Wednesday 10 March, 2010
The early switchover to digital will now give all 785,000 pay TV customers the choice of more than 110 channels, movies and sport in HDTV plus On Demand movies and events through MY SKY HDi and interactive services including electronic programming guide, the Weather Channel, pay-per-view and games.

Wednesday 10 March, 2010
TVNZ is considering an appeal against the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) order to pay the Samoan government $5,000 in legal costs. Complaints were laid by Samoa's Attorney General after an April 2009 One News/Tagata Pasifika item which suggested Samoa was "awash with guns and drugs".

Wednesday 10 March, 2010
For the fifth time, Weta Digital's Joe Letteri will be leaving LA with a lethal weapon in his luggage. The gold statuette, this time for Avatar, was won alongside Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew Jones and adds to an impressive collection.

Wednesday 10 March, 2010
Wellybob Airport and the local council have teamed up to make sure everyone arriving in the capital knows where they are – as apparently the bouncy approach and bumpy landing aren't enough of a clue - by erecting an enormous 'Wellywood' sign. Yesterday's announcement of the plan, which already has resource consent, has drawn bouquets and brickbats in equal measure.

Wednesday 10 March, 2010
Indigenous broadcasters representing Australia, Canada, Hawaii, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, South Africa and Taiwan will gather for the second ever World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference in Taiwan this week.

Monday 8 March, 2010
Avatar lined up against the usual suspects for a number of awards today, with a number of other films with a Kiwi interest also in the running for statuettes.

Monday 8 March, 2010
Last week The Zoo took bragging rights; this week Dog Squad. This week 3 News broke TVNZ's recent stranglehold.

Monday 8 March, 2010
TVNZ has now released a little more detail around the launch of its new Sky-platform channel Heartless, clarifying concerned speculation on some issues raised on Friday.

Monday 8 March, 2010
One has never had to dodge hordes of happy, carefree families proudly carrying their new TiVo boxes out of Telecom stores. So, nobody should be shocked to discover that TiVo is becoming, rather than the best thing since sliced bread, more the Betamax to Freeview's VHS.

Monday 8 March, 2010
TVNZ took a restrained approach to February's news numbers, simply sharing the average viewing figures for news programming over the month. TV3 worked a lot harder at spinning their side of the story.

Sunday 7 March, 2010
Greenstone Pictures, producer of hit Australian shows Highway Patrol and Crash Investigation Unit, has appointed former TVNZ current affairs producer Briar McCormack as Development Executive (Factual).

Friday 5 March, 2010
This morning TVNZ's Rick Ellis and Sky's John Fellet fronted for a very friendly interview on TVNZ's NZI Business about the launch of a new channel - and ducked some of the soft questions thrown their way.

Friday 5 March, 2010
Pacific nations are benefiting from broadcast technology and equipment donated by TVNZ and carried to the Islands by Air New Zealand. TV stations in Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands have been donated TVNZ’s live broadcasting kits, which the broadcaster has recently replaced as a result of the migration to digital television.

Friday 5 March, 2010
South Pacific Pictures (SPP) and London’s Harbour Pictures will produce a feature based on the extraordinary women who served in World War II British Air Transport Auxiliary (BATA). Spitfire Girls will be produced by SPP’s John Barnett and Paul Davis, and Harbour Pictures’ Nick Barton, as a UK-NZ co-production.

Friday 5 March, 2010
Dunedin's NHNZ has had a busy start to the year, greenlighting around 25 hours of programming since the beginning of the year. Top of the list is a further 10 hours of BIO’s ratings hit I Survived..., currently in its fourth season.

Friday 5 March, 2010
The TVNZ shut-out continued, with a locally-made programme topping the bill again. Greenstone's The Zoo took bragging rights, while Two and a Half Men dropped down the ladder, possibly in response to last week's news that it is – for the time-being at least – one and a half men.

Friday 5 March, 2010
The Film Archive (NZFA) despatched staff to Auckland yesterday to talk about changes to procedures for access to material in the NZFA collection, and particularly the new charging regime for NZFA services. The free wine and nibbles tempted an audience of around 30, mostly production and research personnel.

Friday 5 March, 2010
The film that will not die, even if half its cast does, continues to dominate, slipping past $16 million and still screening on more screens than anything else. By comparison, The Lovely Bones (a Kiwi take on an American loss) and Invictus (an American take on a Kiwi loss) both look as though they'll bottom out in the region of $3.5 million.

Thursday 4 March, 2010
Selling people on the emotional arc, look, narrative structure and characters of a doco - while still retaining a unique perspective and making the film relevant - proved to be a huge ask at the annual Pitching Competition.

Thursday 4 March, 2010
When we talk about “re-creating reality” in a documentary, most of us tend to think of a “dramatised reconstruction”, where actors are often chosen more for their resemblance to the real person they’re playing than their acting skill. But this seminar showed us that this conception is far too narrow.

Thursday 4 March, 2010
Five days of intense activity came to a close with the usual inappropriate behaviour with promises to return, expressions of undying love all wrapped in a happy haze of alcohol as Documentary Edge rolled up its Lab and Forum and rolled out the awards.