Good news for Maori TV?

Maori TV makes a $3mil surplus in its first year. Ka pai! Chief exec, Jim Mather, boasts:

"viewers increased from a monthly cumulative average of 327,800 in July 2004 to a peak of 426,300 in April this year"

But Gerry Brownlee has doubts, as the annual report (most unusually) doesn't disclose full ratings statistics.

"We have never been allowed to see the official comparative ratings figures, so we don't know whether the taxpayer is getting value for money out of its significant spend on Maori TV"

He's got a point there! Why the secrecy? Are they hiding a ratings catastrophe? A cynic might think so.
And where's the accountability to the public footing the bill? It's not a good look for MTS, I'm afraid. It makes Maoris look dodgy and sneaky - as if we needed any help!

I'm saddened coz I like Bro TV. I adore Julian Wilcox and always try to catch his news bulletins. I love his deep resonant voice, his gorgeous elongated vowels & sensuous eliding diphthongs, like the glides of a slide guitar. Most of all, he's astonishingly handsome! Our very own on-screen Maori super-babe.

It can be a discombobulating experience watching MTV. One doco, Anna from Benin, featured an African girl, who spoke French throughout, with Maori subtitles. Very head-spinny. I also crack up watching Te Karere sometimes. They have English subtitles now, but when showing a person actually speaking English, they overdub it with a Maori translation, but continue with the English subtitles - LOL, I'm not sure what that's all about.