Sometimes public policy in New Zealand is like the Red Queen who announced 'sentence first – verdict afterwards'.
That certainly sounds like the RNZ decision to sacrifice RNZ Concert so it can have a youth radio network. Given that there are already five music stations in Auckland where RNZ Youth is to be based, why the need for a sixth?.
Of course RNZ claims it will be ‘different’ but, advertising aside, if there is a gap why has not one of the existing competing stations filled it? All RNZ is doing is enabling some people who have not been able to persuade any of the commercial stations. This time they are not charging their plans to the shareholders, but to RNZ Concert listeners.
Even the RNZ case those listeners should get a bummer deal is far from compelling. Some 170,000 to RNZ Concert, 600,000 listen to RNZ National including 100,000 to both. RNZ grumbles that RNZ Concert adds only 70,000 to its audiences. Equally, one could argue that it adds 100,000 to RNZ National.
What about the argument that the RNZ audience is old and dying off? A chief executive of RNZ made the same point a quarter of a century ago. For 25 years the elderly audience has been dying off, but RNZ has been recruiting younger generations to replace them without the benefit of a youth network. Is RNZ such a brand that a teenager will move from RNZ Youth to Morning Report when they get older?
Is the expansion necessary? Too often, a business, carried away with faith in its managerial skills goes into new markets where it crashes.
There are different underlying philosophies of the role of state – even among democrats. The traditional view has little trust in the ability of the private sector to deliver; so the state should provide as much as possible – including a full menu of broadcasting options – even if the market is already delivering.
The alternate view is that sometimes the private sector can be a very poor provider – healthcare is the exemplar – and the state should step in but only if it can provide a markedly superior service. Two reasons for this caution: first, the state can be as onerous on political liberties as the private sector, so its reach needs to be constrained; second, even when constrained, the state is so overwhelmed with things that need doing it should focus on the really important ones
The provision of a high-quality independent news and related broadcasting services is critical to a democracy. The BBC is the exemplar. Would we really want our politics to be dominated by Rupert Murdoch? Hence the state-provided RNZ National, with protections from political interference.
Another place where the private sector in a small country manifestly fails is the provision of classical music. Advertising wont pay for it. Hence RNZ Concert. It actually does a lot of unpaid advertising, with its live diary of musical events, and its promotion of New Zealand composers and performers (including a substantial commitment to young composers and performers who wont get much coverage on RNZ Youth).
So RNZ would be responsible for providing a youth service if there were no commercial alternatives. The Auckland five have an audience of 80,000, suggesting that RNZ Youth expansion will not generate, say, 170,000 extra listeners.
Too often our thinking puts a particular service into a silo despite its being an integral part of an ecology. The downgrading of RNZ Concert will also downgrade the wider musical scene. (Similarly, Creative New Zealand ignored New Zealand Books in the literature ecology.)
We should avoid thinking in silos. That the state provides a radio service for an elderly group with particular musical tastes does not mean it has to provide one for every younger group with other tastes. The young get benefits from the state in other areas. The tradeoff is not within a sector but across all state provision.
Extraordinarily, RNZ is implementing this change while the entire broadcasting sector is in an upheaval from the proposal to merge state radio and television. It would be rational to get the sector framework established and then see whether there is a place for a state-provided youth radio network.
Recall Alice’s response to the Red Queen’s having the sentence first: 'stuff and nonsense!'.
Hold your tongue!' snapped the Queen
' I won't!' said Alice who was steadily growing.
‘Off with her head!' RNZ shouted.
‘Who cares for you?' said the music community, which was back to its normal size and towering over the court. 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!'