| NZ On Air | |
|---|---|
| Country | New Zealand |
| Website | nzonair.govt.nz |
NZ On Air (or the Broadcasting Commission) is an independent New Zealand broadcast funding agency. It is an autonomous crown entity separate from central Government and governed by a Board of six appointed by the Minister of Broadcasting. NZ On Air is responsible for the funding of public-good broadcasting content across television, radio and new media platforms.
NZ On Air is a major investor in television production mostly made by independent producers for free-to-air television channels. The agency also fully funds public broadcaster Radio New Zealand, an intervention to protect the state broadcaster's independence from central Government, and several access and community radio stations.
NZ On Air was the name taken by the Commission in an attempt to promote its activities and encourage payment of the broadcasting fee. The public broadcasting fee was abolished in 1999 and NZ On Air now receives its funds through the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Programmes funded by New Zealand on Air would often have the announcement: This programme was made with the help of your broadcasting fee - so you can see more of New Zealand on air (also heard as This programme was made with funding from New Zealand on Air).
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NZ On Air's activities can be broken up into several areas:
NZOA funds radio and television programme production in both the public and the private sectors. This includes drama, documentary, children's programmes, and programmes for special-interest groups.
NZ On Air focuses on "local content" - New Zealand programmes that are expensive or risky to make which the broadcaster market cannot fully pay for. These programmes are primarily drama, documentary, children's programmes and special-interest programmes.
NZOA funds a non-commercial broadcast archive. As part of its archive and digital functions NZOA funded the establishment in 2008 of NZ On Screen as a means of re-surfacing past New Zealand programme and film production.
Mainly aimed at increasing the amount of New Zealand music on radio.
The Broadcasting Commission was established under the Broadcasting Act of 1989, and initially was funded by a television licence fee, known in New Zealand as the public broadcasting fee of NZ$110, payable annually by each household with a television.
A strong campaign developed in the late 1990s from a section of the public against the Broadcasting Fee. The reason behind the campaign was to prove "whether the broadcasting fee is a tax and the legality of applying GST to this tax". In the end the fee was scrapped in 1999, and the Commission has since been directly funded by the government. The fee was collected from those people who owned a television set although the fee was funding much more than television work, especially radio. Some campaigners believed this was unfair.
NZ On Air also produces the Kiwi Hit Disc, Indie Hit Disc and Iwi Hit Disc as well as providing funding towards making and marketing new music albums and videos.
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