{"id":481467,"date":"2026-06-17T06:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481467\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T06:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:42:11","slug":"melodie-robinson-quits-tvnz-sport-role-to-join-amazon-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481467\/","title":{"rendered":"Melodie Robinson quits TVNZ sport role to join Amazon in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her time, TVNZ has acquired live rights to this year\u2019s National Provincial Championship<\/a>, the FIFA World Cup<\/a>, the ANZ netball championship<\/a> and next year\u2019s America\u2019s<\/a> Cup, while it also inherited \u2013 through the collapse of Spark Sport \u2013 Black Caps<\/a> domestic tests.<\/p>\n

Her departure will leave TVNZ\u2019s ambitious sports arm without a leader at a time when it is believed to be bidding for critical media rights \u2013 most notably broadcast access to the NRL and the high-flying Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"WarriorsWarriors players celebrate another try in their high-flying NRL campaign. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Losing Robinson\u2019s relationships and market knowledge has been described by industry figures as a significant blow for TVNZ.<\/p>\n

However, it is ultimately not one they think will derail its strategic plans to win a suite of watchable and meaningful sports content<\/a> that can be effectively monetised.<\/p>\n

One source says that success or otherwise in the world of winning sports broadcast rights is still determined by money, and that the relative strength and size of a bid will always matter more than personalities and relationships.<\/p>\n

The state-owned broadcaster has built a paywall function to enable it to offer subscription and free-to-air (FTA) content, and generate higher revenues to bid for media rights to mainstream and popular sports.<\/p>\n

It took its first step into pay-for-view broadcasting last week, having put FIFA World Cup games behind a paywall that can be accessed with a one-off tournament pass at $45.<\/p>\n

It is believed TVNZ paid close to $5m for the FIFA rights<\/a> \u2013 a fee that it will try to recuperate through advertising and subscriptions.<\/p>\n

\"AllAll Whites players celebrate a goal from Elijah Just against Iran. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

It is believed that TVNZ is eyeing a bid for NRL rights<\/a>, which are currently being renewed in Australia and New Zealand, with reports the new deal will be worth as much as $5.4 billion over seven years.<\/p>\n

Sky, which owns the New Zealand rights, is thought to have paid about $25m-a-year to secure the existing agreement, with the NRL understood to be hoping to see that jump to between $30m-$35m a year this time.<\/p>\n

A figure of that magnitude is likely to be considered by the state-owned broadcaster\u2019s board to be beyond the relative strength of TVNZ\u2019s balance sheet.<\/p>\n

The risk for TVNZ is that there is thought to be a significant crossover of audience between rugby and rugby league, and therefore putting the NRL on TVNZ and asking consumers to pay an additional fee to access it would be high-risk.<\/p>\n

A well-placed source says that what\u2019s more likely and achievable is that TVNZ is hoping to secure FTA access to the NRL in a rights deal similar to the one agreed with New Zealand Rugby last year.<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the rugby deal, Sky owns the rights to all content, but NPC games will also be simultaneously available on TVNZ.<\/p>\n

TVNZ is thought to have paid $3m for NPC rights and it has shown that it can be an effective disruptor bidding for small components of top tier sports and short, high-profile events such as the FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

In a statement, TVNZ said: \u201cMelodie Robinson will step down from her role as TVNZ\u2019s Head of Sport, Events & Partnerships in late July. We\u2019re incredibly proud to see Melodie appointed to this exciting new role – a reflection of the outstanding work she has delivered for TVNZ and the strong reputation she has built on the global stage. We\u2019re grateful for Melodie\u2019s exceptional contribution and wish her every success in this next chapter of her career.<\/p>\n

Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand\u2019s most respected rugby writers and columnists.<\/a> He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In her time, TVNZ has acquired live rights to this year\u2019s National Provincial Championship, the FIFA World Cup,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[414,6726,26862,89083,99932,21695,106,78,19755,2845,242021,4486,117,111,139,1536,69,10538,3117,106487,26479,205,2022,213,19554,61,6445,39163,102,2173],"class_list":["post-481467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-amazon","tag-become","tag-blow","tag-channels","tag-competitor","tag-genuine","tag-head","tag-in","tag-join","tag-leaving","tag-melodie","tag-month","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-play","tag-post","tag-quits","tag-robinson","tag-role","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-taken","tag-to","tag-tvnz","tag-tvnzs","tag-with","tag-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}