Today we have had confirmation of our funding for the 2023/24 financial year, which includes restoration of our baseline funding and a $10m boost. This now means we can confirm available allocations for the coming funding rounds, and our revised investment strategy.
Government has confirmed that in the 23/24 FY $42m in contestable funds that were to have gone to the public media entity will be returned to NZ On Air and in addition a further $10m will be added for the coming year.
The additional funds will help to ensure we can support innovative content for some of the hard-to-reach audiences such as rangatahi, tamariki, Māori, Pacific peoples, Asian and disabled people, and reach them on the platforms they use.
We appreciate that for our sector there has been a bit of uncertainty as you have awaited this information. We thank you for your patience and understanding. However we have, meanwhile, been busy in the background confirming our revised investment strategy and can now share this with you.
Our new investment strategy we are releasing today replaces the NZ Media Fund strategy, which has been in place for five years. It addresses the ongoing transformation in the way local audiences connect with the stories and songs of Aotearoa.
This new strategy takes a more holistic approach to cultivating our sector, balancing investments in research and insights, talent development, content creation, distribution and enhancing the discoverability of funded content.
Read the full NZ On Air Investment Strategy here.
Current round - Round Tahi
Now that we know what we are working with in the coming year, we are also able to upweight our allocations for the coming funding rounds as set out below.
- The allocation for Factual (Non-Fiction) in Round Tahi will now increase to $12m (previously published as $5m).
- The allocation for Scripted in Round Tahi will remain at $7m. This is because we are waiting for an outcome from the NZSPG review, which should be announced in June (in which it is hoped NZ On Air funding can be accessed alongside NZSPG for eligible domestic productions).
- We will run a special Scripted round (July/Sept) when we know the outcome of the NZSPG review. We will confirm how much will be allocated in this round as soon as we can.
- Our new tiered model (please see the Investment Strategy) further explains our approach to Scripted content - but fully-funded high-end Scripted series will still be considered.
Additionally, round by round we may implement application caps. This is an attempt to reduce the growing disparity between the number of applications and the number of projects able to be supported. In the latest round, we have provided application cap exemptions for children's and returning series and if producers wish to submit more than four applications, they need only make their case to the Head of Funding.
We will continue to be responsive and flexible, and staff are available to chat through all of the information provided today. In the first instance, email funding@nzonair.govt.nz with your query and we'll get in touch.
And one final note: there are a large number of guideline and policy documents that inter-connect with our Investment Strategy. Please bear with us as we work our way through updating these and our website content over the coming days and weeks.
NZ On Air VIEW
In the Investment Strategy's Insights section, we refer to NZ On Air VIEW. This is a proprietary audience measurement system that has been created to aid in the collection of digital data and provide greater visibility around performance of our funded content.
NZ On Air VIEW data is collected from across multiple websites and projects and captured in one centralised place. It will provide us with more detailed information to assist with our funding decisions. For producers, it will provide access to audience data around their own projects so they can understand how their content is reaching and resonating with audiences. And for publishers and platforms, it will bring a new level of automation to reduce the burden of reporting.
NZ On Air VIEW was built and trialled on the Public Interest Journalism Fund, but is now being expanded to encompass all Scripted and Non-Fiction content. The tool is still being finalised and, once available, we will be able to provide a quarterly snapshot of how our funded content is being consumed by local audiences. We look forward to sharing this with you then.