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TV3 is reassuring rugby fans advertisements won't screen during the remaining live Rugby World Cup games - only before and after play and during half-time.
The channel revealed yesterday how it would sidestep a ban on screening advertisements on Sunday mornings. It had made an agreement with Fiji
TV to broadcast its entire signal for the Rugby World Cup to more than nine million people in the Pacific Islands, including places such as Papua New Guinea, Guam and Kiribati.
Under the Broadcasting Act, advertisements are allowed to be screened on television on Sunday mornings if the signal for the programme originates outside New Zealand, is transmitted simultaneously to audiences outside and inside New Zealand and is targeted primarily at audiences outside New Zealand.
But advertisements were allowed to screen on Sunday mornings in the Pacific countries and territories receiving TV3's signal.
TVWorks chief operating officer Rick Friesen said: "Our signal 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."
But he said he didn't know how many of those nine million people had access to televisions or would watch the games.
However he emphasised that the advertisements wouldn't screen during live play.
"There will simply be commercials around our coverage, as there has been to date during the tournament. 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," he said.
Associate Professor David Robie, who is director of the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University, said the nine million figure was a wildly optimistic estimate of a potential audience based on population only.
"The critical figure is potential audience. Most of the 18 countries listed have a limited interest in rugby union."
He said 80 per cent of the population of Papua New Guinea were rural villagers with limited access to televisions and electricity.
The Ministry of Culture and Heritage said yesterday that any decision to prosecute would be made after the advertisements screened and legal advice had been sought.
Martin Gillman, chief executive of media planner and buyer Total Media, said the Sunday morning ban was no longer relevant.
He said newspapers and radios were allowed to advertise on Sunday mornings, so television should be allowed to. "I would think it despicable if they went ahead with the prosecution."
Unitec School of Communication senior lecturer Peter Thompson said this was a test case and it would be interesting to see what happened.