May 29, 2013
Māori Television success hard to measure
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has asked Māori Television to come up with a better measure for its success.
In its annual inquiry into the funding and operations of the service, the committee said Māori Television reached between one and two million viewers a month, but its audience share, which affects advertising revenue, never reaches double digits.
That puts it behind the five mainstream channels.
Because of its focus on Māori language and culture, Māori Television chooses not to compare its audience figures programme by programme with the commercial broadcasters.
The committee says many of its performance targets are qualitative in nature and difficult to measure.
It invited Māori Television to determine a more suitable measure of success, taking into account the legislative requirements for its operation.
Māori Television made a net surplus of $775,000 in 2013 financial year on operating revenue of just over $38 million, but it recorded a significant shortfall in budgeted advertising revenue from the Rugby World Cup 2011, after it was forced by the Government to share its free to air broadcast rights.
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