As per the media reports, after a week TVNZ received a letter from Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman, it has initiated plans to cut costs and staff.

The documents confirming this development were received by the New Zealand's well known newspaper under the Official Information Act. In the month of January, a letter was received by TVNZ from Dr. Coleman, in which he urged the state broadcaster to improve its financial performance and cut costs.

Dr. Coleman was informed about TVNZ plans at a briefing on 4th February to review costs and manage salaries and in following weeks included the likelihood of job losses.

An announcement confirming slashing of 90 jobs was made by TVNZ on 16th March, which comes as part of a drive to save $25 million after lower than anticipated advertising revenue.

"Savings were also expected to be made from the programme commissioning budget (100 hours of local content to go) and departmental operating budgets (worth 10 percent of cuts)," read the documents.

Changes have been introduced by government in how some funding is allocated with TVNZ having to bid for $15 million that it previously got automatically.

TVNZ is supposed to pay a dividend, which would be set up by the board.

(via TopNews New Zealand. Contributed by Amiri Halberg)