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TV3's plans to show advertisements during Sunday's Rugby World Cup quarter final could still be in breach of the Broadcasting Act, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage has said.
TV3 earlier announced that a loophole in the law would allow it to show commercials during the game between the All Blacks and France on Sunday.
The network had previously confirmed it would play commercials at this time, but had not revealed how it would achieve this within the restrictions in the Act, which prohibit ads before midday on Sundays.
Ministry for Culture and Heritage spokesperson Shona Geary said although TV3 thought it was working within the Broadcasting Act, the Ministry believed the channel could still be in breach.
But she confirmed that any decision to prosecute TV3 for running advertisements on Sunday morning would only be made after the fact and after legal advice had been sought.
"Several weeks ago the Ministry invited the network to seek a declaratory judgement by the courts on the issue but the offer was declined.
"The Ministry has had discussions with TV3 and made its views clear that the Ministry has an obligation to uphold the law," Ms Geary said.
Ms Geary said no comment would be made on whether a prosecution was likely until the Ministry had spoken to Crown Solicitor after any showing of the advertisements.
This morning TV3 said that in an arrangement with Fiji TV it would be transmitting its entire signal for the event to 18 countries and territories in the Pacific.
The Broadcasting Act allows for Sunday morning advertising, TV3 said, if the signal for the programme comes from outside New Zealand, is transmitted to domestic and overseas audiences at the same time, and is targeted primarily at audiences outside NZ.
"Based on these criteria, we are well within the legal requirements in regard to Sunday morning advertising," said Rick Friesen, Chief Operating Officer of TVWorks, which owns TV3.
"The signal will originate from France, and will simultaneously transmit to New Zealand and the Pacific. Our signal outside of New Zealand will reach a combined population of more than nine million people, which is more than double New Zealand's population, making the Pacific audience the primary audience for the signal.
"One country alone in the Pacific group, Papua New Guinea, has a substantially larger population than New Zealand, with 6.2 million people," said Mr Friesen.
Papua New Guinea Rugby Football Union president Graham Osborne said the rugby would be well watched in the country.
Papua New Guinea has a world ranking of 52 and lost to Portugal earlier this year 26 - 19.
Mr Osborne said the game had been on the rise since Fiji TV bought a television station in the country and started broadcasting live games.
He said the coverage would be available on free-to-air television and some local night clubs had promoted the screenings.
Mr Osborne said the country had just had its domestic Super 4 competition where a crowd of between 8 and 9000 turned up to see the game.
The other countries or territories the TV signal reaches are: Tahiti, Cook Islands, Tonga, American Samoa, Samoa, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Niue, Kiribati, Nauru, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Guam, The Marshall Islands, Northern Marianas.
Fiji TV head of corporate affairs Tamarisi Digitaki said Fiji TV reached 85 per cent of the population with their terrestrial platform and the remainder 15 per cent through satellite.
Eighty per cent of the population had access to a television, Ms Digitaki said.
"In some cases there might be one television set in the village but everyone comes around to watch," she said.
Fiji TV had agents in other countries who passed on the rugby coverage but Ms Digitaki said she could not confirm if the broadcast would be free to air in all the countries.
Mr Friesen assured viewers the game itself would not be interrupted. Adverts will screen before and after the game and during half-time as usual.
He added: "As a commercial network, we need to recover the substantial investment we have made to bring the Rugby World Cup free-to-air to our viewers, and we have made careful arrangements to do this within the requirements of the Broadcasting Act," said Mr Friesen.
Paul Norris from the Christchurch School of Broadcasting said TV3 seemed to have done their homework.
"This is a one off though. I don't see it leading to a boom in advertising on Sunday morning," Mr Norris said.
Mr Norris said TV3 had found a way through the ban on advertisements but that it remained to be seen if they would get away with it.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
