19 April, 2006
MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Home and Away Multi-Year Deal for New Zealand

Following the huge success of the international hit series Home and Away in New Zealand, TV3 have signed a further multi-year contract in a deal negotiated by Southern Star International’s Head of Sales, Alison Baker.

“We are delighted that our ongoing relationship with Southern Star ensures we can continue to bring our viewers the much loved Home and Away. We are confident the quality of the show will ensure its success for years to come”, says Beverley McGarvey, TV3’s Director of Programming.

The award-winning soap has become a viewing phenomenon around the world with an estimated weekly audience of over 50 million. Territories sold include the UK, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Israel, Middle East, South Africa and Africa continent, Asia Pan Pacific, Estonia and Nigeria.

Southern Star is an integrated film and television production and distribution group. Divisions of the Company are involved in film, television and video production; sales and distribution; and licensing and merchandising. Southern Star is a division of Southern Cross Broadcasting.

ENDS

Gordon Campbell: On John Key’s Agenda For The Nation

There seemed to be three main components to John Key’s speech:

a) tax cuts largely paid for by a hike in GST
b) mining in national parks and on conservation land, while building more roads.
c) giving firms easier access to the r&d from Crown Research Institutes, so that business can continue to get the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the research that keeps them competitive.

After all, corporate welfare is always such a blessed thing – its only social welfare that corrodes enterprise and ambition. More>>