Netflix is a wasteland for NZ TV. A bold new campaign hopes to change that
If they get their way, we might not just watch Netflix, but see ourselves there too.
I sometimes feel like I focus too much on the business side of pop culture and not enough on the electric products that attract us to it in the first place. But we are deep into the most profound behavioural shift of our lifetime, yet have barely changed our tax and regulatory settings in response. It has profoundly impacted the volume and quality of what our creatives make. So if we want to have locally produced news or entertainment in the places we spend our digital lives, we have to pay attention to the pipe.
SPADA, the screen producer’s guild, is doing just that, launching a campaign that seeks to impose a levy on the streaming giants. If successful, it could step change the (currently tiny) amount of local content we see on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. I’ve focused on this deceptively huge step this week and have recommendations on what to watch and what to read below.
— Duncan Greive, Rec Room editor
New Zealand’s screen production industry has a vast, unruly population. It contains overlords like James Cameron, Taika Waititi, Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. It also contains thousands of actors, cinematographers, location scouts and wardrobe assistants who work gig to gig and rely on the volume and scale of productions here to make rent.
To interact between the overlords, the big productions and those who staff them, it’s organised into guilds, a mediaeval-sounding term for what are functionally unions representing different aspects of the business. The most prominent and vocal is probably SPADA, which represents screen producers. They’re the people who put TV shows and movies together, organising everything from finance to crew and problem-solving everything in between. My humble advice: if you want anything done in this world, hire a producer. The Spinoff is run by one, and much the better for it.
One of the big challenges for the screen production sector here has been the shift of viewing habits from analogue TV channels like TVNZ1, Three and Sky to streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime, along with UGC platforms like YouTube and TikTok. As the TVNZ-supplied chart above shows, they have collectively swallowed a vast amount of the attention and corresponding advertising revenue that once funded local productions. While there is a bedrock of consistent money through NZ on Air, Te Mangai Pāho and the NZ Film Commission, shows and movies outside that system are dwindling. The impact of that on what we watch is pretty stark. TVNZ+ (364) and Three Now (81) combine for almost 450 local productions available to stream right now. The equivalent number for Netflix, by far the most popular streamer in New Zealand? Seven, with an average release year of 2008.
That’s what has prompted SPADA to head to the incoming government to demand a levy on streamers to be distributed back into the industry through the funding agencies. Their opening bid is around 5%, which some rough maths suggests could bring in around $11m per year into a sector that is suffering through both a tough macroeconomic climate and the prolonged impact of the still-live actor’s strike. It would also mean that there is a small but hopefully growing supply of original local productions on international streaming platforms, exposing local and global audiences to our voice.
I spoke to SPADA president Irene Gardiner about the idea and why she feels its time is now.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity
Rec Room: Tell us about the levy and why you need it.
Irene Gardiner: What we're proposing is that the international streamers operating in New Zealand have a levy put on their New Zealand revenue that is then invested back into local productions via our three funding agencies. Quotas, which is another way that some other countries are going on this, are very tricky because of the trade agreements that we have.
How have the streamers responded to the idea internationally, whether it's operating or proposed?
I mean, this is happening around the world – New Zealand is a little slow off the mark. The streamers have pushed back, and they will push back because in the end they're businesses. But at the heart of all this is the fact that they operate in New Zealand. They don't pay any local tax*. They use our broadband infrastructure, which was partially paid for by New Zealand taxpayers. They don't have any broadcasting regulations. And as everyone knows, they have been really devastating for viewership of the traditional free-to-air local broadcasters.
What are the impacts of that transfer of viewership and revenues from local companies like TVNZ and Three, to the likes of Netflix, YouTube and Disney+?
Things are pretty challenging out there at the moment because the impact of the streamers has been gradually taking away viewership and therefore ad revenue. Historically, some of that was ploughed back into local production. That's been compounded a bit of late because of the economy.
The New Zealand screen industry contributes about $3bn a year to the New Zealand economy, and about a billion of that is production. Those millions of dollars are largely brought here by international, but you have to have a strong domestic industry. You don't get one without the other. The other side is the cultural – the loss of the New Zealand voice, New Zealand stories, New Zealand accent, New Zealand humour. Which, at a time when there is a lot of societal division, becomes very important.
There is an argument that screen is the most privileged sector in the country in terms of funding and rebates. What would you say to the incoming government, whose response might be, ‘not you again’?
We're not asking for any money. We're asking for the government to do some work to get our industry some money. So we would hope that that would be well received because this is a business initiative. It's actually bringing more money into our industry.
* Not strictly true, but the tax paid per dollar earned by the streamers is risible compared to local businesses.
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- Madeleine Chapman, Spinoff editor
Quick pop culture hits
Alex Casey explains why you should be both excited and somewhat concerned about the return of Married at First Sight NZ next year.
Tara Ward interviews the maker of Shepherdess, a new docuseries covering the under-explored lives of rural women.
Late breaking news: The Project is likely to finish this year. I break down what that means on an emergency edition of The Fold.
Former Rec Room ed Chris Schulz used a new Rodney Fisher (ex-Goodshirt) album to wonder where all the music critics have gone in his excellent newsletter Boiler Room. I’m going to have him on my podcast, The Fold, soon to discuss that theme further.
Sam Brooks with an absolute rave for the new Spiderman game (related: Chelsea Rapp on The Fold talking about NZ’s gaming industry).
Cate Calver, the longtime head of content at TVNZ, has moved to Great Southern TV. It means she renews a friendly rivalry with former Three head of content Andrew Szusterman, who is now running fellow production powerhouse South Pacific Pictures.
I’ve been obsessed with Bottoms ever since a cover story in New York magazine called it “the horny, bloody lesbian incel comedy America has been waiting for”. It now (finally) has a New Zealand release date.
Fat Freddy’s Drop is doing something typically extra and releasing not just a whole season of a doc but four seasons at once. Handycam Time Machine is coming via RNZ on Monday.
WTF is Crypto? A new TVNZ series tells one side of a complex story
Few movements in technology have been as polarising as that of crypto, blockchain and web3. To true believers, it’s a revolution that will upend everything from art to finance. To sceptics, it’s a giant metastasising scam happening in plain sight. Given events of the past 18 months, with the spectacular fall of Sam Bankman-Fried only the most familiar of a long list of flameouts, it’s been a good run for the sceptics. I believe that, as with most things, the truth lies in between – there are some very interesting ideas, companies and tech, but an awful lot of scammy people looking to get rich quick while spruiking a libertarian theology that ultimately undermines governments and faith in institutions.
That’s why it’s so mystifying that TVNZ would run what amounts to a six-part feature-length ad for crypto, uncritically lionising the tech and the local scene without ever testing whether it might have a counterargument.
WTF is crypto? is streaming now on TVNZ+
Lily Gladstone steals Killers of the Flower Moon from the familiar crime saga
As I’ve documented on The Spinoff, I have an undiagnosed disorder which means I fall asleep whenever sedentary for prolonged periods. This has kept me away from the cinema for a decade, but I’m committed to figuring out a way to get back there. I watched Martin Scorsese’s epic on the murders of the Osage in Oklahoma as a way of escaping the heat during a recent trip to Singapore and only slept for 10 minutes. It features a roster of familiar Scorsese faces, but its centring of Mollie Burkhart’s life felt new – the film is really carried by Lily Gladstone’s performance in that role. I loved this Vulture profile of her rise, and while it is long, I was riveted.
Celebrity Treasure Island has no right to be this good
By this point, you’re either on this very strange bandwagon or somewhere between confused and offended by its existence at all. I get it – the revival of a forgettable Julie Christie reality TV format does not scream “essential viewing”. But this might have been the best season yet thanks to an inspired, no-duds cast, including the peerless Tame Iti. The finale aired Wednesday and featured a trio that, let’s face it, would just not have been given an hour of primetime until pretty recently: comedians James Mustapic and Courtney Dawson, along with actor / future prime minister Turia Schmidt-Peke. Mustapic ended up taking out a pulsating finale, we had him on The Real Pod for his first interview as victor, and it was a magical time.
See also: Laura Daniel details her life in TV, one of my favourite new formats on The Spinoff
Four buzz shows and movies streaming this week
Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV) – Based on the bestselling 2022 novel, set in 1950s Los Angeles, follows Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant but undervalued scientist who becomes the host of a cooking show. The story is fictional but based on real-life experiences of women working in broadcasting during this period. Apple TV
The Greatest Show Never Made (Prime Video) – In 2002, six young people travelled to London to take part in a new, top-secret, reality TV show. The only thing they knew was that the prize was 100,000 pounds, and they would have to give up a year of their lives. The only problem, the show didn't exist. Very excited about this three-part documentary.
Goosebumps (Disney+) – A new 10-episode series based on the classic RL Stine novels, good ghoulish family viewing, just in time for Halloween.
Ms Information (TVNZ+) – “I’m a woman. I’m fat. I’ve got pink hair. And I wear my values on my sleeve. That combination of things really angers a lot of people.” Siouxsie Wiles is scrutinised in this feature-length doc which has enviable access and archive but might get a little too close to its subject.
See also: All that’s new to streaming this week.
Also: If you enjoyed this newsletter, the most impactful things you can do to support it are: 1) become a Spinoff member — the next year will be extremely hard for our media, and we will feel it too. And/or 2) Share this with anyone you think will like it and encourage them to subscribe.