Sunrise New Zealand calls it a day

Tim Burrowes

April 9, 2010 8:39

Mediaworks, owner of New Zealand’s TV3, has this morning broadcast the final farewell episode of its axed morning show Sunrise, after failing to dent the ratings lead of TV One’s Breakfast.

The company has also axed its early morning news show ASB Business. The closure of the shows will lead to up to 20 redundancies.

In a statement the company said the cost of producing the programs had proven to be “unsustainable” in the current economic climate.

Ian Audsley, Mediaworks TV executive director, said: “Despite the terrific work of the people involved and the commitment of everyone at TV3, we’ve not been able to make these programmes work financially.”

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.