July 2021 Newsletter

23 Jul 2021

Read all the funding details from our latest funding round, catch up with what's been happening in our Music sector, and meet some of our exciting new additions

A note from the CE

Tēna koe,

As I near 18 months at the helm of NZ On Air and begin a new financial year and mark Matariki, I am reflecting on the massive changes that we have all seen and continue to see in New Zealand and the sectors we support.

From the moment lockdown began last year we were busy looking at ways to support these sectors. We freed up some additional pūtea and created a fast turnaround lockdown fund for content creators that delivered $700k out into the industry. We engaged early with our Ministry and submitted various bids for additional funding which resulted in several new streams of funding. These included a doubling of funding for music, funds to assist productions impacted by COVID, a subsidy for platforms, the $50m Te Puna Kairangi co-administered with the NZFC and Te Māngai Pāho and most recently $55m to support at-risk Public Interest Journalism.

Fast forward to our most recent funding round and huge congratulations to all who were successful.

Our inaugural Public Interest Journalism funding round allocated around $9.6m to projects that cover important local, regional and national projects. Included in the funding also were training initiatives that will build the journalism workforce and capability for the future.

Getting this funding initiative up and running has been quite a feat, over and above our business as usual. We are very grateful to the team of external assessors who helped with this mahi – their expertise and judgment was invaluable.

Our role in funding public media has existed for over 30 years. Through this time we have always been very strong advocates for the importance of public media. Public media plays a vital role in reflecting who we are and bringing a nation together; creating inclusion and understanding are key to this. Under the Broadcasting Act we are required to fund content about New Zealanders and New Zealand interests, promote Māori language and Māori culture and ensure content is available for a wide variety of other important audiences. In this respect some of the ground-breaking projects in this round to support Māori Journalism will make a profound difference to our media landscape beyond the timeframe of this fund.

We are buoyed by the number of media embracing the momentum for change. It has genuinely been a pleasure to see the way applicants to the fund have embraced the opportunity to collaborate, enrich their newsrooms with both capability and competency including in matters te ao Māori, and deliver a wide range of content for many different audiences.

We continue to work alongside Te Māngai Pāho and the NZFC on Te Puna Kairangi Fund and hope the recent injection of significant additional funding into the development of a number of screen projects - including some NZ On Air returning series - will bolster the screen sector for some years to come.

Additional COVID-related funding for music has meant we have been able to massively increase our support of the local music recording industry and as a result local music artists are smashing radio airplay records.

We have no shortage of excellent projects pitched to us for funding. There is much to be positive about.

Kia pai tō rā

Cam

NZ Media Fund update

Our May/July round was for production applications to our Scripted and Factual streams of the NZ Media Fund, and the Industry Development Fund (IDF).

In total we received 100 applications seeking $43.5m. We are pleased to support the funding of 41 Scripted, Factual and IDF applications for up to $14.8m.

We also received 123 applications to the Public Interest Journalism Fund, asking for more than $44m from a total pool of $9.6m available in the first round. A panel including independent industry assessors recommended 34 applications for funding.

The full details of all funding decisions are at the end of this newsletter. You can also use the funding decisions search on our website.

Scripted

A new Jewish comedy series and the return of a successful Tongan drama are among a new batch of Scripted content to be made for online and broadcast TV audiences with NZ On Air funding.

Five Scripted projects were supported in our latest funding round, including the much-loved comedy series New Zealand Today, 7 Days and Patriot Brains.

Read more about the projects in our media release here.

Factual

NZ On Air has announced over $9m of funding for Factual projects that reveal powerful insights about Aotearoa’s past, present and future.

23 new and returning series have been funded. Local favourites Country Calendar, Cold Case, The Check Up, and Changing South will all return to Aotearoa’s screens for another season, alongside new projects like A Boy Called Piano, When Bob Came, Unruly, and Crying At Work.

Read all the details in our media release here

Alice Snedden’s Bad News — Alice Snedden's Bad News

Public Interest Journalism

Stories examining issues of importance to a wide range of communities, and programmes designed to upskill and increase the number of journalists are among projects approved in the inaugural round of the Public Interest Journalism Fund.

Established in February with a $55m government allocation to NZ On Air, the fund aims to support at-risk public interest journalism, meeting local, regional and national audience needs.

The first funding round of $9.6m has just been awarded by NZ On Air, and $3.5m from the first round will go to projects with a Māori journalism impact (with a further $1.6m already committed for a second year in one large-scale project.)

% expenditure to date

Current round

The September round is focused on production applications intended to reflect and/or appeal to targeted audiences. It is the round where most of our funding for Children’s content for both HEIHEI and other platforms is committed.

Production applications will be considered as follows:

Factual – the focus for this round is for applications for targeted audiences that will deliver to all genres of Factual content (including Children).

Children’s Factual content applications supported by platforms that are not HEIHEI on TVNZ OnDemand should apply through this stream.
- There is a separate application process for producers intending to make Factual video content specifically for HEIHEI on TVNZ OnDemand. The round information for that application process is available here.
These applications are most likely to deliver to the Many Perspectives and Fresh Opportunities streams of the Factual Roadmap.
Approximately $17m has been allocated for Factual content in this round.

Scripted – the focus for this round is for applications for Premier and Sustainable streams of our Scripted Roadmap.

Children’s Scripted content applications (including games for the HEIHEI games platform) supported by platforms that are not HEIHEI on TVNZ OnDemand should apply through this stream.
- There is a separate application process for producers intending to make Scripted video content specifically for HEIHEI on TVNZ OnDemand. The round information for that application process is available here.
- Information for HEIHEI games applications is available here.
Approximately $18m has been allocated for scripted content in this round.

Development – both Content (including Diverse Development) and Industry Development applications will be considered. However, funding for both streams is very limited and applications will have to reach a high bar to be successful. Please see the Development Roadmap.

Factual development applications will only be accepted for projects that require significant research and have co-funding from the supporting platform.
Further information on Industry Development and Cultural Sector Capability Funding can be seen in paragraphs F and G of the round information.

Important dates

8 July 2021, 4 pm - Funding round opens.

5 August 2021, 4pm - Application deadline. Round closes.

22 September 2021 - Decisions confirmed, applicants notified the following day.
This date may be extended at NZ On Air’s sole discretion.

2109_Information for funding applicants Sept 2021.pdf

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Music update

2020/21 Music funding wrap

We have completed our first full funding year since a boost in Music funds from the Arts Recovery Package, which was announced in May 2020 as a response to the challenges caused by COVID-19.

Both NZ On Air and the NZ Music Commission received extra funding for two years to bolster the local industry. Under the various NZ On Air Music grant schemes we have heavily invested in additional local music content in the 12 months since including:

206 x New Music Single grants (up to $10,000 to record and promote a single release)
49 x New Music Project grants (up to $40,000 to record and promote a multi-single release)
80 x New Music Development grants (up to $6,000 to create new demos from emerging artists collaborating with experienced producers/songwriters)
14 x Waiata Takitahi grants (a co-fund with Te Māngai Pāho investing up to $14,000 to record and promote a single release incorporating at least 25% te reo Māori)
20 x New Music Pasifika grants (up to $10,000 to record and promote a single release from Pasifika artists)
25 x New Music Kids grants (up to $10,000 to record and promote a single or multi-single release from children’s music artists)
17 x Music Feature grants (various amounts to create content for local platforms promoting new local music releases).

We have also been able to introduce an Artist Creation Fee for all Single and Project grants, along with additional $500 Professional Services allowances for all Single-based grants to wrap more professional support around artists receiving funding to assist with release planning.

The second year of additional funding has begun with 36 New Music Single grants confirmed in the July 2021 New Music Single round, and the latest New Music Pasifika grants to be announced in early August. The additional funding is in place until 30 June 2022.

Radio airplay

Radio airplay figures for our funding year ending 30 June 2021 have seen a sustained increase in the levels of local music played on radio.

All round there has been a lot more NZ music played on local stations in the past year exposing more New Zealanders than ever to the wonderful array of great music our local artists are making.

For commercial radio stations that play contemporary music, the figure was 22.69% for 2020/21, compared with 19.27% for 2019/20 and 18.04% for 2018/19. in the alternative radio space, the 2020/21 figure was 69.81% compared with 60.24% in 2019/20 and 53.61% in 2018/19.

Pacific Music Awards 2021 finalists announced

The Pacific Music Awards is returning to a live event at the Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau on Wednesday 1 September. The award category finalists were announced recently at a function in Otara.

This year there are a record 27 finalists across 13 categories with multiple nominees including Tree, Lou’ana, Kings, Lepani, Church & AP along with many more talented Pasifika artists. All the nomination details can be found at https://www.pacificmusicawards.org.nz

New hires

We're delighted to welcome two new recruits to the Public Interest Journalism Funding team - Fairooz Samy who will begin on August 9th in Wellington as a Funding Advisor and Gabriel Thomas who will join the Auckland office as the Journalism Manager on August 23rd.

The Music team is also welcoming a new staff member to the crew. Casey Yeoh is a graduate of Auckland University and has a keen passion for NZ music especially of the underground variety – you will find her at gigs most weekends! Casey takes up the role of Music Promoter (Content) in Auckland from Monday 26 July.

Meet the team

Meet Conall, our Business Affairs Advisor (Legal) with whom many of you will already be familiar.

Conall is the first port of call for funded producers and entities when it comes to initiating a contract and finding out what needs to be done to get a project into motion.

NZ On Air administers a range of funds, from Journalism to Platforms, which means no two contracts are ever the same.

An avid film and television fan, Conall is known for his wicked sharp answers to niche quiz questions at work, and for always being up for a chat about exciting new local content.

Learn more about Conall, his role at NZ On Air, and what local content he's been loving recently on our Meet The Team page.

Conall Aird, Business Affairs Advisor (Legal)

Asian Creative Academy Awards 2021

Entries are now open to the 2021 Asian Academy Creative Awards.

Open to the entire Asia-Pacific region, the Asian Academy Creative Awards honours excellence in craft and technical disciplines across multiple platforms including television, digital, mobile, streaming and any other emerging technologies.

The closing date for entry is 15 Aug 2021. Your project must have screened between 1 July 2020 to 1 August 2021 to be eligible.

Projects can be submitted online via https://entry.asianacademycreativeawards.com