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Speaker 1: And TVNZ plans to acts its one news website as

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Speaker 1: part of a bid to say thirty million dollars. The

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Speaker 1: state owned broadcaster told staff and internal meeting. It also

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Speaker 1: wants to consolidate some areas of the business to align

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Speaker 1: with its new strategy, change roster patterns and outsource some

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Speaker 1: areas of the business. It will invest in news for

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Speaker 1: TV and Z plus and they will create a new

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Speaker 1: center for data and AI. There is a two week

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Speaker 1: consultation process before any final decisions have made, and former

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Speaker 1: News Hub head of News Mark Jennings is with us

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Speaker 1: this evening.

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Speaker 2: Kilder Mark, Yeah, Cure Jack, Are you.

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Speaker 1: Surprised about the website? Call?

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Speaker 2: I am a bit to be honest. It must have

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Speaker 2: been losing a lot of money, I think for this

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Speaker 2: to happen, because I can't think of another major news

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Speaker 2: organization or major broadcaster anywhere around the world that doesn't

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Speaker 2: have its own dedicated website and app. So yeah, I'm surprised.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think in recent months TVNZ has started to

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Speaker 1: put more of its news content on its streaming service

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Speaker 1: because the TVNZ Plus has been a real success over

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Speaker 1: the last few years. But is it as simple as

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Speaker 1: moving audiences to that platform.

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Speaker 2: No, I don't think it is, and you, as you

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Speaker 2: described that it is a streaming video site TVNZ plus,

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Speaker 2: I don't know that that's where people will naturally go

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Speaker 2: when they want to find out the latest news story,

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Speaker 2: and it's certainly that sites. I don't think it'll be

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Speaker 2: able to send you a notification either. So it feels

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Speaker 2: to me like this really is a bit of a

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Speaker 2: setback or one News.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's I mean thirty million dollars they've got

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Speaker 1: to save, and they've been really open about that. Do

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Speaker 1: you think it is viable for a broadcaster like TVNZ

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four to be making high quality local

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Speaker 1: content that goes out on linear TV and is streamable

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Speaker 1: online and returns a profit.

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Speaker 2: No. I think the freedomware industry is really struggling. And

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Speaker 2: I listening to you earlier and you made the point

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Speaker 2: that it's got to be about more than money. I

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Speaker 2: think in terms of its news service, I mean we've

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Speaker 2: seen news Hub now three news really eviscerated. Really the

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Speaker 2: stuff bulletin is really nowhere there. What news Hub was

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Speaker 2: doing and now where I think was that we're going

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Speaker 2: to see the start of that process at TV and

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Speaker 2: Z because look, getting rid of the website and probably

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Speaker 2: it's digital team that produced content for that site is

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Speaker 2: not going to save thirty million. It's not going to

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Speaker 2: save anywhere near it. Now. I know they've suggested other things,

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Speaker 2: but some of those other things look like increasing costs

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Speaker 2: rather than saving them to me.

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Speaker 1: Like the new ai is and data center. Well, I

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Speaker 1: suppose you know, if you to cover a thirty million

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Speaker 1: dollar hole, you can cut costs. You've also got an

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Speaker 1: option to try and increase revenue. But doing those two

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Speaker 1: things at the same time is never easy.

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Speaker 2: No, and we've seen if we go back I think

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, you know, Chip and Z it was

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Speaker 2: a three hundred and forty million dollar revenue company. Now

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Speaker 2: it's a two hundred and eighty eight million dollar company,

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Speaker 2: and it might end up at a two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty million dollar revenue company. So the revenue side is

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Speaker 2: not going well at all.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure they're hoping that things are going to turn

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Speaker 1: around as their economy bounces back. Thank you very much

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Speaker 1: for your time, Matte, We appreciate it. There's the former

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Speaker 1: head of news for news Hub Market Innings for more

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Speaker 1: from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to news talks.

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