PASS THE BALL.

A great solution. The 2o11 Rugby World Cup Broadcasting Rights are shared out nicely.

We like.
Lots.

RUGBY WAS THE WINNER ON THE DAY

Well it seems that everyone was a winner and a loser in the game to broadcast the free to air Rugby World Cup.

Everyone gets a piece of the cream pie in a compromise that sees a simulcast of the big games.

Its an interesting way to do things and the first time in our memory we have an event being covered by all channels.

Its got to be a good thing.

Our biggest gripe in this whole affair was the way that some people responded to the Maori bid which we still firmly believe had a whiff of racism about it. We are glad that is now behind us as a country and we can get on and showcase our nation to the world.

We think that MTV has shown with events like Anzac Day coverage that it can do a fantastic job of whipping up National pride and produce high quality we co-ordinated coverage. Some big names are already being touted to front so it may well be that MTV gets a lot of support because their coverage will be more entertaining and interesting than the other channels.

Now we just need the rest of the World Cup organisation to start revving things up.

A GAME OF TWO HALVES - NZ A WINNER ON THE DAY

Today has been an extraordinary day in NZ history. We have never made any secret of the fact that we believed that the last election offered our country the first real chance to unite our nation. John Key delivered our aspirations when he brokered a deal with the Maori Party.

Now it was never going to be a case of happy families. It was more of a blended family unit. Step brothers and sisters. Both parties were from different backgrounds but they were essentially " good people"and they wanted to get on together.

Now in any family you get scraps, arguments and in as with any close relationships, you tend to take things for granted. You say stuff and expect that everyone understands everything instantly.

That's pretty much what happened with the Maori Party Maori Television bid for the rugby world cup delayed coverage. They thought their step bros had understood what they were up to.

Problem was their step bros didn't pay as much attention to the bid as they should have.

Then when things got all pear shaped - arse covering was the default play. Chuck in obfuscation,
and stir in a bit of " it was their fault not ours " and then there was sand flying, and a bit of biffo.

And the uppity wankers from down the road - TVNZ and TV3 saw there was a chance to look like the good guys.

In walks dad ( Key) who has an antenna for natural justice.. He sees through the arse covering , the obfuscation and blame game and makes the only call he can, foul against the Maori Party.

He give them advantage and says Play On.

Shit.

We are left in thrall.

We have had a cock up . Fibs.

We have a leader who acknowledges the cock up.

He applies natural justice and sorts it.

Egos are dented. Behind the scenes there have been tears, and stamping of feet.

But the good thing, the very best thing, is that everyone is still playing in the sandpit.
Finally, in John Key we have a leader, who despite the worst of arguments can sort out the shit and get everyone working together for the sake of our nation.

Is that good or what!

GOWER CALLS THE PLAY

Excellent stuff from Patrick Gower this morning. His rugby analogy is sublime and on the money.

Game ain't over yet......

And our sources tell us that Mather has the rock solid support of his board.

MTV BID - THE FACTS

MEDIA STATEMENT

13 October 2009

MAORI TELEVISION RESPONSE TO TVNZ RWC BID

Maori Television has confirmed that it will not withdraw its bid for the free-to-air Rugby World Cup rights despite a Government announcement today that it is financing a late bid by TVNZ aimed at beating the Māori Television bid.

Chief Executive Jim Mather said he was surprised and disappointed at the decision by the Government to attempt to defeat Maori Television’s bid. He described the decision as extremely disappointing.

Mr Mather said he was also extremely concerned at allegations that the TVNZ bid was developed with access to confidential information within Maori Television’s bid, indicating that the tender process for the rights had been compromised.

He was similarly concerned at the process that had been undertaken to develop the TVNZ bid and the actions of some Government ministers.

Mr Mather confirmed that Maori Television had not been consulted by either the Government or TVNZ on the development of its bid, and had not been invited to participate in it. He was not aware of the detail of the bid apart from what had been reported in the media.

He could not understand the rationale for the Government to finance a TVNZ bid, particularly given its concerns that Government funds should not be spent on broadcasting rights.

“The Government’s objection to the Maori Television bid has been the fact that it is supported by Te Puni Kokiri funding. The TPK support has been labeled inappropriate use of Government funding, yet now the Government is providing more funds to beat the Maori Television bid. What is the rationale for this and why is funding for TVNZ now deemed to be appropriate use of Government funds?” said Mr Mather.

“The Government’s other concern has been the matter of 10% of New Zealanders not being able to access the Maori Television analogue signal. However, Maori Television addressed this by modifying its bid to allow for sub-licensing of some games. It is our understanding that Prime Minister John Key was happy with this arrangement,” said Mr Mather.

Mr Mather said that the TVNZ bid had resulted in the two publicly funded broadcasters now competing against each other and questioned the rationale for this.

“Maori Television submitted its bid after bids by the other broadcasters had been deemed “inappropriate” by Rugby World Cup Limited. Maori Television cannot be accused of entering into a bidding war. That is an accusation for TVNZ to answer,” he said.

Mr Mather said that he was satisfied that Maori Television had acted appropriately at all times, including the process it had undertaken internally to develop a business plan that had undergone intense scrutiny at Board level, through to the submission of its bid with the knowledge of all of Maori Television’s stakeholders.

Mr Mather also stated the following:

Dr Coleman is incorrect in his statement that the Government contacted Maori Television prior to our bid being submitted. At no stage prior to the bid being submitted was Maori Television approached by Dr Coleman or a Government representative with any request, including one to “reach an agreement” with other broadcasters.

· Maori Television did not decide to “go it alone”, as stated by Dr Coleman. The IRB bid required that all bids were to be from individual broadcasters. Maori Television was advised by the IRB that it did not want any joint bids, nor did it want any bids which proposed sub-licensing. However, in response to the Prime Minister’s expectation that Maori Television was required to ensure 100% coverage, Maori Television approached the IRB with the requirement that our bid must allow for sub-licensing. This was agreed by the IRB.

· The allegation that Maori Television has not worked collaboratively is false. Maori Television has abided by the requirements of the bid, which until a week ago was that no sub-licensing would be permitted.

Mr Mather acknowledged the support that Maori Television has been receiving from a range of Maori organizations and iwi Maori. He also acknowledged the many non-Maori New Zealanders who have also expressed their support.

He said Maori Television remained confident that its bid was serious and credible and that, should Maori Television win the rights, it looked forward to broadcasting all 48 games of the Rugby World Cup tournament free-to-air for all New Zealanders.

HERALD A LITTLE SLOW

Its not often we get one over the Herald but this week we did. We here at Roarprawn signalled on Saturday that TVNZ was due to put up a bid to counter the rugby World Cup bid of TVNZ.

Patrick Gower is a fine young reporter and he fleshes out our story here today.


What we dont like is that TV3 is involved... Why? Whats the reasoning? Its the question Gower hasn't ansked and needed to be answered. We said originally that any money being fed to Tv3 would end up in the coffers of their Aussie financiers...


So why not a joint bid by the two stations tied to the state?

TVNZ UPS THE ANTE ON RUGBY COVERAGE BID

We woke up this morning ready to go into bat again re the Maori Television bid.

We have heard from a couple of sources this morning that TVNZ has prepared another bid that is bigger than the MTV bid. Whic begs the question - where did they get the money? They are bloody near broke and any expenditure means less dividends to the government so they are effectively spending government money.

We know that Maori TV went to TVNZ to try and work a joint compromise but they turned it down.

However we understand that TVNZ did not approach MTV to be part of this latest bid.

So who is playing politics now? John Key and McCully should bang a few heads together and get MTV and TVNZ to work together.



This sentence from Audreys column this morning pretty well sum the whole saga up for us.

The meddling by the Government has caused widespread resentment on the Maori side - the rules change as soon as Maori look as though they are winning.

Well now it appears TVNZ doesnt want to share the sandpit - shame on them.

TRANSTASMAN BACKS ROARPRAWN STANCE OVER MAORI TV RUGBY BID

We have watched with great interest the comments on Roarprawn after we let loose our support for the Maori TV bid. We scratched the underbelly and as predicted the fleas did jump.

So it is with much pride and satisfaction that we learned today , when we opened our copy of the venerable Transtasman, the organ of sense and sensibility - that they see it our way.

Jeez, those cheeky Maoris, eh?Chuck them their own TV channel and next thing you know they’re bidding for the free-to-air rights for the Rugby World Cup.With taxpayer funds! The sheerbloody cheek!! Except... well, let’s just calm down a bit here. Firstly,Maori TV is carrying quite a bit of content which is not specifically Maori-focused but which is nonetheless quite high value. There is the complaint Maori TV doesn’t reach everywhere but the International Rugby Board says it will reach 90% of the population and it is fine with that. It is pretty close to the main channels. The big advantage Maori TV seems to have is it doesn’t have the same prime time commitments TVNZand TV3 have. Those are usually the big channels’ commercial

strengths, but this time they have counted against them. This is hardly unfair.

Yip thats pretty much our view.

And they conclude,

A few more general points: firstly, we always have a row overbroadcast rights for the free to air games when a Rugby World Cup looms. The reason is simple nostalgia: many of us still regret the demise of true free-to-air rugby games. They are in the same class as free parking in cities, the original Heards Barley Sugars, and good old fashioned rucking. They’re all part of a world which has now gone. And we resent being reminded of this. The other thing is the Brash-at-Orewa factor: the niggling feeling Maori are getting an unfair advantage. This doesn’t seem to be the case

here though. Maori TV isn’t getting any more of a hand-up

from the taxpayer than TVNZ. And, come on now. How many

dedicated rugby fans in NZ don’t already have Sky Sport?

Oh and if you want to read Transtasman first and in depth - you have to, like dedicated rugby fans, subscribe.

GET OVER IT

We have been watching the debacle around the Maori TV rugby world cup bid with interest. If you tickle the underbelly of New Zealand you get fleas. There is a raw racism in New Zealand that knows no bounds. It is like the country is treating the very smart, business like bid of Maori TV, as the actions, as someone suggested this evening, of some " uppity niggers. "

Sad really - there are facts that many New Zealanders would do well to remember.

One of the arguments getting a fair bit of currency is that if the bid does go to MTV then not everyone will get to see it.

Errrr - that''s pretty much the case for all the networks.

Maori Television’s UHF free to air network does not have full nationwide coverage. But, neither does ONE, TV2 or 3 and certainly not C4. To be really picky not even SKY or Freeview satellite gets absolutely everywhere. But, the issues MTS supposedly has are not insurmountable.

Does anyone remember the fuss when TV3 was awarded the broadcast rights for the new millennium celebrations with the focus being on Gisborne and Mt Hikurangi..... the first places in the world (Chathams aside) to see the first rays of the new dawn. No! TV3 didn’t broadcast North of Gisborne so the locals couldn’t see what was happening on there on mountain.

Does anyone remember the fuss when MTS was about to go to air and opponents promulgated the rumour that it would bugger up SKY TV. That’s because SKY’s set-top decoders tuned into people’s tellies on the same channel (UHF frequency) that had long before been set aside for a Maori television service. SKY didn’t broadcast on that frequency, just used it as the channel to get from the set top box to the TV.

SKY had no licence to use that channel, they had sought no approval. They had no legal right to use it. But, they wailed and shrieked that Maori TV going to air would mean the kiwis wouldn’t be able to watch the All Blacks. It was crass and it was highly cynical. Nah it worse than that - it was pure and utter self serving anti competitive bullshit.

The public outcry (totally engineered by SKY) and political fallout meant MTS were effective forced to negotiate a compromise arrangement with SKY. Hence MTS went to air on UHF free to air platform and, surprise, surprise SKY Digital. And SKY gave MTS a "discount" for getting its own way.

We note that SKY is not yelling from the rooftops about this just at this very moment - we wonder why - maybe they're hoping that people have short memories.

TVNZ, Canwest, MTS & begrudgingly SKY via Prime are all on Freeview. Let’s not forget that the original switch off date for our current analogue free to air television as going to be 2011!!! Yes, bugger us that's RWC year! Fancy that....

This switch over to digital telly only has been delayed a year or two. But, it still means that the current "free to air " TV transmission will be switched off and consigned to the ether – possibly within months of the RWC. So anyone who hasn’t got a TV with an inbuilt Freeview tuner or a Freeview set top box by the RWC is going to need one pretty soon after.

And lets not forget that the $3M that everybody is jumping up and down about won’t be spent unless the bid is accepted. Yip its a bid. and fuck us its a cunninger than a shithouse rat - bid.

It's audacious, ballsy, and shit it makes good business and social sense. It could engender such a sense of pride in Maori, who love the channel, that we reckon we may see a shift in Maori behaviour. The sort of change that leads to better lifestyles. Imagine if the ads interspersed in the games are anti smoking, anti drinking and aspirational - the payback for the $3mil spend could be huge.

And please ------ lets get over the fact that MTV got a bit of start up money -yip it did . and within a decade it will probably be self sustaining and remember TV1 and Tv2 were heavily subsidised to start with as well.

You can argue that this bid , if successful could be viewed as taxpayers dollars supporting a commercial enterprise. Yip thats true. But fuck it at least every cent would stay in New Zealand. If TV3 got the rights any money they made from the RWC would go straight to the financially stretched Sydney based venture capital firm which bought them.

So Aussies get the profits not us.

Well bugger us with a feather duster - but doesn't this bid show that Maori are savvy,entrepreneurial, opportunistic, smart buggers?

Anyone have a problem with that?

Or is the problem that they are mochachino instead of flat whites?

Nah, we didn't think so..

We arent a country of racists pricks are we?

AMAZING TALENT

and its home grown




Rock on!

NGAI TAHU IS ANGRY

We understand that Te runanga O Ngai Tahu chair Mark Solomon's Deputy Donald Couch has been removed by his runanga at Rapaki - Lyttleton . More Solomon supporters are expected to face the wrath of their constituents in the coming days and weeks.

And we hear that Maori Television is also covering the story in depth either tonight or tomorrow night.

MAORI TELEVISION TO COVER NGAI TAHU CONTROVERSY

Maori Television Tonight 7.30, looks at the dismissal of Wally Stone from Ngai Tahu.

MAORI PARTY IN TOP FORM

The Maori party is off to a great start - campaigning on integrity and planning to fight hard in all 7 maori seats..

New Zealand Herald has the full details here
All power to them - And Maori TV has an election special on The Fox on Tuesday night..

That will definitely be worth a watch.

Maori TV ratings will rise on Monday nite

He should korero te Maori, cos as a few commentators have pointed out - Winston has been not be very articulate of late.


“An exclusive and candid interview with Winston Peters will screen in Maori Television’s indigenous current affairs show NATIVE AFFAIRS on Monday September 15 at 8.00 PM. The 30-minute interview follows many weeks of controversy over allegations of large, unreported donations to his party, and his subsequent appearance in front of a Parliamentary select committee.”