Given that we’re in the midst of a Climate Emergency, Indians are demanding to bring their entire villages here and Christopher Luxon has been selected to stand for Botany, I couldn’t help wondering where the “Stuffed” headline came from.
I must have been living under a rock somewhere because I was completely unaware that anybody had even asked the question, never mind determined what New Zealanders want. Indeed, I’d go so far as to suggest that by and large, most people haven’t thought about it, have little interest in it and don’t much care what happens as long as it doesn’t cost them anything.
So who exactly is this “lobby group” that thinks the Broadcasting Minister needs an option for a question we didn’t even know he was asking?
The group is BPM, the Better Public Media Trust. Yes, I know, I’ve asked around. Surveyed some friends and acquaintances. The headline from my survey reads: “Completely Unknown Lobby Group Produces Completely Useless Survey”. Margin of error +/- zero percent and 100% of the sample had never heard of BPM. Surprise surprise.
The survey was conducted by Research New Zealand on line: “based on a nationally representative sample of n=1000 adult New Zealanders interviewed in late October 2019 through New Zealand’s largest online panel provider (Dynata).”
Suggesting people are being “interviewed” when they are in fact responding to an on line questionnaire, no matter how scientific, is stretching it a bit don’t you think?
Those selected as part of the sample get to choose one of five options: “Strongly Disapprove”, “Disapprove”, “Neutral”, “Approve” or “Strongly Approve” to questions like: “How much do you approve or disapprove of each of the following statements about free to air television?” and they’re offered statements like: “Turn TV One into an ad free channel and web site” or “Remove ads from TV One on weekends” and so it goes on.
If you’re interested, the detailed results of the survey are on the BPM web site. Please don’t all rush there together or you’ll crash their site (/sarc).
Sarcasm aside, there’s always been a group of people here hell bent on pushing the concept of quality public broadcasting. Of course the word “quality” is very subjective and often really means “stuff I like or agree with”. I wish them well and hope they succeed in getting what they want with only one proviso: That they don’t look to me and the rest of New Zealand to pay for them to have that privilege. In other words – user pays.
We currently have public radio and the numbers speak for themselves. RNZ National’s audience share among all radio stations in New Zealand is 11.1% and RNZ Concert (when did you last listen to either?) is 3.8% (looks like you haven’t been). All of us pay for that. Is it value for money? Is it something government should be involved with? Why not have KIWI TV with Twyford in charge?