Being Chloe'' Controversy
In mid-2022, NZ on Air was labelled "tone-deaf" by opposition MPs after it was revealed that NZ on Air had granted $200,000 to fund a documentary about a sitting coalition MP, who was seeking re-election in 2023. Being Chlöe is the third documentary profiling Green MP
Chlöe Swarbrick
Chlöe Charlotte Swarbrick (born 26 June 1994) is a New Zealand politician. Following a high-profile but unsuccessful run for the 2016 Auckland mayoral election, she became a parliamentary candidate for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, ...
to get funded by NZ On Air since her election in 2017. NZ On Air refused to answer 1News' questions on the issue, saying it was too busy.
In response to the controversy, Broadcasting Minister
Kris Faafoi
Kristopher John Faafoi (born 23 June 1976) is a former New Zealand Labour Party politician. He became the Member of Parliament for the Mana electorate in 2010. He did not contest the seat as an electorate MP in 2020 but continued as a list MP ...
said NZ On Air is independent and answerable for its funding decisions. Three days later, NZ on Air released a statement saying "NZ On Air runs a contestable funding process, to which any producer, with the support of an eligible platform, can submit a funding application on any subject", and that neither Swarbrick nor the Green Party will have any editorial control, or financial benefit.
See also
*
Television in New Zealand
Television in New Zealand was introduced in 1960 as a state-run service. The broadcasting sector was deregulated in 1989, when the Government allowed competition to the state-owned Television New Zealand (TVNZ). There are currently three forms o ...
*
Radio in New Zealand
Radio broadcasting began in New Zealand in 1922, and is now dominated by almost thirty radio networks and station groups. The Government has dominated broadcasting since 1925, but through privatisation and deregulation (in 1989) has allowed comme ...
References
Further reading
*
"Sounds Like Us" 2010 independent discussion paper on the organisation
"Is That It? 26 years of Brendan Smyth 2015 independent discussion paper on the organisation's first 26 years
History of NZ on Air 1989 – 2011by Paul Norris and Brian Pauling
External links
*
nbsp;– founding legislation for the Commission
New Zealand On Air music recording archiveat the
Alexander Turnbull Library
The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...
{{Authority control
1989 establishments in New Zealand
Government agencies established in 1989
New Zealand music
Air
The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
Funding bodies of New Zealand
Television in New Zealand
Public broadcasting