Longform journalistic content on TVNZ+ is destined to “expire”.

MediaNovember 27, 2024

The hidden problem when ‘news’ isn’t popular

Politics reporter

Longform journalistic content on TVNZ+ is destined to “expire”.

Longform current affairs content has an expiry date on TVNZ+. What does that mean for our collective archive?

In July, TVNZ released the four-part documentary series Gang Mums on its TVNZ+ platforms and Youtube. Gang Mums explored the lives of women who are family to active gang members, and their experiences with abuse and finding community within gangs across Aotearoa. Hosted by broadcaster Indira Stewart, the series provided a snapshot of New Zealand society and culture and a tool for understanding the role of women in gangs.

Thirty days later, the series was gone. It had “expired” on the TVNZ+ platform and was no longer viewable. The Spinoff understands it returned briefly following requests from viewers but is now gone again, seemingly for good.

The Youtube videos are still active (the first episode has 100,000 views) but only accessible for those outside of New Zealand. There are written articles about the subjects too, on the 1News website, though much of the kōrero has been lost by no longer providing the full interviews.

This is just one example of TVNZ’s policy around longform current affairs content. A TVNZ spokesperson explained the show’s disappearance as an expiration – after one to three months, “longform current affairs content” shared to TVNZ+ will “expire” (no longer available for viewing). The expiry date for bulletins from shows such as Breakfast, 1News at 6pm and Te Karere, designed to report on the news of the day, is seven days after airing. These episodes are tagged with an “expiring” label and a timer recording how long the series will continue to exist on TVNZ+.

As TVNZ prepares for the “digital first” future, its streaming platform TVNZ+ has seen a significant rise in longform consumer affairs content since investigative shows Sunday and Fair Go were shut down in mid-2024. In the modern age, many audiences expect instantaneous and easily accessible news, and some may assume this means video content replacing written stories would have the same shelf life on an outlet’s platform, just as so much written journalism is still discoverable (though not exactly easily) years later.

TVNZ has never operated this way – when investigative show Sunday was still on air, episodes uploaded to TVNZ+ would expire after a month. The broadcaster retains a digital news archive, meaning material may be republished or used within other related content, but the archive is only available to view through request and typically requires a fee.

Its former rival outlet Newshub also did not keep a complete and accessible archive of video content and bulletin segments by the time it ceased operations in July. The Newshub website hosts a large bulk of its bulletin stories from over the years, but it is set to disappear in the coming months, with plans for Stuff to host at least some these stories on its own website.

In comparison, with ThreeNews now having replaced Newshub, its bulletin segments are archived on Stuff.co.nz, though without a “next page” or search function, viewers will have to use Google to find older content. The website also archives video content from Patrick Gower’s The [Fucking] News. The website Paper’s Past keeps an online collection of many, but not all, newspapers and magazines printed in New Zealand between 1839 and 1989, with more added each year.

The UK’s BBC operates a large online archive of many, but not all (requests can be made for access for commercial and non-commercial use), of its video news content dating back to its launch in 1936. The constantly expanding archive is designed to protect content created by the BBC, with the goal of no longer having to use out-of-date technology to be able to look back at its broadcasting history.

Gang Mums, hosted by Indira Stewart, is one of the most recent longform news pieces to “expire” on TVNZ+. (Screenshot: 1News)

Some longform content published more than three months ago continues to exist on TVNZ+, such as the bulk of Re: News docuseries made over the years, and John Campbell’s longform sit-down interview with former Green MP Golriz Gharahman, posted in June.

A TVNZ spokesperson said Re:News content which continues to exist on TVNZ+, such as Red Light Boys and Rediscovering Aotearoa, is NZ On Air funded and has an extended window of availability “as required by that”. NZ on Air funding is given for content to be consumed freely and in perpetuity by all New Zealanders. Campbell’s Gharahman interview has not yet been taken down as it is “still being consumed”, said the spokesperson.

A digital future for news media has seen many outlets create decade-spanning archives of stories – you can still read the original copy of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood published in 1965 for The New Yorker, as well as the front page of The New York Times on the day of the moon landing. Evergreen stories may go years before finding a second audience, but to do that, they must still be discoverable. Gang Mums still features in ads that continue to play on channel one to promote TVNZ+ offerings, despite not being accessible to New Zealanders.

With TVNZ recognising its role as a digital and video focused platform, a move to producing news for consumption on TVNZ+ does create an opportunity to draw new audiences and find more effective ways to tell stories – though the importance of making these stories may be lost on audiences if the national broadcaster can’t commit to making them available for more than 30 days.

This work is supported by Auckland Radio Trust in memory of Vince Geddes.

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OPINIONMediaNovember 23, 2024

The Weekend: What would you march for?

Madeleine Chapman

Editor

Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.

When I was a junior writer at The Spinoff, Simon Wilson joined the team as Auckland editor. He’d been the editor of Metro for many years and was easily the most experienced journalist in the room. So if we both happened to be working late on stories, I’d pick his brain about his career and, eventually, his life.

One night, the topic of the 1981 Springbok Tour came up. I was not alive then and knew very little about it beyond the YA novels I’d read in primary school and occasional news articles on anniversaries of the protests. Simon was alive, and told me that he was part of a protest at Wellington Airport. In fact, he had run onto the runway. I was so shocked, mostly because I had never considered that Simon had participated in historic events, only that he had written about them.

As someone who did not grow up around protests, they always felt like another world to me. A world where people were so angered by something they were willing to paint signs, march in the streets and even get arrested to make their point. It surprised me to learn as a teenager that everyone in those protests was just a regular person who cared about something.

A lot of journalism work involves talking to people protesting something. It might be a 50,000-strong hīkoi or 100 workers striking. It could be a whole community advocating for their needs or just one family who’s been through a shocking ordeal and doesn’t want anyone else to experience what they have. Even those funny photos of residents with their arms folded, looking sternly at a cycleway, are protest shots.

Journalism is all about writers sharing other people’s protests, so it’s rather ironic that once you become a journalist, it’s frowned upon to be a protester yourself. As media, it’s easy to use work as a reason to stay away from protests in a personal capacity (even things as simple as an online petition) but the sheer volume of demonstrations this year has made me wonder what I, free from the rules of the media, would paint a sign and march in the street for.

Accompanying the hīkoi this week was a 280,000-signature petition to scrap the Treaty principles bill. It was suggested that this might be the biggest petition in New Zealand history. Turns out it’s not even close. Rather bleakly, the biggest petition ever presented to parliament was in 1985 and signed by a whopping 800,000 New Zealanders (though it was later suggested to be closer to 600,000). The cause? Opposing the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

For tens of thousands of New Zealanders, that would have been the first time they put their name in support of a cause. For many, it would also be the last. A single, public expression of opinion, their first time feeling enough fear or anger to protest.

The petition didn’t work, and I’m sure a huge portion of New Zealand was angry about it. But it’s interesting to note the sheer volume of opposition to something that would positively impact the lives of relatively few and not at all impact the lives of everyone else.

Something like the Treaty principles bill would affect every New Zealander in some way, but Māori would be impacted the most.

A new narrative in this week’s hīkoi was the massive growth in Pākehā participation compared to the foreshore and seabed one 20 years ago. I saw people posting from the protest who I’ve never seen post anything remotely political before, let alone show up in person at a demonstration. For many, it would be their first time having a reason to march. Will it continue?

This week on Behind the Story: The apology and the hīkoi

Last week, staff writer Lyric Waiwiri-Smith attended the Auckland event of the national apology to survivors of abuse in care. That historic event was quickly followed by another, with the nine-day hīkoi arriving in parliament to protest a number of government decisions, particularly the Treaty Principles bill. Lyric and Ātea editor Liam Rātana reported on the hīkoi as it passed through Auckland. As journalists, these were big stories, but as Māori journalists, they held an even greater weight and sense of responsibility to tell them in the right way. It’s a responsibility not shared by most other journalists in New Zealand, and one that can be hard to leave at work at the end of the day. Lyric and Liam join editor Madeleine Chapman on Behind the Story to discuss the apology, the hīkoi, and the challenge of separating work and life when your work involves reporting on your own lived experiences.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

What have readers spent the most time reading this week?

Following last week’s incredible ranking of Christchurch malls, we finally decided it was now or never on doing the mammoth ranking of all the malls in Auckland. Published yesterday, it’s already the story readers spent the most time with this week
My opinion on who gets to have an opinion on the hīkoi and who must remain ‘impartial’
Our live blog from the day of the hīkoi Live updates: Hīkoi concludes as attention shifts to inside parliament
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith catalogues the best signs from the final day of the Toitū Te Tiriti hīkoi
Toby Manhire outlines how Luxon’s position on the Treaty Principles Bill has changed over time

Comments of the week

On All 33 malls in Auckland ranked from worst to best

“Thoughts:

I felt sad to see the Plaza at the beginning (last place) of the list but fully understand why. The roadworks ensure people can’t tell how to get in and I’m sure many think it’s already shut. Always sad to see an old fave in a death spiral.

While Manukau is mostly a very good mall, the thing it really lacks since Whitcoulls pulled out is a book/stationery shop. It’s close to my work and convenient in every other way. I thought mention was due to the Japan Mart and Rivendell, an odd little shop selling crystals and incense and tarot cards which has been there since I can remember (early 90s?). I cannot believe how it just keeps hanging on. If it ever closes I will wail. I don’t even buy anything there. I just need it to be okay.”

On Was the hīkoi New Zealand’s largest-ever protest?

“After the hikoi I asked my 10 yr old son to share me his reflections this is what he text me: ‘Mum this is my reflection on how it was today.’

What it was like to be at the hikoi:
So many people from other countries where supporting the hikoi to protect our culture from being destroyed tahi rua toru wha seymore is a hoha hoha hoha. I really enjoyed it although my legs were really tired but lots of respect for those who did the longer walk. It was really important to do this for future generations.”