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Jodi O'Donnell: TVNZ CEO on full year results · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. TVNZ,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the state broadcaster, has posted a paper loss of nearly
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: $ 24 million today, but that doesn't adequately reflect the health
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of the business, which is probably better reflected by the
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  Speaker 1: operating profit of $ 3. 9 million. Jodie O'Donnell is the chief executive.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, Jodie.
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  Speaker 1: Hi, Heather. Now, that paper loss, is that a result
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: of all of the money that you're carefully putting into
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  Speaker 1: your streaming platform?
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly right. We've signalled that for the next two years,
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  Speaker 2: we will strategically invest our savings into ensuring that TVNZ
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  Speaker 2: is around for a long time yet. So it's really
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  Speaker 2: the first year or the end of the first year
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  Speaker 2: of our strategic programme.
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  Speaker 1: And are you pleased with what you're seeing on the
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  Speaker 1: streaming part of the business?
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  Speaker 2: We really are. And I think that for viewers, they
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  Speaker 2: could see it come to life with the FIFA World Cup.
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  Speaker 2: So that was one of the really key milestones, was
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  Speaker 2: actually re-platforming TVNZ +. unlocking that pay capability and then
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  Speaker 2: having that huge surge in audiences, which allowed us to
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  Speaker 2: actually prove the fact that we can carry really big
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  Speaker 2: audiences on our streaming platform and we can also have
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  Speaker 2: the capability to charge them with an event pass.
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  Speaker 1: You must have had such, it must have been so
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  Speaker 1: nervous the day before, right? Nerve wracking for you because
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  Speaker 1: of course Spark did it and completely blew it up
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  Speaker 1: when they tried it. How did you feel about it?
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  Speaker 1: Were you nervous?
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  Speaker 2: I guess the benefit from our perspective is we are broadcasters.
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  Speaker 2: I'm in TVNZ, that's what we do. And so what
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  Speaker 2: we intentionally did was make sure we had a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people in the business. Like we weren't working with overseas,
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  Speaker 2: you know, offshoring these things to be done by somebody else.
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  Speaker 2: We made sure that whilst we had great partners locally
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  Speaker 2: and globally, we had a lot of people on the
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  Speaker 2: ground in our business that understood it and made sure
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  Speaker 2: that everything went to plan. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And so how many subscribers did you get?
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  Speaker 2: That's not something that we'll be sharing. How much money
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  Speaker 2: did you make? But nice try. We were really pleased
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  Speaker 2: with what we did make.
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  Speaker 1: Was it more than you expected?
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  Speaker 2: It was more than we expected, which is one of
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  Speaker 2: the reasons that's contributed to a much better profit announcement
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  Speaker 2: than what we had expected. So we were really pleased
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  Speaker 2: with that because it was better than what we expected.
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  Speaker 2: And I think we're now proving that actually when you've
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  Speaker 2: got a mass freeway channel like TVNZ1 coupled with the
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  Speaker 2: capability of pay-per-view, then you actually can really competitively, you know,
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  Speaker 2: chase those global sporting rights.
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  Speaker 1: Are you chasing other sports? I mean, obviously you chased
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  Speaker 1: the NRL and it didn't go your way.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, we, you know, NRL all happened before FIFA
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  Speaker 2: World Cup actually launched. So we didn't have necessarily great
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  Speaker 2: data on that. But yeah, we are absolutely talking to everyone.
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  Speaker 2: We've always got relationships on the go. And we'll make
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  Speaker 2: sure that we think about the ones that work best
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  Speaker 2: for our audiences and our platform.
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  Speaker 1: Are you going to be broadcasting the netball next year?
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  Speaker 2: We're having conversations with lots of people. I don't have any,
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  Speaker 2: you know, offers or negotiations to announce. But, you know,
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  Speaker 2: until we're at a stage that with any sporting partner,
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  Speaker 2: we've got that all locked up and signed, we'll just
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: continue to make sure that we progress all the conversations
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  Speaker 2: we're having.
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  Speaker 1: Because, of course, I mean, the thing with the netball
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  Speaker 1: is they don't even know if they've got a competition
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  Speaker 1: next year. If they do form a competition, which at
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  Speaker 1: this stage seems really unlikely to form anything worth necessarily watching,
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  Speaker 1: will you guys be broadcasting it potentially?
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  Speaker 2: I think it would be great for us to have
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  Speaker 2: that conversation once they've worked that out. We saw really
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  Speaker 2: good growth in those netball numbers when they went free-to-air
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  Speaker 2: this year on our platform. So I think there's always
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  Speaker 2: opportunities for us to expand that. Okay.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I see TVNZ News is still the most watched program, yeah?
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is. Just followed by Bluey, of course.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Mate, I was going to raise that with you. Bluey
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  Speaker 1: in at number two again. To be fair, this is
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  Speaker 1: on the streaming, not on the linear TV, right? Correct.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Have you watched Colin from Accounts this season?
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  Speaker 2: Of course I have. Are you up to date? Of course.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. So I started watching it and forgot how funny
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  Speaker 1: it is and really thoroughly enjoyed it. I've only watched
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  Speaker 1: episode one, but then the boss called me last night
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  Speaker 1: and said episode five is really strange.
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  Speaker 2: It's excellent.
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  Speaker 1: Is episode five excellent or is it weird?
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  Speaker 2: I can't tell you specifically around episode five.
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  Speaker 1: You know which one this is though, don't you, Jodie?
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  Speaker 2: I haven't watched all of it yet.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, right. Does it redeem itself? Because this is
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  Speaker 1: what everybody wants to know is does it get better
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  Speaker 1: after episode five because it's such a low point.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to leave all of your listeners to actually
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  Speaker 2: make sure they go and watch and check it out themselves.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, very nicely done, Jodie. Hey, thank you very much.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time. Go well.