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ACP and TVNZ embrace healthy ‘co-opetition’ with win-win hybrid show

Print and TV are usually fairly uneasy and rather competitive bedfellows. But the once disparate media realms are steadily converging as TV websites embrace print and print titles increasingly embrace video. And TVNZ and ACP’s North & South have converged on each other with a new show based on the long-running My Space section in the magazine that will screen on its patriotic pay TV channel Heartland. 

  • Click here to watch the first episode

ACP’s publisher of premium and specialist titles Lisa Ralph said it all came about quite organically as it seemed like a win-win for both parties. TVNZ, she says, is looking for ways to create different types of content more efficiently and because a lot of the research has already been done, it shortens the development time. And for North & South, she says it’s basically a brand extension that will be good for the magazine’s profile. She says they just have to ensure the TV version doesn’t steal the print version’s thunder.

“Our readers are exactly [Heartland’s] target,” she says. “And with My Space being such a visual thing in the magazine, it just made sense.”

Comedian Penny Ashton is fronting the show and visits interesting spaces all around the country—like a butchery museum in Milton, a historical dress-maker’s workshop in Palmerston North, or an expert hunter’s trophy room in Fairlie—and meets the often obsessive and always interesting characters inside them.

The show screens on Sunday night, and TVNZ and ACP are keen to find an advertising partner to come on board for the next series. But Ralph says that might not be the end of ACP’s TV ambitions, as there’s another project coming up soon with another title that’s a bit longer.

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