Abstract
New Zealand has a unique model of public broadcasting for television. The state broadcaster is almost totally commercial, although since 2003 it has been given a charter and some limited public funding. A state agency, NZ On Air, administers funding contestable between national broadcasters for public broadcasting, meaning in essence local (national) content in the threatened genres of drama, documentary, children's and minority programs. But this system is under challenge from the rise of multi-channel and the transition to digital. Audiences are fragmenting and the combined impact of broadband, the PVR and VOD threaten the notion of the broadcast schedule and the viability of commercial free-to-air television itself. The concluding section of this paper examines issues for the New Zealand model in adapting to the digital challenge, and looks at the criteria on which the model's success or failure may be judged.
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