Government Estimates
Wednesday 25th June 2008
Government Partnerships with TV Stations

Mr FINCH - Minister, I heard you mention a couple of television networks and stations there.  What, if any, partnerships does the Government have with perhaps our local television stations?  Do we do anything with WIN and with Southern Cross?  Or is it mainly networks like the ABC and Nine?

Ms WRIEDT - Through Screen Tasmania, not that I am aware of.  Through Tourism Tasmania we went into partnership with Southern Cross Television for the production and screening of the Discover Tasmania series which has been very successful.  That was put together to encourage Tasmanians to holiday at home so it aired first here and it got such high ratings that it went national.  They slightly re-edited it to take out the call to action to Tasmanians to discover their own State and it out-rated a large number of programs; one night, it received more viewers than one of the football broadcasts.  It rated even higher than Dr Who and it is now being repeated on Saturday at 5.30 p.m. in Tasmania because it has been very successful.  That has been a good relationship and one that we hope to continue.  We have a good relationship with The Collectors; the Goodwood studio was what the kept The Collectors being filmed here in Tasmania rather than being taken offshore.

Mr FINCH - So it is filmed there, is it?  It is developed there?

Ms WRIEDT - Yes.  If you go out there, the set is there.  I wandered around the set there recently.

McILFATRICK - The first series was filmed in the Bond Store and then it was under threat and ABC came to us and said, if we were an anchor tenant could you build us a new studio.  Four months later we had the studio and that provides an opportunity for many other people to use a nationally competitive sound stage.

Mr FINCH - Anything else in the future or anything being developed with television?

CHAIR - That is the second question, not the last.

Mr FINCH - Yes.

CHAIR - I think we have been over that fairly substantially, unless there is something major.

Mr FINCH - Mr McIlfatrick looked as if he was keen to answer that.

Ms WRIEDT - He has been keen to answer all of the questions all day.