The government wants streaming providers to invest in local productions, and TV makers to carry NZ apps, as part of proposed media law refresh

Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH), has released a consultation document around proposed media reform, or more accurately, about New Zealand's media legislation, how to modernise it to ensure there is a fit for purpose regulatory and funding environment.

Other countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, European Union and Canada have already gone down similar routes to what has been proposed in New Zealand in recent years. The success of the measures is still being evaluated, but technical challenges to the implementation have caused delays.

Through the MCH, the government is putting forward five draft proposals aimed at keeping local media production alive in a landscape dominated by global streaming and broadcasting giants. 

Technology tweaks are included in the proposals, including forcing makers of Internet-connected TVs to provide local apps on their devices sold in New Zealand. As an example, the MCH discussion document says no local apps were found preinstalled on the newest LG and Samsung TVs.

Local apps can be difficult to find if users want to install them, and one TV model (either by LG or Samsung) wasn't compatible with the Māori+ online platform.

The government now proposes a requirement that TVs sold here must have local TV services preinstalled at no cost to providers. Not just that, but they need to have "basic level of prominence in terms of positioning on the homes screen".

Apps that provide free access to local content via online streaming that would get this treatment include TVNZ+, Freeview, ThreeNow and Māori+, the proposal says.

A new category of "regulated TV devices" is proposed. This includes smart TVs and accessories like streaming sticks, but not smartphones, computers and tablets.

Radio is not included in the proposal, unlike in some overseas jurisdictions, nor are local podcasts.

That TV makers would paint themselves into such a regulatory corner over a relatively quick and easy technical fix is surprising. There might be more to this particular topic though, such as restrictive licensing agreements across different geographies. 

Make streaming providers invest in NZ productions

Dominant global streaming providers such as Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video, Apple TV and Disney+ might be producing movies in New Zealand, but they have no obligations to show local content.

The discussion document notes that as of September 2024, Amazon Prime carried just over 10 New Zealand titles. Netflix had fewer than 10 whereas Disney and Apple+ had none.

TVNZ and Whakaata Māori, meanwhile, must display local content. 

To change that, the government proposes streaming providers will be obliged to invest a proportion of annual revenue in the creation or acquisition of local content, and also to make it discoverable for users.

Other options here include a levy, which might not increase access to local content if it doesn't appear on the streaming platforms, and minimum content requirements. The latter isn't favoured as it could be fulfilled with low-quality filler material rather than investment in new local productions.

Captioning important for an increasingly hard of hearing audience, but how?

Increasing captioning and audio description for people with hearing impediments or who are deaf, or who aren't fluent in the language of the content, is also proposed. Nearly half of New Zealanders watch TV with subtitles on, so this is important to many.

A risk with that proposal includes overseas producers finding cheap captioning providers, leading to poor-quality and inaccurate subtitling and audio captioning for low vision and blind people.

Interestingly enough, the document is silent on the use of artificial intelligence for captioning, even though the technology is increasingly used for that purpose currently.

BSA to cast a wider net

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) could also be in for an overhaul under the government's media regulation proposals. 

"As online and streaming media sources become more popular, the broadcasting standards regime is providing inconsistent and increasingly limited coverage of the media New Zealanders engage with," is how the government describes the problem with the present regulatory set-up.

A revised BSA would regulate NZ broadcasters and streaming platforms, global streaming platforms, "online text-based media" (it's unclear what that is, but could refer to Internet forums such as Reddit, blogs and newsletter publishers such as Substack), newspapers and magazines. 

User-generated content via Facebook and TikTok and other social media is not included in the widened BSA role, nor are results from search engines.

The government says more work needs to be done on the future of the broadcasting levy, and there's a mention of arrangements to support coherent and efficient labelling and classification requirements, particularly for commercial video on-demand providers that are already subject to a specific regime under the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993, which sets out New Zealand's censorship.

Merge NZ On Air and the Film Commission

Finally, the government is also considering merging NZ On Air and the Film Commission. 

The two organisations have wide-ranging remits, the discussion document notes, with the Film Commission having an economic focus and NZoA a cultural and identity one. NZoA also supports reporting and journalism.

Keeping both entities is not the preferred option, and it might be that this is the proposal that's most likely to go ahead, under a more detailed plan.

However, the government has not decided whether to progress with any of the high-level proposals by MCH, and there are no suggestions for funding level changes.

The deadline for submissions on the proposals close at 11.59 pm on Sunday, March 23.