The world’s largest kapa haka festival held in Christchurch from March 5-8 delivered a television and online viewing audience of one million viewers to Māori Television.
For the first time in Te Matatini's history, as well as broadcasting live on the finals day, Māori Television broadcasted all of the preliminary day performances live on television and also livestreamed the performances capturing new audiences in New Zealand and across Australia in record numbers.
According to Māori Television Chief Executive Paora Maxwell "Congratulations to Te Matatini, the organisers and all of the haka groups who passionately gave New Zealand, Aotearoa and the world four days of mesmerising performances."
"Māori Television viewers love kapa haka and, as the Home of Haka, Māori Television was proud to bring them extensive coverage of Te Matatini."
"Our broadcast resulted in a highly-engaged audience that was broad in terms of Māori and non-Māori, age and location. This coverage highlights the strength and indicates strong synergies that can be achieved with the mix of traditional and online platforms," says Mr Maxwell.
More than 30% of the online audience were watching from Australia. The festival was equally successful in attracting younger viewers with 71% of Māori Television website users aged between 18-44.