TV3 opposes homegrown quota system

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 28

TV3 opposes homegrown quota system

PA Auckland TV3, one of the third television channel warrant contenders, has come out against a quota system for New Zealand productions in evidence to the Royal Commission on Broadcasting. Mr Jeffrey Bennet, the managing director-desig-nate of TV3 which will serve the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay regions if granted a warrant, said his company emphasised quality rather than quantity. Although TV3 has not yet presented its submission to the tribunal which will grant the third channel warrant, it and another five of the eight warrant applicants will appear before the commission to make submissions relating to better broadcasting in this country.

A quota and points system to encourage fair exposure of homegrown productions in peak hours is being promoted by the Film Commission and has been supported by several of the applicants in evidence to the tribunal. Mr Bennet said TV3 had consistently opposed “a formalised quota being applied to indigenous programme production.” He said the competition induced by a third channel would demand highquality, local programming.

“A steady diet of imported products soon palls and the audience demands quality indigenous programming with which it can identify.”

Mr Bennet cited Australian television channels as examples of those which functioned under a quota and points system but sometimes exceeded targets up to 100 per cent. He said that if a high level of output was demanded under a quota system, development of some types of programming might become difficult.

“High-quality drama, comedy, entertainment

specials and major documentary series .would be: difficult to produce in the \ first year of operation of' a new warrant-holder, .- and points would then - need to be accumulated through cheaper forms of programming such as quiz.. shows and cooking pro-’ grammes. •

( “The resources re--quired to produce these, programmes may well mean that there are insuf-’ ficient reserves in staffing, equipment or budget - to make the transition to. the other forms of pro- 1 duction when the neces-; sary skills and talent are - available.” The other five contenders to appear before; the commission are Southern Cross Television,United Telecast Corpora-, tlon, Energy Source Tele- > vision, Impact Television and the Aotearoa Broad- - casting System.