25/07/11

In a New Zealand first, Shortland Street is using new technology to give fans the chance to buy last week’s hugely popular feature-length episode via Facebook.

The episode which screened in on Monday, July 18th, attracted an audience of 834,000, which equates to almost 20% of all New Zealanders. Producers of the show, South Pacific Pictures, have seized the opportunity to enable viewers to download the episode in its entirety.

Adopting a new innovation from Facebook, Shortland Street fans worldwide will have the ability to buy the feature-length episode from the Shortland Street fan page, just one week after broadcast. This innovation was introduced on Facebook only two weeks ago and Shortland Street is only the second show in the world to implement it.

Shortland Street producer Steven Zanoski sees this as an example of the show continuing to lead trends.

“With nearly 20 years on air we are pulling bigger audiences than ever before. This Facebook initiative shows that we are continuing to adopt the latest trends, and growing with our audience by embracing the new technologies that are so important to them.”

With a current fan base of over 215,000 on Facebook, the Shortland Street fan page will give people in New Zealand, and across the world, the chance to own a small piece of their favourite show.

Fans will be able to purchase Facebook credits using credit card, mobile payment and gift card. These credits will in turn be able to be used to purchase the feature-length episode.

The Facebook application is available on the Shortland Street fan page from Monday, July 25th.

-ENDS-

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