Tuesday, June 16, 2009

"So um, why do you have Spooks - Season 6 and not Season 5?"

Very good question. One of the reasons why a lot of films aren't available in New Zealand simply comes down to this: it's too bloody expensive to rate them. The basic gist of how the NZ Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act works at the moment is that material rated G, PG and M in Britain and Australia can be cross-rated here relatively cheaply, but if something is RESTRICTED, distributors have to fork out thousands of dollars to get it rated. Hence you have ridiculous cases like the missing Season 5 of Spooks, or the absence of the rest of the L Word series because suppliers can't justify spending that much to get them released.

However, one hopes things will change soon with the start of a new campaign to review the current legislation so that more films can be made available. Click here to read about it and register your support for the cause - it's a really interesting read if you've ever wondered how that side of business works, and how it affects you as a DVD consumer. Or if you don't like reading, watch this Nightline piece on the topic.

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