James
No address provided
Via email: James <[FYI request #27532 email]>
16 July 2024
Kia ora James
Official Information Act request dated 7 July 2024
We refer to your email dated 7 July 2024 requesting information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act). The answers to your specific questions are set out
below.
Request 1: Please provide the names of the TVNZ executives who attended the
meeting on the 16/05/2024 that started at approximately 9:40pm and concluded at
around 11:30pm. Who was the meeting with?
Please provide al texts, emails and correspondence if any, relating to this meeting.
Response 1:
TVNZ attendees at this meeting were:
• Nevak Rogers, Chief Content Officer; and
• Josh Wolfe, GM Commercial.
The meeting was with three television producers to discuss potential future
opportunities. The names of the producers have been withheld on the bases of section
9(2)(a), s9(2)(b) and 9(2)(i) of the Act: to protect the privacy of the relevant
producers, and to protect information where the making available of the information
(TVNZ’s potential future plans) would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the
commercial position of TVNZ and/or the relevant producers, and to enable TVNZ and
those producers to carry out, without prejudice or disadvantage, commercial activities
i.e. meeting with potential future partners.
Ahead of the LA Screenings event, the relevant TVNZ team members discussed which
producers might be in LA during the event period and agreed that Nevak Rogers
would reach out to a selection of those producers. Messages between Ms Rogers and
those producers have been withheld on the fol owing grounds:
• Section 9(2)(a) of the Act: to protect the privacy of relevant producers;
• Section 9(2)(b) of the Act: to protect information where the making available
of the information would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial
position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information;
• Section 9(2)(g) of the Act: to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs
through the free and frank expression of opinions by members of an
organisation in the course of their duty; and
• Section 9(2)(i) of the Act: to enable TVNZ to carry out, without prejudice or
disadvantage, commercial activities.
Request 2: Please provide the names of the TVNZ executives who attended the
meeting on the 19/05/2024 that started at around 10:15pm. What time did the meeting
conclude and who was the meeting with?
Please provide all texts, emails, and correspondence if any relating to this meeting.
Response 2: This request relates to an uber fare returning to the Sofitel Hotel from the
Paramount Screening per the attached itinerary. TVNZ attendees at this Screening
were:
• Jodi O’Donnell, CEO
• Nevak Rogers, Chief Content Officer; and
• Josh Wolfe, GM Commercial.
Relevant correspondence is attached.
Request 3: Please provide the names of the TVNZ executives who attended the
meeting beginning at approximately 8:45pm on the 18/05/2024 and concluded the
next morning at approximately 12:35am.
Please provide details on who this meeting was with and al texts, emails and
correspondence, if any relating to this meeting.:
• Nevak Rogers, Chief Content Officer; and
• Josh Wolfe, GM Commercial.
Response 3: TVNZ attendees at this meeting were:
• Jodi O’Donnell, CEO
• Nevak Rogers, Chief Content Officer; and
• Josh Wolfe, GM Commercial.
This meeting was a dinner function with a group of New Zealand producers and
directors. It was arranged during the course of the LA Screenings event, so no formal
correspondence exists.
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Request 4: Please provide the names of the TVNZ executives who attended the
meeting at approximately 4:30pm on the 23/05/2024, who the meeting was with and
al texts, emails and correspondence if any, relating to this meeting.
Response 4: This request relates to an uber fare for:
• Jodi O’Donnell, CEO
• Nevak Rogers, Chief Content Officer; and
• Josh Wolfe, GM Commercial.
There is no meeting that relates to this fare, and no correspondence, but for clarity,
the expense is well within TVNZ’s Travel and Expenditure Policies.
In accordance with the Act’s principle of transparency and to assist with your request,
we have enclosed the itinerary for the LA screenings event. As you wil see from that
itinerary, the three TVNZ attendees were away from home for 7-8 days and were
typical y working from 7:30am until late in the evening each day. You have already
been provided with a spreadsheet setting out total spending. As you will have seen
from that spreadsheet, excluding flights, accommodation, and visas, the total expense
claim for al three TVNZ attendees was a little over US$600. That figure includes two
business events.
It may also be relevant to your request that although TVNZ is owned by the Crown, it
operates as a self-funded Crown entity company by virtue of the Television New
Zealand Act 2003. In FY23 only 1.5% of our funding came from public funds: all of this
was contestable programme funding from NZ on Air and Te Māngai Pāho.
Please note that section 28 of the Act sets out the circumstances in which you may
make a complaint to the Ombudsman in order to seek an investigation and review of
this decision.
Yours sincerely,
Official Information Requests Team
TVNZ
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