By LOUISA CLEAVE television editor
TV3 has shut out TVNZ from buying the best American television shows in a deal announced yesterday.
The Canadian-owned TV3 will have first dibs on shows and films made by Twentieth Century Fox Television, but TVNZ will hold on to its existing Fox shows such as The
Simpsons, Ally McBeal and Roswell.
The state broadcaster played down the deal between Fox and TV3, saying TV2 wanted to focus more on local programmes, which ratings showed viewers were most interested in.
But TV3 said the agreement had freed money to spend on local shows and given it the edge on international programming.
"It's a huge deal for TV3," said Kristin Marlow, the network's director of programming.
"They are the leading producer of both TV and movies in Hollywood and this gives us a great continuous, stable supply of product."
Until now, TVNZ and TV3 have shared Fox's shows, with TV2 buying a programme such as Roswell while TV3 purchased Malcolm In The Middle.
The fruits of the agreement for TV3 include a new drama by David E. Kelly, creator of Ally McBeal and The Practice - a spin-off of the X-Files by Chris Carter; and an action show called Dark Angel from Titanic director James Cameron.
Kristin Marlow said Fox had been on the open market but after "a lot of hard work" TV3 had "locked up" the supplier for more than three years.
"I think it was a good time and a good deal for both of us."
Stephen Smith, head of TV2, denied TV3's grip on Fox would leave any gaps in the channel's future line-up.
"I think there's really not a great deal of concern on the part of TV2 because our emphasis will be placed on local shows and continuing to source our supply of international shows from our existing programme providers," he said.
"It is an interesting move considering [TV3] spend so little on local production and rely so much on New Zealand On Air to fund their prime-time local shows that they're spending all this money on overseas programming."
