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Speaker 1: TVNZ has returned to profit. Sot Own Broadcasters posted a

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Speaker 1: net profit after tax fifty three point one million bucks

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Speaker 1: for This is for the six months to December. That

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Speaker 1: includes a forty one million dollar non cash adjustment to

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Speaker 1: remove costs. The operational earnings eleven point eight million dollars.

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Speaker 1: It's not all good news though for TVNZ it isn't

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Speaker 1: sure whether the full year result will be a profit

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Speaker 1: or loss. Jody O'Donnell is the tvn Z CEO. Jody

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Speaker 1: good evening, ran Hi, how are you very well? Thank you?

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Speaker 1: You must be pleased with this result.

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Speaker 2: I am really pleased. It's encouraging, not just from what

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Speaker 2: we've seen in the last six months, but what the

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Speaker 2: next six months looks like, which is most encouraging. A

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Speaker 2: lot of people forget that TVZ isn't funded by the taxpayer,

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Speaker 2: so we are a commercial business. Ninety seven percent of

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Speaker 2: our revenue comes from advertising, so to be amongst a

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Speaker 2: lot of businesses that have been challenged over the last

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Speaker 2: couple of months, we've had to live within our means.

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Speaker 2: So I'm really encouraged with the result today.

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Speaker 1: How much of this is to do with the fall

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Speaker 1: of news Hub and TV three's advertising.

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Speaker 2: Revenue, I would say a very small amount, and that

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Speaker 2: is because obviously the overall market has been down. So yes,

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Speaker 2: we have enjoyed some increased viewership, but actually the overall

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Speaker 2: market has been down. So I would say small returns

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Speaker 2: which have come from those additional audiences.

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Speaker 1: Have those additional audiences resulted in extra revenue or are

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Speaker 1: you saying that that you've got more viewers but you

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Speaker 1: haven't got more money.

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Speaker 2: What I'd say is that with platform TVNS Plus, we've

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Speaker 2: introduced a newstab and within that we're now producing more news.

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Speaker 2: So two hundred thousand keiws are now watching news every

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Speaker 2: single week on TVs plus with news clips, and so

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Speaker 2: I would say that would be additional audiences and therefore

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Speaker 2: additional revenue.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned in your release that half of your revenue,

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Speaker 1: your revenue now comes from digital. Is that is that correct?

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Speaker 2: Twenty five percent our revenue is coming from digital. Our

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Speaker 2: ambition is for it to.

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Speaker 1: Be half a soive at the moment, how quickly is

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Speaker 1: your your terrestrial dropping off?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So we've got a five year strategy and at

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Speaker 2: the end of the five years, we expect that at

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Speaker 2: least fifty percent of our revenue will be from digital

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Speaker 2: and the other fifty percent will be from broadcasts, So

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Speaker 2: there will be a point where they cross, and it

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Speaker 2: could be twenty eight, twenty nine anywhere between there.

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Speaker 1: And how much is an AD on tallyworth versus an

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Speaker 1: AD on digital? The cost must be completely different.

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Speaker 2: It's a really different cost s base and I think

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Speaker 2: that's what's contributed to our digital revenue growth. We can

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Speaker 2: now engage with small New Zealand businesses who previously had

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Speaker 2: thought they couldn't afford to advertise on TV. But on

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Speaker 2: TVZ Plus you can spend as little as one thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars advertising with us and still reach a large audience.

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Speaker 2: So it's really open to the opportunities for us to

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Speaker 2: talk to lots of small businesses as well as the bigger,

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Speaker 2: more corporate businesses which have tended to invest more on television.

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Speaker 1: How much longer will you have free to air television

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Speaker 1: on it?

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Speaker 2: I've said that by twenty thirty, and that's our digital strategy.

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Speaker 2: We'll have the ability to turn off DTT. But that's

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Speaker 2: a conversation that we would need to have obviously in

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Speaker 2: line with our shareholder, the government. Yeah, that's right to

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Speaker 2: make sure that all New Zealanders can still access television.

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Speaker 2: That's a really important part of our mandate.

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Speaker 1: How many of your viewers are currently watching your content

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Speaker 1: on TV versus your TVNZ plus?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good question. Every night about two million New Zealanders

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Speaker 2: are watching on our broadcast channels, our TV channels, and

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Speaker 2: every week one point sixty five New Zealanders are streaming

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Speaker 2: our content on TVs plus.

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Speaker 1: How do you shift them over?

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Speaker 2: Well, they're actually doing a bit of both at the moment.

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Speaker 2: So yes, there will always be an audience that still

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Speaker 2: watches terrestrial TV so the way they have always watched it,

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Speaker 2: and that audience is getting older. But actually you've still

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Speaker 2: got a really broad audience across TV. So bringing in

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Speaker 2: new shows such as David Jackal dropping it for first

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Speaker 2: on our streaming platform TVs plus means that viewers can

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Speaker 2: switch between the two options, either watching it as live

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Speaker 2: on broadcast TV or streaming it on tv Z plus

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Speaker 2: when they want to. And that's what we've been experimenting

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Speaker 2: with is dropping different pieces of content at different times,

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Speaker 2: either on our broadcast channels or on tv Z Plus

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Speaker 2: to allow viewers to use both options. Because at some

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Speaker 2: stage we will need to say guess what. There's a

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Speaker 2: better way to watch and it's called TVNZ plus.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned Dave the Jackal. That's a British TV series,

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Speaker 1: isn't it? When will you be investing more in New

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Speaker 1: Zealand content.

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Speaker 2: We've still got over one hundred local shows that are

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Speaker 2: in production or in development over the next twelve months.

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Speaker 1: And you haven't cut any of that back.

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Speaker 2: So we're still investing hugely into our local content. So

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Speaker 2: we've said about so we haven't this year. We did

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Speaker 2: last year on FY twenty four, but this year I

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Speaker 2: have a fifty percent of our content investment will still

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Speaker 2: be across local That includes news, sport and local productions.

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Speaker 1: News is bloody experts, isn't it?

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Speaker 2: No comment?

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Speaker 1: And it's The thing about news is that it's it's

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Speaker 1: you need it, it's important, but it's annoyingly expensive to produce.

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Speaker 1: I mean that's Look, I've just come from a place

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Speaker 1: where that was that was proved true.

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Speaker 2: Look, news and sport are the two pieces of content

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Speaker 2: that bring people into our platform every single day. So

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Speaker 2: whilst it's expensive, it's really important. It's important for the

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Speaker 2: daily usage of our channels and of our streaming platform,

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Speaker 2: and so we certainly look looking for more efficiencies that

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Speaker 2: we can get out of our news product. And like

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Speaker 2: I said earlier, having us the news tab on TVND

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Speaker 2: plus allows us to renew, reuse that news so that

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Speaker 2: it doesn't just get used once at six o'clock and

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Speaker 2: then it's on the cutting room floor. It's reused and

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Speaker 2: therefore able to be monetized. So I think we just

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Speaker 2: need to think of it differently around how actually we

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Speaker 2: do distribute news. It's not just a one time once

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Speaker 2: on anymore.

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Speaker 1: All Right, Jody, thank you very much for being with me.

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Speaker 1: Jodyo o'donald, TVNZ's chief executive on the half year result

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Speaker 1: thirteen minutes after six Now their full year result. They're

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Speaker 1: expecting operational earnings of between five and negative five million

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Speaker 1: dollars for the full year. For more from Heather Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.