TVNZ still doesn't get it. Sideswipe in The New Zealand Herald blew the gaff on TVNZ's "reversioned" episode of Made in New Zealand: it is almost a carbon copy of the same show run by ABC in the United States. I mean a copy too - segments played on the radio this afternoon demonstrated that the script is, in parts, word for word.
TVNZ point out in their response to Sideswipe that ABC is an affiliate - they are therefore allowed to produce a copy. Fair enough, but...
Do they fail to appreciate the irony? I mean, this is a show about things being made in New Zealand, and the creative concept, approach, and even script - all central to the work - are themselves imports. You do a show revealing how much stuff in a house is made overseas, a concept which itself was made overseas. I'm all in favour of imports. Comparative advantage explains how we can expect to be better off: the experience of the last twenty years of trade liberalisation prove it. TVNZ, bless them, have now proved it too - but perhaps that's not what they intended. Delicious!