Mike’s Minute: The taxpayer can’t be the only provider for TV news

There is some angst in some media circles at the moment over funding for Māori TV news.

A couple of programmes are facing some sort of cut, or cancellation, or realignment because of changes in the way money is handed out from the Māori funding agency.

This is not new. Media in this country post-Covid has gone through a fairly major overhaul with many a casualty and a pile of significant change.

The reality for media that is funded by the state is you are beholden to the purveyor of the purse string.

Under the Labour Government, the amount of money handed out to media was ridiculous. The trouble with that sort of largesse is it can never last.

Fill your boots while you can, because as sure as night follows day, reality, or reckoning, will come.

In terms of Māori news programmes, here is the part that eludes me: how is it, as we have seen this past week, that all we ever get when funding gets adjusted is a complaint-athon?

All we hear is people bemoaning their lot and fearing change.

Here is the solution: if these programmes are of value, as they claim they are, what is stopping, and what has ever stopped them, from going to the commercial sector to get advertising or sponsorship support?

Why is the Government i.e. the taxpayer, the only source of income?

If the Māori news programmes are so valuable, then where is the Māori economy?

I have read any number of times that the Māori economy is booming. There are any number of success stories in the Māori economy. It is a growth sector, and it is, by some reports, booming.

Investment has led to expansion, reinvestment and riches - where are they? Why aren't they advertising or sponsoring these Māori products? Can they not see the synergies?

How is it the connection has not been made? Business is always looking for advertising or marketing outlets.

Why are the makers, producers and hosts of these programmes not looking to the commercial sector for an ongoing and stable level of support?

Why is the taxpayer the sole provider of their paychecks?

If you have a product worth its salt and if you are what you claim (relevant, popular and good at what you do) then there is always an answer.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.