The financial fall-out of Covid-19 is changing the face of television news.

TVNZ has dropped Wendy Petrie as a co-anchor for the 6PM news - giving the sole position to Simon Dallow.

The media company announced last month it was planning to cut roles in a bid to save $10 million.

Former TVNZ news anchor Neil Waka told Heather Du Plessis-Allan that Petrie is a fabulous person with "nothing really that you could fault her on". 

"I trained her, I understand how good she is. She has all the elements you'd want in a good news anchor." 

However, while it is nice to have two people, Waka says that this move is something that should have happened a long time ago.

"When I was doing the news with Judy Bailey, it was a nice thing to do then."

He says that it is likely Newshub will follow suit, as Mediaworks continues plans to sell the TV side of the company. 

"Whoever takes them over and makes those decisions, they aren't going to sit there and carry on with two when they don't know what their financial future is." 

Waka says that they only went to two presenters after John Hawkesby in order to match what TVNZ was doing. 

• Simon Dallow confirmed as sole TVNZ 6pm presenter