
Dales Bits for April 09
Big news from TVNZ – here’s our take…
OK, so TVNZ have bought a stake in an Aussie company who have the licensing rights for TiVo across the region and will launch it here later in the year.
TiVo is a media device that lets viewers receive free-to-air digital TV channels plus interactivity such as games, broadband and other content….sounds familiar doesn’t it?
TVNZ are saying they are future-proofing their brands with this investment, however with Freeview, MYSKY and whatever else may emerge over the coming years, it might be seen as another form of fragmentation in an already cluttered media world.
This technology also gives viewers the ability to skip advertising, a fairly important detail to us in media-land, but TVNZ assure us it will in fact introduce many new advertising opportunities….we don’t know what those will be yet, but will keep you updated.
Regional Changes
Lots of changes on the regional advertising front on TVNZ as well, a summary…
- No longer any regional advertising on TV2, national ads only
- The TVNZ Digital region (for SKY viewers only), now no longer exists
- TVONE regional breakouts are simplified as per the map and costings below
We applaud TVNZ for simplifying this process and there are some distinct advantages for advertisers with TVONE regions becoming bigger (greater viewing potential).
The downsides are an increase in regional cost, however this is balanced by the audience increase with the inclusion of Digital views, also the lack of ability to buy regionally on TV2 which holds large audience in some very key demographics,
In another round of announcements, TVNZ 6 and 7 will be available on the SKY viewing platform from 1 July and TVONE and 2 can be viewed on MYSKYHDi.
All good news as the more potential viewers, the better but really won’t have an impact on the advertising market until 6 and 7 become commercial in a couple of years.
Does this then defeat the point of Freeview? There has been massive investment in recent years in the Freeview platform that will soon lose its competitive advantage….we wonder what its future really is?
If all this is starting to bamboozle you, please give us a call or email me at dale@media360.co.nz
Ondemand has been a growing success for TVNZ, for those wondering just how many people bother sitting, downloading and viewing their programming online, here are the numbers for last week.
The top ten programmes for last week ondemand broke down in this order:
Shortland Street: 78,754 streams
Coronation Street: 57,945 streams
Grey’s Anatomy: 48,599 streams
Dancing with the Stars: 42,053 streams
Desperate Housewives: 38,473 streams
Lost: 33,076 streams
Go Girls: 30,616 streams
Brothers and Sisters: 23,465 streams
Chuck: 23,257 streams
Private Practice: 18,543 streams
The numbers are very good and growing. There is a definite female skew which is slightly surprising, but given the breadth of programming being viewed, it would be difficult to put a specific age group on them.
Over on TV3, their streaming product has also grown to more than 170,000 views in March with some top programmes getting close to 20,000 downloads.
Their top programmes are :
Underbelly – The Mr Asia Story
NZ’s Next Top Model
Million Dollar Catch
Target
To clients who would like to more or how they can extend their TV campaigns into this rapidly growing online medium, please contact john@360interactive.co.nz


