Shopping Channel 'will be back' in 2013

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EVA LONGORIA: Came to New Zealand to help launch The Shopping Channel.

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The Shopping Channel will be back after Xmas, its chief executive says.

Rumours of closure have plagued the new channel since it reduced its live filming some weeks ago and moved more towards pre-production.

Chief executive Alistair Duff said filming had finished for the year and the presenters' current contracts were also at an end because they were paid hourly for their work.

But he said the channel would continue screening throughout the holiday period, and filming would return at the end of January.

Duff said it was normal in the television business for contracts to cease when production took a break.

"Very few people were ever on full-time, it's the nature of the business, so it's contracts for services."

After ten weeks on air, the channel has received its first ratings, which show more than 681,000 unique viewers watched the channel for at least a minute between late October and late November.

However, Duff said ratings were largely irrelevant because as an e-commerce venture, sales were the real measure of success.

He declined to reveal the channel's sales figures, except to say they were going well.

- © Fairfax NZ News