For most New Zealanders, there’s been a high rate of food consumption over the past few months. And the nation’s broadcasters are hoping there will be plenty of food-related TV consumed this year as well, with TVNZ’s MasterChef NZ making a few changes to its format and MediaWorks hoping for big things with its new show The Great Food Race.
TVNZ has caved in to public pressure and will now broadcast the Grammy Awards twice on 27 January: first live on TV2 at 2pm and then delayed on TV ONE at 9.15pm.
Building on the success of 2013’s campaign that required fans to guess who died in the last episode, TVNZ has now launched Shortland Street Car Park, an interactive multimedia campaign that has been initiated in conjunction with Holden.
Media companies around the world are increasingly trying to cut out the middle men and profit from clients’ thirst for content. TVNZ’s in-house production team at Blacksand is no different and, as well as doing plenty of quality work for the mothership, like the launch of and promotional campaign for Seven Sharp and the Shortland Street end of year campaign, it’s doing a lot more work on production partnerships, like Telecom’s ‘Tech in a Sec’ and Mitre 10’s ‘Easy As’. Here’s Blacksand’s executive creative director Jens Hertzum’s highlight reel for last year.
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.
Mike O’Sullivan, 64, has never been one for following rules. He’s more about making new ones. His 40-year career has been forged on the ability to think differently and innovate in a way that drives sales. And this has allowed him to become a veritable legend in the industry.
Mike Hosking and Toni Street will be joining Jesse Mulligan as the presenters of Seven Sharp in 2014. To make way for the new pair of faces, current presenter Ali Mau and stand-in presenter Tamati Coffey will accompany Seven Sharp producer Mauricio Olmedo-Perez as they exit the TVNZ offices for the last time on 20 December. PLUS: Willie Jackson to return to RadioLive.
TVNZ will air an apology to Colin Craig on Seven Sharp tomorrow night after an item about Conservative Party leader Colin Craig was judged to have breached the fairness standard. The Broadcasting Standards Authority says some remarks in the Jesse Mulligan-presented “Guide to Making Fun of Colin Craig” were legitimate satire, but some were “personal abuse masquerading as satire”.
In an effort to maintain viewers’ curiosity levels while Shortland Street is on hiatus, TVNZ has devised an interactive crime mystery that will give fans a daily fix until the show returns on 13 January. The campaign is based on the premise that one of the characters died during the 11 December finale. And since the identity of the deceased is still unknown, TVNZ aims to keep fans interested by posting one revealing clue each day before the premiere of the 2014 season. PLUS: see Jono and Ben’s parody.
Saatchi & Saatchi, Blacksand and Trade Tested clink eggnog glasses in the last round of 2013.
Changes at Seven Sharp, OMD loses an experienced campaigner to MBM, Bruce Matchett leaves his Singaporean post, another Fairfax shift and the NBR announces its new front page tenant.
SkyTV, one of New Zealand’s biggest broadcasters, has followed in TVNZ’s footsteps by launching SkyGo, an iOS app that enables Sky subscribers to stream content on compatible laptops, mobiles or tablets. But rather than including an on-demand streaming feature, the new app limits viewers to pre-recorded content and live channels. While this is sure to be hit with sports fans, it will do little to appease those who want an on-demand mobile option.
Last year, New Zealand’s Got Talent (NZGT) enjoyed an average viewership of 839,209 over the course of 13 weeks, but the follow-up season couldn’t even match that amount in the final episode, with only 726,900 viewers tuning in on Sunday night to see season-ending episode. These results from Nielsen bring a disappointing end to the second season of TVNZ’s show, which was originally tipped for further success when it was announced.
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.
A range of media owners are trying to find the sweet spot between ads and editorial. And the likes of MasterChef NZ and The Block NZ have been able to appeal to commercial interests without alienating the viewers. TVNZ’s latest effort in this regard is Purina Pound Pups to Dogstars, which arose from its million dollar branded content initiative and is currently in production. Plus: TVNZ’s new logo.
TVNZ’s loss is Orion Health’s gain as Annemarie Browne moves on, more changes at Fairfax, Aegis welcomes a new digital media guru, Octane rekindles old flame, 19-year-old entrepreneurial hot shot heads to the US and Iain Nealie shacks up with Google.
There’s been plenty of pomp, ceremony and brio in recent weeks at the new season launch announcements for MediaWorks and TVNZ. But behind-the-scenes, all is not quite so rosy, with a sharp drop in TV viewership since the middle of the year creating some concern.
Michael Goldthorpe went along to TVNZ’s new season launch at the Viaduct Events Centre. And he got inspired about the potential for New Zealand to become a branded content powerhouse.
TVNZ announced its new season line-up tonight. So we sat down for a chat with head of sales Jeremy O’Brien to talk about the broadcaster’s changing content strategies, the growth of production partnerships, the MediaWorks situation and what the future holds for TV.
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.
TVNZ has made its first foray into using the dating app Tinder as a marketing tool, but it was with a dark twist befitting a promo for zombie horror show The Walking Dead. Unsuspecting love lorn guys were served up hotties who eventually turned out to be walkers.
Dominic Corry sits down with Jeremy O’Brien, the TVNZ head of sales, to discuss the scale of branded content and how it goes beyond programme integration. They place emphasis on the different forms of branded content and give tips on how to effectively incorporate a brand into a programme.
As the rise of content marketing changes the way some clients are choosing to advertise, integration/media solutions/native advertising/branded content/advertorial/*insert another buzzword here*, is a big growth area for TV networks—and other media. And TVNZ has referenced that shift by appointing Lyndsey Francis as general manager of media solutions and customer insights and adding some more research firepower to the team.
In the third instalment of TVNZ’s Future Now series, digital and social media specialist Ian Howard discusses how Kiwi advertisers can use social networks to open up conversations with their customers, create a community around a brand, generate engagement and drive sales.
Online streams are driving up viewership of the America’s Cup as big numbers view the racing. On 8 September the number of streams was 13,818, but by the beginning of this week they’d exceeded 166,000.
The season debut of New Zealand’s Got Talent got a less rapturous audience reception, with the 90 minute episode getting an average audience of 611,100 for those aged five plus watching live and played back on the same day, although consolidated Nielsen data wasn’t yet available.
Mobile devices now account for more than a third of TVNZ’s Ondemand service video streams and are a key part of the growth in video views.
TVNZ has welcomed another brand to the stage of New Zealand’s Got Talent, with Tip Top joining primary sponsor Toyota as a commercial production partner for this year’s series.
TVNZ has released its first report on the impact on advertisers of viewers ‘timeshifting’ television, and the results are surprisingly positive.
When TVNZ nabbed the rights to Home and Away from MediaWorks early last month, it had to find a way to let people know that Alf Stewart’s stalwart old mug would be switching channels.