I’m a bit surprised they chose not to launch Max in NZ as well as Australia. You’d think they might have piggybacked on the AU infrastructure to access the extra customers in NZ and merged ThreeNow into it somehow. But then I suppose WBD will have had good reasons for not doing so. How long before they decide to withdraw from NZ completely, do we think?
They’re probably going to sell it off to a Canadian billionaire to complete his take over of NZ media tbh.
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It was easier for them to just piggyback off of the Neon framework instead. It’s more or less just a branded tab rather than a full-blown streaming service.
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They’ve been cosy with Sky for decades, and given NZ’s size, launching Max would probably not make much, if anything. The fact that it leaves the FTA cupboard bare is telling… there’s barely anything on +HR=E Now that you can’t see or already haven’t seen on the telly.
Although in saying that, I’d love to see the audience numbers on Taskmaster Junior vs The Middle for the past few weeks… did TV3 trounce TV2 with repeats in primetime?
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I think they made the right call ultimately. Three are using the free price point as a selling point (not that there is anything on there I want to watch) and would have had a rough time I reckon trying to make Max commercially viable in NZ.
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Makes you wonder how much longer WBD will continue to bother with Three at all. Presumably the ratings are decent enough for them to not urgently need to pull the plug just yet… did the government waive the Kordia fees in the end?
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Stuff making the most of the Three News green screen space
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It appears to be produced by Stuff now. It’s also appearing on Stuff’s website.
And that appears to be the same chroma key.
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Ahhhh so the hui also must film on this green screen set as well. The virtual set is very similar to this
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Caught the end of it on Whakaata Maori last night - the “Lighting Grid” in the closing short looks a lot like the one formerly seen on NewsHub.
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More bad news for Shortland Street… kind of - with expected job cuts and making fewer episodes.
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A lot of them will probably end up laid off or on less generous contracts. And there is nothing they can do about it because there are thousands of people out there who will give their right arm to work on Shortland St, for free even.
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2014 TVNZ comedy Step Dave will be remade as a 10-part series in Malaysia.
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