End of era for NZ TV as Avalon faces sale

As 2011 draws to a close, so does an era in New Zealand’s television history, Wellington-based Internet news agency Stuff reports.

Next year, TVNZ is to move production of its long-running Good Morning show to Auckland in the north, and will sell Avalon Studios in Wellington, in 2013.

Avalon is a part of New Zealand’s broadcasting history as many of the country’s iconic shows such as Fair Go, Wheel of Fortune, Sale of the Century, Good Morning and many Telethons were filmed there.

Good Morning‘s shift comes after 15 years at the iconic studios.

TVNZ’s announcement that it will sell Avalon completes the state broadcaster’s shift of all its production facilities to Auckland.

The 23,000-square-metre space made Avalon one of the largest television-making facilities in Australasia. Its Studio 8 – the venue where Dancing with the Stars was filmed – is the biggest digital studio in New Zealand.

It even includes four purpose-built studios and a high-definition control room. It is undoubtedly the biggest and arguably the best studio set-up in New Zealand.

However, TVNZ told a parliamentary select committee in April that it cost almost NZ$2 million (US$1.54 million) a year to run.

The studios have been increasingly marketed to offshore clients.