Earlier this week, TVNZ caught 12 staff members off guard by announcing that the current affairs show 20/20 would no longer be airing local content from the end of June this year—giving those working on the show just over a month’s notice of the change in direction. PLUS: see what TVNZ had to say about the NZ Herald article by John Drinnan.
MediaWorks announced yesterday that it would be extending its radio brand The Edge onto television by launching a new TV channel on the Freeview and Sky platforms later this year. Described by The Edge programme director Leon Wratt as “radio with pictures on steroids,” the Edge TV will feature Jay-Jay Feeney, Mike Puru, Dom Harvey, Guy Williams, Sharyn Casey, Clint Roberts and other presenters on a daily basis. Updated with comments from MediaWorks group comms manager Rachel Lorimer and MediaWorks radio group programme director Andrew Szusterman.
With many joining the media diaspora and leaving the couch in favour of online entertainment options, it hasn’t been an easy year for television broadcasters. But instead of simply admitting defeat and watching the viewers head off into the distance, TVNZ’s head of sales and marketing Jeremy O’Brien led an innovative team that pinched popular shows, further developed on-demand streaming options and took quite a few risks. Here’s what O’Brien has to say about 2013.
Andrew Shaw, general manager of acquisitions, production and commissioning at TVNZ, was his usual ebullient (and controversial) self during his speech at the TVNZ new season launch (“Last time I looked we were in show business. We’re the show. You’re the business”). We had a chat with him before the event about the importance of quality, the so-called Golden Age of TV and taking risks.
MediaWorks was pretty cocky at its new season launch a few weeks ago. And, not surprisingly, so was Television New Zealand, which unveiled its primetime plans for the year ahead at the Viaduct Events Centre tonight, talked up its local content/international output combo, revealed its big programme partnership with Purina and, in recognition of the success of shows like My Kitchen Rules and The Block NZ, announced a new focus on multi-night screening.
Last night, in a big shed down on the docks of Auckland town, Jeremy Corbett and Hillary Barry helped launch MediaWorks new season line-up. And, with the return of most of its local shows, some big-rating new international numbers and a couple of new branded content initiatives, director of sales and marketing Liz Fraser is confident it can continue its solid run of form in 2013 next year.
Over the past few years, Sky has favoured the humorous approach in its ‘My Happy Place’ advertising. Its new ‘Come with us’ brand was rolled out around the start of August and, while a series of relevant movie quotes dotted around HQ certainly gave the brand a sense of whimsy, its big, cinematic and poetic TVC by DDB and Ruskin is a much more serious, intriguing and emotive affair that’s designed to showcase the range of quality content subscribers can access.
Apparently New Zealand hasn’t run out of talent just yet, because not long after MediaWorks’ big talent show wound up, TVNZ’s big talent show gets set to start.
Since it was switched on around 23 years ago, Sky has grown into the country’s biggest media company, with almost half the country signed up to its services. For the past few years, its default brand statement has been ‘Your Happy Place’ and DDB’s comms around that idea have been top notch. But it’s started to roll out its new brand identity, which features the tagline ‘Come With Us’ and aims to bring the work of the broadcaster to the fore.
Last night’s season premiere of The Almighty Johnsons started with a whiz and a bang, but the Johnson lads were unable to bring in the crowds to watch their godly antics.
At the heart of Maori Television’s redesigned website is its core mission to revitalise the use of Te Reo in New Zealand. With that in mind the new look site puts an emphasis on its dual-language options.
News Limited to sell its stake in Sky TV, assures us all it won’t affect Sky’s ability to source content from around the world.
Worrying figures for TVNZ, whose Seven Sharp show has lost 40 percent of its audience since the start of the week, placing it near competitor Campbell Live.
Panasonic and Trade Me have teamed up to take advantage of televisions becoming more and more computer-like, with the launch of the Trade Me app for Panasonic Smart Viera TVs.
It might be our national fizzy drink but you’d probably be hard pressed to describe the flavour of L&P. And explaining what L&P tastes like is the central theme of four new TV spots launched in a new campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi, along with the Taste-a-liker – an app that encourages the brand’s 190,000 strong Facebook community to share their own thoughts on the flavour.
They used to be called the Qantas Film and Television Awards, but after Qantas grounded all its flights (metaphorically speaking) last year for this and the Media Awards, the name of the screen industry’s night of nights has now been changed to the Aotearoa Film & Television Awards (AFTAs) and Aviso Design has created a new logo that ThinkTV chief executive Rick Friesen says better reflects the nature of the awards.
We’re accustomed to seeing marketing fluff from the seemingly never-ending range of new daily deal sites in our inboxes or on our web browsers. But, in what could be seen as evidence that group-buying has gone mainstream in New Zealand, GrabOne is facing up to increased competition and promoting its discounted wares with the help of a couple of new TVCs.
It’s good news for broadcasters, couch sellers and pizza delivery folk, but it’s bad news for obesity campaigners: the latest research from newly established industry body ThinkTV has shown New Zealanders spent more time than ever watching television in 2010, with the average square-eyed Kiwi tuning in for three hours and 22 minutes every day, 20 percent more than in 2007.
The third quarter ad revenue results for the major television broadcasters were released not long ago and showed things were slowly moving back to the level of the glory days. At the time, we couldn’t get hold of New Zealand Television Broadcaster’s Council chief exec Rick Friesen, but he called back and, while he wasn’t able to discuss results of specific broadcasters, he was able to shed some light on a few interesting sectoral trends.
Not Rick Friesen
MediaWorks TV launched its new season line-up in Wellington this morning. And the Auckland launch is scheduled for tomorrow. But there’s sure to be slightly more interest in some the programming decisions than there usually is after it announced today that its two major channels are set for a rejig, with C4 being re-launched as a mainstream entertainment channel known as FOUR and TV3 moving directly into TV One’s demographic territory.
As Westpac chief economist Brendan O’Donovan said at a CAANZ/ANZA seminar ‘Nurturing the Green Shoots earlier this year, when economic times are tough, they’re usually much worse in the marcomms sector. But, conversely, when things start looking up, it reacts faster than the economy. And, judging by the just released third quarter television advertising revenue figures from the New Zealand Television Broadcasters council (as well as the outdoor results released last week) the long-awaited upswing appears to have cometh.
Mike Hutcheson, one of the founders of Colenso and executive director of the Image Centre Group, is a well-renowned raconteur, gadabout and occasional oratorical stuntman. But no matter how many times you may have heard his anecdotes, he tells them so well and so humorously that you don’t actually mind hearing them again. And, as his holistic, semi-philosophical presentation on the future—and the past—of television advertising showed, telling stories is what advertising is all about—and, in his opinion, television is still the best way to tell them.
Around 50 industry heavyweights, middleweights and lightweights shunned the Ranfurly Shield match last night and instead gathered together at Studio Lumiere in Parnell to talk television. And, particularly, to talk about what the future held for television advertising. Colenso’s planning director James Hurman, MediaWorks chief executive Jason Paris and Image Centre Group’s Mike Hutcheson enlightened, extrapolated and entertained in equal measure as part of Pure Production’s Death, Taxes and TVCs event and, in the first of three posts about each of the presentations, we delve into James Hurman’s thoughts on what he feels is a misconception about the death of mass marketing and media.
It seems Kiwis have found plenty to grumble about, well, when it comes to advertisements anyway. The folks at the Advertising Standards Authority have been kept very busy according to their 2009 Annual Report, receiving complaints about 829 advertisements (up from 703 in 2008), with 1339 total complaints.
You know it was a bad year when an industry organisation comes out and says it’s fairly happy with a significant core revenue decline. But that’s exactly what the papers have done after the release of the Advertising Standards Authority’s New Zealand Advertising Turnover scorecard. Online, however, is sitting pretty as the only sector to notch up an increase.
Numbers are very handy things (particularly when they’re working in your favour). And Freeview, Mindfood magazine and the Healthy Food Guide have employed their services to show off a bit.
Charlie Brooker, the world’s most cynical, entertaining and curmudgeonly man (and also an inter-racial lookalike of Matrix star Laurence Fishburne), offers this magnificent critique of television news reporting. Facts Appear In Bullet Point Form
Unbelievably, this is not a South Park parody. It’s an actual campaign ad for US corporate ballbreaker Carly Fiorina, who’s running for California Senate next year and was chief exec of Hewlett-Packard for six years. The half man, half sheep, half devil who pops up for a visit (at 2.27 in the video) has been called the single most disturbing second in the internet’s history.
A promo for The Ad Show on TVNZ7, replete with billowing fabrics, sheet stroking, pool shots, doe eyes and possibly even some Vaseline on the lens.
A plethora of crepuscular television advertising brought to you by the good folks at Adstream. Ads@6 is best served lukewarm and goes perfectly with lasagne toppers, corn chips and a vigorous session of Zumba. Zumbaaaa! Good to see ‘The Dictator’ splashing out on a new tourism campaign with a rather enticing TVC by the Sydney office of Flying Fish for Barnes, Catmur and Friends (although Monocle, that venerable, besuited, smoking jacket-wearing gentleperson of the monthly magazine world, recently dished out an upper class burn by claiming that countries need to sell themselves with the right words “and Fiji Me are definitely not the right ones”).
Broadcast programme maker Screentime has rebranded its corporate television arm as Screentime Communications, referencing the fact that its non-broadcast business is providing a growing portion of the company’s turnover.
First there’s a press release from TV3: “November has seen Nightline pull away from its competitor TV ONE’s Tonight in all key demographics.”
Then there’s one from TVNZ: “The latest news numbers show Sunrise lost a quarter of its audience in November while NZI Business and Breakfast continued to edge ahead.”