TV3 proposes Kiwi Home and Away

Home and Away's hot couple Nate and Ricky. Photo / Channel 7

TV3 is proposing a new soap that will try to replicate Home and Away - and it could be one of our most expensive shows ever made.

The Herald on Sunday understands the show will be based around a beach community, will screen up to four nights a week, and will require more than $10million of funding.

Details have been kept under wraps since MediaWorks invited production companies to submit ideas a year ago.

But the Herald on Sunday understands the in-development soap will be family-oriented and set on the outskirts of Auckland.

"It will be a soft, family relationship series set in a fictional community," a TV industry insider revealed.

"It is about beach life culture on the fringes of Auckland and will not be unlike Home and Away."

A MediaWorks spokeswoman yesterday said the network would not comment because the show was subject to funding.

New Zealand on Air confirmed it had received an application from MediaWorks.

"A decision will be made on December 11," spokeswoman Allanah Kalafatelis said.

NZ On Air has $15.5 million available in funding until June next year but 41 applications seeking $21 million have been submitted, Kalafatelis said.

NZ On Air made a $10 million commitment to a 5.30pm soap called The Point in 2006-07 but the idea was dropped in favour of other dramas.

When Shortland Street was launched in 1992 it received almost $9 million over four years.

This year NZ On Air awarded TV3 series Westside $7.6million to make a second series and new TVNZ drama series Dirty Laundry $6.7 million.

In recent weeks MediaWorks announced it would not renew the much-criticised local version of British cooking hit Come Dine With Me and confirmed X Factor NZ and MasterChef NZ were off the TV3 rosters next year, too.

Dancing with the Stars is also believed to be under threat.