Interview with miners to be shown on 20/20

Television New Zealand has secured the rights to broadcast the interview with the Australian miners trapped for two weeks in a Tasmanian gold mine that was seen at the weekend on Channel Nine.

The interview with Brant Webb and Todd Russell will be seen on 20/20 on TV2 on Thursday.

TVNZ public affairs manager Megan Richards refused to disclose how much the national broadcaster paid. Nine is said to have paid the men A$2.6 million ($3.22 million) for the interview.

"I can't give you a precise figure on this because it's considered a commercial transaction, but just to give you a guide I could say it cost almost exactly the same as a normal episode of 20/20," said Ms Richards.

TV3 head of news Mark Jennings said TV3 discussed bidding for the rights to the footage, but decided against it.

"Once it goes to air and gets widely reported, its value goes down very quickly. To then pay substantial money for it, you've got to examine the commercial wisdom of that."

However, Campbell Live played a few minutes of footage from the interview last night, which Ms Richards said was the normal practice of using "short grabs of news clips without purchasing the rights".

TVNZ head of news and current affairs Bill Ralston said he had no problems with the Campbell Live coverage.

"They probably pushed it to the limit, but that's fine. If they want to run a promo for 20/20 on Thursday night, they're welcome to."

He said the question of whether to buy the rights was a no-brainer.

"If it's the same cost as it would normally cost us to make a 20/20 programme, then that's a good deal for us."

Media have scrambled to win the rights to their story since the two men were freed from their cage almost 1km underground after an earthquake triggered a rockfall in the Beaconsfield Gold Mine on April 25.

The Nine deal was believed to be the most paid to secure news "talent", Australian newspapers reported.

Ms Richards said TVNZ negotiated the deal through the miners' agent.

"We secured the rights from the Australian agent of the miners themselves because the international rights were held by them separately from the domestic rights."