Covid-19: Super Saturday vaxathon cost $2 million to film, promote

The Super Saturday Vaxathon cost $2million to produce. Photo / RNZ

By Rowan Quinn of RNZ

It cost $2 million to film and promote last year's eight-hour Super Saturday vaxathon.

The telethon ran on October 16, alongside a day-long, nationwide push to get people vaccinated against Covid, particularly Māori who had lower rates at the time.

The Ministry of Health has released a list of the costs.

It cost about $960,000 to film and broadcast the telethon out of Avalon studios in Wellington, with Auckland company Pango contracted to do the work.

The ministry spent a further $1.074m to promote Super Saturday through advertising and marketing on television, radio and social media

The biggest single advertising item, nearly a quarter of a million dollars, was a television campaign in the week leading up to Super Saturday to try to encourage competition between regions.

About 130,000 people were vaccinated on the day, boosting those with a first dose two percentage points to 85 per cent of the eligible population, and those with a second dose three points to 63 per cent.

About 20,000 Māori were vaccinated, with that number roughly equal between first and second doses.

The ministry said funding for the telethon itself came out of a $39m fund for initiatives to support Māori vaccination.

The information provided by the ministry does not include the cost of running the vaccination centres or events.