TV3 faces fines of up to $300,000 for Sunday ads

Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

TV3 faces fines of up to $300,000 after trying to sidestep laws against screening advertisements on Sunday mornings.

Judge Allison Sinclair found TVWorks, owner of TV3, guilty of three charges of broadcasting commercials on three consecutive Sunday mornings during the Rugby World Cup in 2007.

The case was brought by the Government's Ministry of Culture and Heritage. Under the Broadcasting Act, advertisements are not allowed to screen on Sunday between 6am and midday.

Roger Beaumont, a spokesman for TVWorks' parent company, MediaWorks, said the company was not commenting on the decision while the case was before the courts.

He said he understood it could be fined $100,000 for each infringement. The date for sentencing in the Auckland District Court had not been set.

TV3, which paid $10 million for the exclusive broadcast rights to the Cup, said it believed it was within the law in showing the commercials.

TVWorks chief operating officer Rick Friesen claimed at the time that because the signal was mainly aimed at audiences outside New Zealand - in the Pacific - commercials could be broadcast during the Cup coverage.

Under the Broadcasting Act, advertisements can be screened on Sunday mornings if the signal for the programme comes from outside New Zealand, is transmitted simultaneously to audiences outside and inside New Zealand and is aimed primarily at audiences outside New Zealand.

TV3 had an arrangement with Fiji TV to broadcast its entire signal for the Rugby World Cup to more than nine million people in the Pacific Islands.

But Judge Sinclair said in her judgment that the advertisements were for New Zealand companies and were directed at a New Zealand audience.

She said TV3 had made no claim that it derived any income from the Pacific Islands for the commercials.

The court also said that with a total population of nine million, the Pacific Islands had only 361,000 TV sets, while New Zealand's four million people had 1.9 million sets.