2025 has been a year of profound change in the regulatory landscape for Australian media. There is a social media ban for under 16s, which goes live next week. There are new local content spending rules for the big paid streaming platforms. And there is a revised version of the news bargaining code which aims squarely at Meta. Tim Burrowes has covered all this at Mumbrella, and rejoins The Fold to update Duncan Greive on what our near neighbour is doing – and what our government could copy (but probably wont).

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Last week we kicked off a new partnership with New Zealand's leading media agency, PHD, which will partner with The Spinoff and The Fold on a series of podcasts on the increasingly complex intersection of media, advertising and technology. We held a live event at The Spinoff in front of a room full of senior marketers, featuring Helen Brown (PHD Chief Investment Officer) and Rachel Bayfield (PHD Chief Technology & Innovation Officer), along with James Davidson, (PHD Chief Strategy and Planning Officer). We reviewed the year in local media, highlighted by a pair of major deals at Stuff and Sky, while surveying big changes in search and the continued strength of OOH and radio. Finally we cast ahead with some predictions for 2026.

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Duncan Greive goes solo to deliver a quick response to the NZ Screen Awards, which fused film with television in a way which showed a lot of promise while also needing some serious tightening. There were big wins for The Convert, and a big beautiful crowd, but Tinā felt neglected and the randomised nature of the awards meant that energy came and went. The highlights more than justified the exercise – but a more streamlined and sequenced show should be the aim for 2026.

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2025 sees the release of the latest in The Fold’s obsession: NZ on Air’s Where Are the Audiences research. This time the focus is on children’s media – the third time this subject has been assessed, following work in 2015 and 2020. It tells a story even more stark and challenging than that which comes out of the bigger grown-ups survey. The Spinoff’s head of audience Anna Rawhiti-Connell has dug into the report, and talks with Duncan Greive about its most interesting insights. Then they dig into a fascinating new piece of research from the Broadcasting Standards Authority on the often vexed issue of trust in news media – one which has fresh detail both on types of media consumed, and how trust actually works in this context.

https://www.nzonair.govt.nz/news/where-are-the-audiences-childrens-media-use-report-2025/

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The Spinoff editor-at-large Toby Manhire joins Duncan Greive this week to discuss a very unfortunate case of journalistic mistaken identity. Former Herald reporter Bevan Hurley had an explosive exclusive with former Bill de Blasio, in which the former New York mayor critiqued Zohran Mamdani, the current mayoral candidate he had previously strongly endorsed. Or so Hurley thought – he had in fact been talking to a wine importer by the name of Bill DeBlasio, who holds very different views to his near-namesake. It blew up into an international media storm, which the pair break down, along with a confession from Toby's past at the Guardian. Also, the succession situations at Morning Report and TVNZ’s 6pm bulletin – what are the risks and opportunities for those two big dogs of our news media? And finally, a word on Juggernaut II – the sequel to our hit 2024 podcast which launches next week.

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Liam Rātana, editor of The Spinoff Ātea, joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss a piece he wrote last week, about some seismic changes to the Māori media landscape. Two iconic shows, Te Karere and The Hui, one of which has been on the air for more than 40 years, were turned down for funding in the most recent Te Māngai Pāho round. The decision was in part financially driven – there’s a fiscal cliff coming – but also a recognition that these shows, which have their origins in linear and still feel built around that medium’s preferences, are not necessarily where the majority of Māori find their news. Rātana explains the background, and where Māori media is going – potentially presaging moves mainstream news funders will have to make in years to come.

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Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to discuss the background, stakes and possible outcome of a small battle that sets up a much larger question: how do we regulate the internet? It's one successive governments have thought about then studiously avoided. The BSA might just have forced them to confront it.

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The biggest phenomenon in pop culture released her latest album a week ago. Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl smashed records wherever it went, but was also greeted by an unfamiliar reaction: indifference. Not just by critics, but by her fans too. Duncan Greive is joined by The Spinoff’s Alex Casey and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith – two lifelong Swift fans who also felt the bubble pop this week – to discuss an album that promised much but felt like a letdown to many.

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From a traditional "direct" medium to a data-driven powerhouse, out-of-home media has undergone a true evolution. Over a 17-year period, the out-of-home space has gone from commanding a mere 3% of industry ad revenue to approximately 18%, expanding to fill the void left by fragmenting media channels like linear television.

Duncan Greive is joined by Kurt Malcolm, Head of Trading and Platforms at JCDecaux NZ, and Richard Thompson, Founder of D3, to discuss how innovations like knOOH - a cross-industry collaboration to measure audience - have contributed to the continued rise of out-of-home in Aotearoa.

This is the final episode of our partnership with JC Decaux.

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