The Fold

Sophie Moloney has been CEO of Sky NZ for five years. For much of that time she’s been dealing with downsides – a failed acquisition of Mediaworks, Spark Sports gifting their rights to TVNZ and prolonged satellite issues. But lately, things have been looking up. They successfully brought NZ Cricket rights back, scooped up Three’s assets for $1, and just last week lengthened their rugby deal under...

The longest-tenured leader in New Zealand media joins Duncan Greive on The Fold for a frank discussion about the state of RNZ. They discuss the sharp decline in radio ratings which prompted him to commission a brutal report from former RNZ news boss Richard Sutherland, while also addressing the growth of digital news and lifestyle content. They also address RNZ’s Auckland problem, the strength of...

Duncan Greive goes solo to dig into some fascinating recent media stories. The details of the Sky-NZ Rugby deal give all parties a chance to plausibly claim a win. The Sutherland report into RNZ National is one of the most challenging and interesting of its type in years. Two of the country’s biggest Substackers have left the platform. And Paramount looks to be building a manosphere streamer with...

Duncan Greive is joined by Phil Eastwood, GM of JCDecaux NZ, and Paul Maher, chair of OOHMAA, to discuss the rise and rise of out-of-home media. Once a backwater of the industry, it’s now the only locally operated sector showing robust growth. Partly a result of digital screens, partly a response to the hyper-saturation of ads in digital contexts, out-of-home has become what Eastwood calls “the la...

A very special episode of The Fold, featuring songwriting immortal Neil Finn talking about his long, singular journey making music on the internet. He gives his views on the utopian promise of its origins, the narrowing of algorithms and how social lost its way. And explains why, despite all that, he’s launching MUFGAL – perhaps his most ambitious attempt yet to hold true to that founding idea. Le...

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss the shock revelation that NZ on Air will support Celebrity Treasure Island and The Traitors NZ’s return to our screens. They assess the potential moral hazard, the function those shows perform for networks, and the more profound challenges lurking down the road. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gareth Shute is a historian of New Zealand music, who realised that there had never been a high level overview of the artists which shaped our pop charts. He’s just published Songs From the Shaky Isles, a book which flies through a century of recorded pop music on these shores. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss it, with particular reference to the way the rise of mediums like televisio...

Eugene Healey is an academic and brand strategist based in Melbourne, and a sharp critic of clumsy attempts from brands to play social justice activists. He's traveling back to New Zealand to speak at the Comms Council's Media Spotlight event, and joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss the unintended consequences of advertising's woke years, and explain why brands should only show up for a com...

Anna Rawhiti-Connell joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss the way social media conspiracy theories have started to dominate the institutional media in the US, and ask what the local equivalents might be. They also talk about Lucy Blakiston from Shit You Should Care About's signing to venerable Hollywood talent agency WME, and The Spinoff's buzzy new social-first news show Now You Know. Learn...

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on an emergency edition of The Fold to discuss Sky's move to buy the New Zealand assets of Discovery NZ, including Three and ThreeNow. They discuss the price, what it does for Sky, how Three will evolve and how it changes the game for TVNZ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to dig into another incredible quarter for Netflix – and ask whether its run is over or it has more headroom. They also chat about what's next for Substack after its US$100m raise, the end of the Auckland Transport saga and break down the Beacon Awards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Becker is an Aucklander who spent 15 years in the UK, much of it in key roles with huge EPL teams Arsenal and Manchester City, before a spell in Melbourne. He returned home to launch the city’s first professional football team in more than a decade – one which overcame early doubts to become a phenomenon right out of the gate. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about the decision to l...

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss a clutch of curiously under-covered stories which suggest major changes coming to streaming entertainment and news publishing. There’s Netflix’s massive deal with France’s biggest broadcaster to host its live channels and a vast library of content, along with a group of UK TV companies banding together to sell ads across their networks. Then the...

Andrew Jeffries might be the most influential New Zealander in the global music industry you've never heard of. For many years he was a senior executive, in charge of programming more than 800 stations at iHeartRadio, the biggest radio company in America, with massive digital and events businesses too. But while he worked on the big show by day, by night he built out a really different operation....

Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to recap the big takeaways from a new interview with TVNZ CEO Jodie O’Donnell. TVNZ is back in profit and looking at rugby and the Olympics, with an intriguing pay-per-view model on the horizon. He and Duncan Greive also discuss the implications of a widening lead for Stuff in Nielsen’s digital news rankings, and close on what the structural separation of WBD internat...

Campbell Smith trained as a lawyer, but was quickly drawn into the music business. He started out offering advice on bFM, then began representing artists like Brooke Fraser and The Naked and Famous. Then came his first promotional gig – running one of the country's most iconic festivals in the Big Day Out. At the same time he represented recorded music rights holders in a doomed battle against mus...

Are Media was a new company born out of the end of Bauer, taking some of its biggest magazines and running them on a much leaner model. Are's NZ GM Stuart Dick and The Listener's editor Kirsty Cameron join Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about bringing those magazines back to life, and how Cameron revived a title which had lost its way at times in the Bauer years. Learn more about your ad choice...

New Zealand's magazine industry suffered a catastrophic event five years ago, when many of the biggest and most famous titles in our history shut down on a fateful Zoom call. The first of a two part series looks at the independent publications which rose up in its wake. Duncan Greive is joined by Rebecca Wadey and Zoe Walker Ahwa, founders of Ensemble to discuss lifestyle media and first joining t...

A massive day of media news concludes with Duncan Greive joining Anna Rawhiti-Connell on The Fold to break down the NZME ASM, which marked the conclusion to an epic three month saga involving Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon. He and former National finance minister Steven Joyce were both elected to the board, with shareholders were both elated and terrified for what that might entail. Greive travel...

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss today's announcement that Trade Me has purchased a 50% stake in Stuff Digital, with an explicit focus on growing its property audience. Kyne and Greive break down the strategic rationale, the challenge it represents to NZME and how this new battle might play out in the coming months and years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm...

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive to pick through a week of small but instructive media news. There was a miniscule new announcement in the budget, on the same day radio ratings dropped to confirm little had changed. Then they review the first show from the Herald’s new FAST channel, fronted by Ryan Bridge, set against news that Madison Reidy was buying her channel and going solo. Learn more about you...

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to recap a significantly smaller but somehow considerably better Voyager Media Awards. (Apologies to Gulf News and NZ Geographic, each of which had notable wins which didn't get mentioned). Next they discuss the latest, potential the final developments in the NZME board coup saga, before addressing a big financial boost to inbound movie subsidies – and The...

For a long time New Zealand's country music audience was presumed to be the town of Gore and its immediate surrounds. Few albums got released, and major artists almost never toured. That all changed in the past few years, with streaming both proving and generating a huge global audience for country – and artists like Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen playing shows to massive local crowds. That has prom...

Yesterday US president Donald Trump announced 100% tariffs on all foreign-made movies. It was an extraordinary and potentially hugely destructive piece of news for the mighty but embattled film industry. It was also extremely unclear exactly what it meant. Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on an emergency edition of The Fold to discuss the news and try and game out its impact both globally and locally...

Dylan Reeve has spent his whole career working on iconic New Zealand television shows, from Shortland Street, to Treasure Island to Outrageous Fortune. But after listening to last week’s episode of The Fold, he wonders whether we’re even asking the right questions. He sent a provocative note which questions whose interests are being served by incremental reforms to NZ On Air or the screen producti...