Bye bye 20/20 for TV3?

Trouble As TVNZ Outbids TV3 For 20/20
(Source: XtraMSN News, The Independent NZ)

TV3, a television station of CanWest Global Communications in New Zealand is crying foul when public broadcaster, TVNZ outbids it for the rights to ABC US's current affairs show 20/20. TV3 is said to have held the rights for 20/20 for a decade.

TV3 believes that the TVNZ may have paid more than USD700,000 for the rights and accuses the public broadcaster for wasting taxpayer money on things that it already has or will not use. TVNZ already has Sunday, a show with the similar format as 20/20 but mainly has New Zealand related content.

20/20 on TV3 is shown every Sunday from 7:30pm and shows New Zealand current affairs and the latest features from 20/20 USA. TV3 also has the rights for CBS USA's 60 Minutes, which also has the same format as 20/20 but shown every Monday from 7:30pm.

I think both TV3 and TVNZ are wasting their time and money in paying huge sums of royalty for these US current affairs shows. They should have developed their own current affairs shows by just following the formats of their overseas counterparts. Where is the creativity? Where is the talent? There are still a lot of untold stories about New Zealand, wake-up TV3 and TVNZ!

In this case, I think Philippine broadcasters like ABS-CBN and GMA are better than their kiwi counterparts. These TV networks have produced excellent current affairs shows like GMA's award winning "I-Witness" documentaries and ABS-CBN's "Magandang Gabi Bayan" (Good Evening Nation, direct translation).