In May 2007 the Ministry commissioned Synovate to develop a survey to measure the importance and contribution of public broadcasting. The intent of the study was to provide benchmark measures as well as to enable future tracking of collective public broadcasting outcomes.
This report measures New Zealanders’ attitudes towards the collective impact of public broadcasting from broadcasters with a charter or charter-like document (TVNZ, Māori Television, Radio NZ, and the National Pacific Radio Trust). The report assesses how important their ‘cultural, democratic and social outcomes’ are to New Zealanders and how well public broadcasting is seen as working to contribute to these outcomes.
Purpose
The objectives of the research were to identify New Zealanders’ views on the extent to
which public broadcasting contributes to public value, including:
• the public broadcasting outcomes that are considered most important;
• the relative importance and contribution of public broadcasting outcomes; and
• the collective contribution of public broadcasting to cultural, democratic and social value.
Methodology
• Reid Research conducted a telephone survey of 500 members of the general public between 11 June and 1 July 2007.
• A sample size of n=500 provides a margin of error of ±4.4% on estimates of 50% at the 95% confidence level. For example, this means that if 50% of the sample agreed with a particular concept, we can be 95% confident that between 45.6% and 54.4% of the general public population would agree with the concept.
• The collected sample is representative of the New Zealand population, based on placing sample quotas on the following population groups:
- Region (16 regions as defined by Statistics NZ);
- Age (6 age brackets as defined by Statistics NZ);
- Gender (male and female);
- Maori and Pacific Peoples (respondents were given up to three options for their
- ethnic group, consistent with Statistics NZ recommendations).