Let’s begin with a question.

How often do you tune into television and a specific channel at a specific time with the deliberate intention of watching a specific show? Not including the 6 o’clock news. Not including the rugby. Come on, how often do you go "ooh, it’s 8.29 on Wednesday night, better get my TV on".   

Fifteen or twenty years ago, our evenings were shaped in no small part by appointment viewing. We’d memorised half the TV schedule. We’d check the newspaper every day, buy the TV Guide or The Listener and plot a path through an evening’s TV offerings.

Maybe you still do that. But the digital age has changed the way so many of us watch stuff.

We stream it on Netflix, YouTube, or OnDemand. We spend our evenings on the internet instead of in front of TV screens. And as people have switched from telly to Facebook and Google, the advertising dollars have followed them.

That, for me, is the crux of the TV3 problem. That’s where most of the blame lies for Mediaworks’ perilous position. Times have changed. It’s as simple as that. Technology has changed. The market has changed. And what once was JUST a viable business, no longer is.

Yesterday’s announcement wasn’t exactly shocking news to anyone who’s been paying attention. I was hired by TVNZ in 2006, and almost as long as I’ve been in media, Mediaworks has been doing it tough. It was sold and re-sold. It had debt written off. It was bailed out by the government with a $43 million loan to cover its broadcasting licences. And that was almost ten years ago!

I may personally be in direct competition, but TV3 produces some excellent television. It’s hired brilliant creatives and passionate hardworking people across its business. It has supported New Zealand comedy and produces quality news with a team of great journalists.

But have those staff been well-served by management over the years? Not always - I don’t think so. There was the Campbell Live fiasco of course. The Mark Wheldon fiasco. For me at least, they’ve undermined the value of their brand by reducing their quality offerings in favour or endless trashy reality tv. That in itself is as interesting decision, because the people most likely to watch trash are those most fickle audiences, the very same people who are most likely to still watch Netflix or YouTube instead. They’ve scrapped current affairs programs but paid huge money for programs such as Love Island, which they then dumped at 5pm weeknights and can’t possibly have attracted the audience to justify the expense.

It’s also fair to note that TVNZ and Mediaworks do operate in different environments. TVNZ is investing its dividend in the company, and doesn’t have an overseas owner with no attachment to New Zealand baying for profits. But I think you’ll find a big difference in how much each company has invested in digital offerings over the years. So often when I go to use TV3’s on demand digital service it isn’t running properly and I can’t get it to work.

So there’s the blame, from where I sit. Blame management. Blame New Zealand for only having five million people with five million sets of eyeballs. But most of all, above everything else, blame the digital revolution for pulling millions of advertising dollars out of traditional TV. 

I think competition in our industry is a really good thing and for what it’s worth, I really hope they do find a buyer for TV3. Good people in limbo through no fault of their own. But I don’t feel optimistic. For all intents and purposes, the TV arm of Mediaworks has already been for sale for years. Short of government intervention, saving TV3 will be a hell of a bold investment.