Makes more sense as to why it ended up on Disney given the state of Three & TVNZ at the moment.
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Yep - easy contract for TVNZ to cut I suspect.
And it’s on ABC in the states so they have a easy platform to use it
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Good news, MovieSphere may be finally launching soon.
Bad news, it’s a Lionsgate-heavy channel with not as many heavy hitters as we probably expected from the look of it.
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TVNZ will fasttrack season two of survival documentary series Alone Australia. It will stream on TVNZ+ on Wednesday March 27, same day as the Australian broadcast. The same episode will then air on TVNZ at 9pm the following night (March 28).
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Are we expecting Three and TVNZ to air out of copyright films from the 20’s and 30’s in a few months? Christ what a terrible market.
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I see Juice TV has joined the Freeview Streaming platform as a 24/7 channel. Hope this new addition bodes well for a few more channels on the platform.
7 Days is returning next month, but on ThreeNow and not on its main channel. Looks like WBD will shift most of its first-run programming to digital-first.
Update: has anyone noticed all of Three’s socials use ThreeNow as its profile picture?
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Getting vibes of late 2019 all over again. How long do you think they’ll keep the main channel for once Newshub disappears?
Looks like CNN Fast is coming to ThreeNow as a remedy for the Newshub closure:
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I think it’ll stay. It’ll be a wasteland but it’ll stay for probably the rest of this decade. Once all the local shows are cut, it’ll just be repeats and inventory, which will cost WBD very little. Also if Max launches in NZ (it’s launching across the ditch so will almost certainly appear in un zud too) they can use Three as free advertising for it (a bit like Sky does now with Open).
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Looks like the MovieSphere stream is identical to the one in Australia on 10Play. The TV guide on their site is a pain to use but you can still see what will be shown on the channel.
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Does CNN have a 30 minute or 60 minute bulletin at the top of the hour… or a bulletin at all? Could they start that at 6pm, then crash into it part-way through and chuck in 2-3 local stories, some rip and reads, some sport and a weather card? Surely that could be done with minimal cost, and promote the FAST Channel at the same time? At least there’d be some sort of offering other than TV1’s news?
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I don’t think the CNN Fast channel does rolling news, just a few updates and other programming but I could be wrong. It would make sense to try and salvage a 6pm bulletin with the CNN resources or half the Newshub team and possibly outsource the sports news to Sky to produce. Will be interesting to see what the outcome is after all the consultation.
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Oddly enough it was in the Herald (PAYWALLED) only yesterday about potential plans to save Newshub, possibly with help from another provider.
Newshub may yet survive in some pared-back form as various parties - including rival media companies, private individuals and staff - quietly mull possible options to save the stricken news brand.
Media Insider understands Warner Bros Discovery is open to saving the brand and retaining the likes of the 6pm news on Three - it will no doubt be considering all internal and external possibilities. Right now, it is in a consultation period with staff - this has been extended to Monday.
One possible option is that Warner Bros Discovery buys the 6pm bulletin as a news service from another party, rather than continuing to bear the cost of operating a newsroom.
It doesn’t. It’s a carousel of various reports and other bits from throughout the day.
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When you think about it, having your news operation named independently of the TV / Parent company brand it does really lend itself well to being outsourced/onsold etc.
I hope whatever form it hopefully survives in, the main aim is to still deliver important news to Kiwis and still offering different perspectives and competition within the media sector.
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A group of people or businesses starting an ITN style operation and selling news to Three and Sky Open plus doing things for itself online and making documentaries etc makes sense for a market like NZ, I guess.
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Channel 4 UK has acquired TVNZ mini-series After the Party from distributor ITV Studios.
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The Australian version of Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars premieres on Three on Friday, April 5 at 7pm.
However, there is a catch. According to Screenscribe:
Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars (7.00 Friday) pits the profane chef against Australian business mogul Janine Allis to discover “Australia’s most exciting and innovative new food and drink ideas”; it’s being double-billed with Top Guns: Inside the RAF (8.00 Friday), which promises “unprecedented access to the fighter jets, war planes and service personnel” at RAF Lossiemouth.
Australian online guides show that episode 1 is 100 minutes long including ads, and episode 2 runs for 90 minutes including ads. With only one hour timeslot allocated for Food Stars, is it possible that each episode has to be stripped and shown across multiple nights?
Update: the premiere of Food Stars has been postponed, with The 1% Club Australia screening on Friday April 5 at 7pm.
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Free to air netball is coming back to TVNZ for the first time since 2011 with the ANZ Premiership.
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MovieSphere has now launched, and it’s as underwhelming as we expected.
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