TVNZ has been forced to cut its sports production capacity over the last decade, from a peak of 30 staff, as it has lost a string of rights properties to Sky, including domestic rugby and cricket.
New Zealand was witnessing the “demise of sport on free-to-air TV”, Stu Dennison, one of the TVNZ staff to lose his job in the latest cuts, said.
TVNZ’s biggest remaining sports productions are for rugby union’s International Rugby Board Sevens World Series event in Wellington, two international tennis tournaments in Auckland and some triathlon coverage.
Local media reports say that TVNZ bid only NZ$700,000 (€374,000/$530,000), compared to Sky’s winning bid of NZ$2.3 million, for the domestic club and national team netball rights sold last month in a four-year deal that ends in 2015, by Netball New Zealand, the country’s netball federation.
New Zealand does not have listed-events legislation to preserve sports events for broadcast on free-to-air television.