Discover Tasmania TV Series Rates High

20 May 2009

The Minister for Tourism, Michelle O’Byrne, today announced that the second series of the Discover Tasmania television program is proving to be extremely popular with Tasmanians.

“Given the great success of the first Discover Tasmania TV show produced and aired last year, a second series was recently produced by Southern Cross Television in partnership with Tourism Tasmania,” Ms O’Byrne said.

“The inaugural series, which was conceived last year, became the flagship of the State Government’s intrastate tourism campaign, and achieved immediate success by out-rating the popular Dr Who series in the first episode.

“The average rating for each episode in this series shown in Tasmania was over 80,000 local viewers, and because it was later screened interstate, over 6.6 million viewers around the country tuned in.

“The half-hour episodes, which began on 23 April are hosted by Better Homes and Gardens chef Ed Halmagyi, and actor Jack Campbell from All Saints Medical Response Unit.”

“Reports from Southern Cross Television indicate the first episode in the new series out-rated all the other programs in that timeslot, and was also in the top four most-viewed shows that evening.

“It reached a combined total of 105,000 viewers in Tasmania – 6000 more than the most-viewed episode from the original series last year.

“The second episode, which was shown on 30 April and 2 May, achieved a combined reach of 112,000 viewers – bettering the first episode by 7,000 viewers.

“I am extremely pleased with these results, particularly given that the Thursday night time slot is a very competitive one, and this show goes head-to-head with the nationally produced Getaway Holiday Show.

“According to Southern Cross, the first two weeks of Discover Tasmania has out-rated Getaway by some 50,000 viewers.

“This indicates that Tasmanians are beginning to turn their attention away from overseas and domestic holidays, and are looking at what they can do locally.

“And with the 7 Network looking to screen the second series of Discover Tasmania series two nationally, Tasmania will also be promoted to millions of potential interstate visitors” Ms O’Byrne said.

“The latest figures show that Tasmanian tourism is performing strongly during a highly volatile period for our industry in fact, to record high levels.

“This is in stark contrast to the national figures which showed an overall decline in total trips and a slight increase in total visitor spending.

“These figures demonstrate the strength of the State Government’s plan for tourism, which has brought significant economic benefits to Tasmania over the past 10 years.

“This has helped us recover from the dire economic conditions left by the weak, negative and lazy Liberals who turned Tasmania into an economic basket case.

“While we would be naive to think Tasmania will not be impacted by the global market conditions, the State Government is continuing to invest in well-targeted, creative and effective marketing programs like the Discover Tasmania TV series, to put us in a strong position to ride out the challenges ahead.”

Further information: Rohan Wade (03) 6336 2443 or 0417 051 255