Shanks Katrina: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Shanks Katrina: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:18282] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 The purpose of the Television New Zealand Amendment Bill is to ensure that TVNZ has the capacity to continue to grow and succeed as New Zealand’s national television and media company. In the first reading debate Minister Coleman explained why the current charter was unworkable and that the bill would have the effect of freeing up TVNZ to function as a competitive multimedia company. 
When the bill came to the Commerce Committee we heard some of the reasons why the charter had not made a difference to the content of State television. We looked more closely at why replacing the charter will give TVNZ the flexibility it needs in order to effectively pursue commercial objectives. 
In this bill the TVNZ charter is replaced with a statement of functions. Clause 6 substitutes a new section 12 which states that TVNZ will provide services and content on a choice of delivery platforms. That is absolutely crucial to the growth of TVNZ. In order for TVNZ to remain competitive it is important that it keeps up to date with consumer needs. One of the main issues outlined in the select committee hearing was that current legislation does not recognise TVNZ as a multimedia company. Today TVNZ has numerous online services—for example TVNZ Ondemand which is very popular and widely used. The TVNZ website receives 1.4 million unique hits per month. The TVNZ Ondemand service has attracted 300000 unique browsers per month. By replacing the charter with a set of functions those sorts of services will be recognised and encouraged. 
With its new high-level functions and its own strategic direction TVNZ retains its vital role as a willing broadcaster of local content. This role is essential to the contestable funding model which in order to succeed needs broadcasters willing to commission and screen New Zealand content. The Platinum Television Fund which allocates $15.1 million for projects to screen on any of New Zealand’s free-to-air national broadcasters gives the best possible projects the chance to make it to our screens. Programmes such as  
Q+A  
and other documentaries have been successful applicants for that funding. 
The second major aspect of this bill is that it unlocks works that are currently archived by TVNZ. The archived works scheme is ground-breaking in proposing a scheme to enable the rescreening of works that have been unavailable for reuse because of the need to negotiate with multiple contract-holders. This topic was extensively discussed by the submitters and provisions were amended by the committee accordingly. The committee has recommended that the definition of “archived work” be changed to make it clear that it would apply only to works made on or before 27 May 1989 for which TVNZ owns the whole copyright. 
Our Government aims to strike a balance between the public good of allowing those works to be re-shown and acknowledging the rights of contract-holders. New section 29G which is inserted by clause 10 also provides for the establishment of the TVNZ Archived Works Fund from which compensation would be paid for the screening of an archived work. 
I believe this bill will allow TVNZ the capacity to grow and stay relevant in today’s environment. Thank you.