Despite the outrage surrounding the end of The Block NZ, it was the second strongest performing edition of the show across all six seasons.
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To mark its partnership with The Block NZ, Haier has taken to the tools with former contestants to help Kiwis in need for a campaign via PR agency Sherson Willis.
Despite a worsening housing crisis, Kiwis don’t appear to be getting bored of DIY show The Block just yet, according to season five’s ratings.
MediaWorks followed up the announcement of the new season of The Block NZ with a campaign launch on Sunday night, drawing attention to the ‘battle of sexes’ premise underpinning this edition of the show.
The ladles and the drills came to blows last year, as the local editions of My Kitchen Rules (MKR NZ) and The Block saw TVNZ and MediaWorks go head to head with their respective multi-night format shows. And the competitive banter between the networks is set to continue this year, with both shows returning to Kiwi screens. The first round of the bout went to MediaWorks, with the Block coming out on top in the 25-54 demographic as it attracted an audience of 158,800, narrowly ahead of the 157,100 people who tuned in to watch MKR.
The Block NZ will be returning soon to TV3 for its fourth season ‘The Block NZ: Villa Wars’, which means a new campaign, and as part of it, an ad has been released which is akin to an action movie trailer, with the contestants entering their designated neighbourhood, ready for a DIY war.
It’s been exciting times at MediaWorks in recent months, with big restructures in the business and man-slaughterers, fraudsters, bullies and drink drivers featuring on TV. Across at TVNZ, there hasn’t been quite as much drama and its new reality format Our First Home has been plodding along rather than taking the nation by storm, but one moment has made it to US clip show The Soup. Plus: searches for the word ‘fart’ spike after a case of flatulence on The Bachelor NZ.
After five successful seasons, TVNZ has decided to pull the plug on MasterChef NZ to focus on other multi-night formats, including new drama Filthy Rich and new DIY porn Our First Home. And while TVNZ basks in the soapy ratings sunlight of Home & Away and Shortland St, MediaWorks is looking to follow suit and is asking for submissions for its own multi-night soap.
TV shows are increasingly trying to keep the audience’s attention after broadcast—and, with much of the population seemingly unable to keep their eyes off their mobile devices for more than ten seconds, often during it. Sponsors associated with shows also want their share of the eyeballs. So, following on from Kiwibank’s attempt to increase audience engagement with its Block Out Live Bingo-style game for The Block NZ, Genesis Energy has added another string to MKR NZ’s bow with an online quiz called Guess the Ingredients.
Last night, the launch of the third season of The Block NZ kicked off a ratings war that will see the DIY-themed show take on TVNZ’s My Kitchen Rules over the next few months. And the overnight figures seem to indicate the first battle has gone to the side of DIY porn, with The Block NZ winning the lion’s share of the audience in the key demographic categories.
Any year that includes a receivership is going to be difficult for a broadcaster. Add to this a breakup with a principal programming provider, gaffe-prone radio hosts and a steep decline in viewership, and things start to look increasingly bleak. Yet, despite these uneasy times, MediaWorks still managed to produce a few hit shows, increase its revenue and hold onto key audiences. So, here’s what Liz Fraser, the director of sales and marketing, thought of a topsy-turvy 2013.
With little awareness, a tight budget and a whole range of complexities, MediaWorks TV tapped into the country’s passion for DIY and created a nation of ‘Block-a-holics’.
Alice and Caleb Pearson were crowned the winners of the second edition of The Block NZ, and the husband-and-wife team took home $261,000 for their efforts over the last 10 weeks. And they weren’t the only winners, with TV3 recording its highest primetime share in 25-54 since records began in 2005.
In property mad New Zealand, The Block NZ was paying pretty low odds to be a ratings winner—and, due to all the opportunities for sponsor integration into the show—some of it comically gratuitous—a commercial winner as well. And while MediaWorks is remaining coy about the ad and partnership revenue the show has brought in, the first season did as expected and drew plenty of Kiwi eyeballs, with last night’s final, which saw siblings Ben and Libby Crawford walk away with a tidy $237,000 profit, gaining an average 5+ audience of 491,600, up from 389,000 in the first episode.
TV3 has matched rival TVNZ’s talent show announcement with an ace card of its own. The much anticipated local version of hit renovation show ‘The Block’ is one step closer, with the ‘fab four’ sponsors announced. Bunnings, Kiwibank, Mazda and Wild Bean Café are the inaugural ‘foundation partners’ of this long awaited local series, and the call has gone out for contestants. Three million Aussies watched the final live show, of the most watched series in Australia, where it consistently out-rates Masterchef.