Tamati will join Toni Street on the couch, replacing Rawdon Christie who has moved to hosting the weekday edition of the show. The new role on Saturday Breakfast adds to an already busy schedule for Tamati, as he will also be hosting the upcoming entertainment show New Zealand’s Got Talent, which screens on TV ONE later in the year, as well as continuing his role as weather presenter on the weekday edition of Breakfast four days a week.

“Tamati is a talented presenter, and his popularity with viewers is evident in the feedback we receive,” says Editor Daily Programmes John Gillespie. “He and Toni are both clever and charismatic, and so Tamati will be the perfect fit for Saturday Breakfast.”

Tamati, who has an honours degree in Political Studies from the University of Auckland, is looking forward to adding Saturday Breakfast co-host to his ever-expanding CV, but as the winner of multiple viewers’ choice awards for his weather presenting is not planning on giving up that aspect of his working life anytime soon.

“Since people seem to really like me doing Breakfast weather, it means I’ll still be doing what I do best for most of the week, but Saturday Breakfast feels like such a natural step for me,” says Tamati. “Toni is intelligent, warm, funny and gorgeous to boot, and between the two of us, you can guarantee Saturday mornings are going to be must see TV!”

Tamati begins with Saturday Breakfast immediately, commencing tomorrow on Saturday, May 19th.

Over the years Big Save Furniture has honed and perfected the dark art of low cost retail advertising – quickly and cheaply producing campaigns that have an immediate and positive effect on sales.

Read more about Big Save Furniture’s approach to retail television advertising.

Who’s it for: New World by Colenso BBDO/.99 and Finch.

Why we like it: A long overdue brand refresh for New World, which has been battered by the big-spending Countdown in recent years. All three ads from the new campaign are bang on in terms of visual storytelling, but for us, the ‘I’m Big Day’ spot takes the biscuit. Check out the other two here.

In November 2011, TVNZ entered into a joint venture agreement with Sky to launch a new low-cost subscription TV service, known as Igloo.

The Commission received a number of complaints that the joint venture had the potential to substantially lessen competition. It opened an investigation to determine whether there was any likely breach of sections 47 or 27 of the Commerce Act. Today, the Commission advised TVNZ and Sky that it had found no likely breach.

Chair Dr Mark Berry said the Commission had done a full investigation and found that the joint venture would make little difference to the level of competition in the pay TV market.

“Our role in this investigation was not to judge the level of competition in the market, but whether the joint venture would change the level of competition. When we looked at two possible future scenarios, one with TVNZ’s involvement in the joint venture, and one without, we found the level of competition was essentially unchanged.”

Dr Berry said the contractual restrictions on TVNZ in the joint venture agreement are relatively narrow, relating only to the service that Igloo will offer – linear pay TV via digital terrestrial television. This leaves scope for TVNZ and Sky to compete across a range of other pay TV services, including video on demand and pay TV over the internet.

“We also found that a number of other potential competitors may enter the market.”

Dr Berry said that the Commission’s investigation did, however, highlight potential difficulties that any entrant would face in entering the pay TV market.

“While this was not part of this investigation, we are aware of concerns that access to content and Sky’s contracts with internet service providers may be hindering competition. As a result, we have now opened a separate investigation under sections 27 and 36 of the Commerce Act.”

The Commission will advise the outcome of this investigation when it is finished. A public version of the investigation report can be found at http://www.comcom.govt.nz/investigation-reports/

Background

The Commerce Act prohibits anti-competitive behaviour and structures in markets.

Section 27 prohibits anyone from entering into, or implementing arrangements with the purpose, effect or likely effect of substantially lessening competition. Arrangements can include contracts, agreements or understandings.

Section 36 makes it illegal for any business with a substantial degree of market power to take advantage of that power to deter or prevent rival businesses from competing effectively.

Section 47 makes it illegal for a business to acquire assets of a business or shares if the acquisition would have, or would be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

Linear pay TV via digital terrestrial television: A linear service is one where the television service provider determines the schedule of programmes (in contrast to video on demand where the viewer chooses what and when they watch). Digital terrestrial television is the broadcast of television signals in digital form rather than analogue. Other forms of transmission include satellite and over the internet.

Broadcast sponsor, Bunnings Warehouse, and fellow foundation partners Kiwibank, Mazda and Wild Bean Cafe are working with TV3 on creative marketing campaigns that extend well beyond traditional sponsor activity, and support both the programme and the brand objectives.

MediaWorks TV Head of Integration, Melanie Reece, says MediaWorks’ unique ability to create campaigns across the company’s television, radio, online (including social media), and mobile phone platforms is central to the success of this innovative approach.

“TV3 are the local market leaders for new model of branded entertainment, and with The Block NZ, we are building on the commercial success of New Zealand’s Next Top Model,” she says.

“The collaborative partnership between the sponsors, TV3 and the producers of the show means our brand partners are integrated into the creative process from day one. And in a new development, in addition to being part of the programme itself, the partners have the right to leverage their association in marketing campaigns that feature the stars of the show.”

Extending the company’s reach into the print media space, MediaWorks today named ACP Magazines as the official media partner for The Block NZ. Woman’s Day and Your Home & Garden will be the lead publications in the partnership, which will include unique opportunities for sponsors and clients.

The Block model sees a group of foundation partners built around four categories; DIY (Bunnings Warehouse), Financial Services (Kiwibank), Transport (Mazda) and Coffee/Food (Wild Bean Cafe). Head of Factual Commissioning Sue Woodfield says TV3 is delighted to have such premium brands associated with the programme.

“The Block is one of the most exciting reality formats in the world, and the sponsors contribute significantly to the programme’s content. We are very lucky to have secured such a motivated, high calibre group of sponsors for the inaugural New Zealand production.”

The Block NZ promises to be the biggest local programme of winter 2012. The first local version of the hit international format, The Block NZ will see four couples compete to renovate four dilapidated houses in a very upmarket suburb – room-by-room, week-by-week, challenge-by-challenge – and sell them at auction for the highest price. The winning couple is simply decided by the toughest judge of all, the real estate market.

All four renovated houses will go to a LIVE TV auction, with The Block NZ crown going to the couple whose renovated house fetches the highest price on the night! All four couples will receive profits from the sale of their house at the LIVE TV auction, and the winners will take home an additional cash prize of $80,000.

The Block is one of the biggest reality formats in the world, with a compelling blend of real estate dreams and high-stakes drama that has made it a global phenomenon. In Australia, where the show began, it remains the highest rated television series of all time, and over 350 episodes have been produced worldwide, from the UK and USA to Israel, Russia, Romania and Belgium, to the Netherlands and Scandinavia.

The New Zealand series is produced by Eyeworks Television for TV3. Foundation partners are Bunnings Warehouse, Kiwibank, Mazda and Wild Bean Cafe, with additional support from Dulux, Peter Hay Kitchens, Mitsubishi Electric and Fisher and Paykel Appliances.

Wendy Rayner, head of marketing for New Zealand Lotteries, shared her experiences creating one of New Zealand’s most memorable television campaign and the necessity of taking risks in pursuit of the big idea.

“The key was finding a powerful brand that had a licensed property that we could leverage and install within our product,” says Kirsty Larsen, Marketing Manager for Instant Kiwi. “Being with a relevant, high-reach, high talkability brand like X Factor, and being able to use that on a product, was definitely a winning formula for us.”

Read more about how this integrated TV campaign put the X Factor back into Instant Kiwi and showed that even sales graphs can change in an instant.

Changing viewer habits have seen time-shifted channels develop as an internationally-established method of meeting viewer demands for greater flexibility – especially with News and Current Affairs.  Long working hours, shift work and traffic problems have had an impact on the numbers able to watch the evening news in its traditional time slot, and there is now an identifiable global trend towards time-shifting by consumers.

TVNZ Acting Chief Executive, Rodney Parker, says “a ‘plus one’ channel aligns with TVNZ’s strategy of reaching more New Zealanders on more screens. TV ONE has been selected as the time-shifted channel to maximise exposure for the great local content, news and current affairs that it features”.

“Having already established a number of new channels over the past few years, including Channel U, Heartland and Kidzone24 the decision to broadcast a free to air ‘plus one’ channel was only made once we looked carefully at what other options might be commercially viable”.

“We believe that this is a desirable and appropriate use of the frequency that offers an additional opportunity for viewers, particularly those without PVRs, to fit their individual circumstances,” Mr Parker says.

The new channel will begin broadcasting at 7am on July 1.  It will be offered on Freeview and details are still being finalised on which other platforms may also carry it.

Who’s it for: RaboDirect by Shine and String Theory.

Why we like it: It’s a common trick for challenger brands in the banking space to target the big boys, but this spot communicates the savings message and it’s very well made (take a bow, String Theory and Toybox). And, as one cad said, extra points for getting Sandy Moore to star in it.

Rawdon Christie

Christie is currently hosting the Saturday edition of the show, with Toni Street. He replaces Corin Dann in the Monday to Friday slot as Dann leaves to take up the post of TVNZ’s Political Editor.

“We are very pleased to have secured Rawdon in this full time role of Breakfast co-host,” says Editor of Daily Programmes John Gillespie. “Rawdon has the kind of journalistic integrity, insight and personality that our viewers really enjoy.”

Christie, currently also a newsreader for Breakfast, Midday and the 4:30pm ONE News bulletin, is delighted to accept the job.

“I love hosting Saturday Breakfast, and so to be able to present Breakfast five days a week is, for me, the perfect job,” says Christie, adding, “I know the team well from reading the news, and filling in for Corin, and so I’m very excited to be taking on such a prominent role with the show.”

Originally from Oxford, Christie is an award-winning journalist, who began his career with the BBC in the UK. In 2003 he accepted a position in New Zealand with ONE News. In that time, he has also hosted Agenda, worked on Close Up, and anchored TVNZ’s coverage of the two major Christchurch earthquakes.

Christie will take up his new position on Breakfast as of Monday, May 14th. His replacement on Saturday Breakfast will be announced in the coming weeks.