History

The Better Public Media Trust used to be known as the Coalition for Better Broadcasting, which was born out of two specific campaigns - Save RNZ from 2010 and the Save TVNZ 7 in 2012.

The Save RNZ aimed to halt the mooted commercialisation of RNZ, NZ's last true public service broadcaster. This was largely done via a Facebook campaign that exploded onto the national consciousness and gathered critical mass very quickly. It culminated in a total of 30,000 Facebook 'likes', a rowdy march on Parliament and the government backing down on its plans.

Inspired by the Save RNZ campaign, a group of concerned Kiwis setup Save TVNZ 7 to stop the closure of a small, new, non-commercial digital TV channel. There were many well-attended public meetings around the country, two protest marches (Wellington and Auckland) and an online petition that gathered over 36,000 signatures. Sadly the government didn't backdown and TVNZ 7 was closxed down.

Both campaigns showed that broadcasting and media is important to Kiwis. Many commentators and politicians were surprised at the level of anger expressed by thousands of people about the state of New Zealand's media.

In 2013, some of the people behind Save RNZ and Save TVNZ 7 joined together, along with media, legal and government-relations experts, to form the Coalition for Better Broadcasting Trust. The CBB grew into a well-established and vocal supporter of public service broadcasting and media with successful campaigns to increase funding for RNZ and stop large media mergers.

In 2017 the CBB became the Better Public Media Trust or BPM for short. We do the same work but our name better reflects our broader aims:

Better - we always want public media to be better, even if we were blessed with the BBC, someone's got to push them to be better.

Public - we're all about public radio, public TV and public online, owned by the people and serving the people.

Media - what was once broadcasting has joined print, telecommunications and Facebook to become 'media'.

Better Public Media perfectly encapsulates our aims, our slogan and the desire of our thousands of supporters.

 

The aim is the long-term education, enrichment and entertainment of all New Zealanders (not just Household Shoppers aged 18-49).

To do that we need your help. Please consider becoming a Member of the CBB or simply add your details to become a registered supporter.

Go to the Become a Member page for more information.