One of the main points of the article is confirmation that Discovery+ will launch in Australia around October and then ‘quickly’ after in New Zealand
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It’s surprising that Discovery+ is still coming with the pending merger with WarnerMedia. Maybe Discovery+ and HBO Max will stay separate platforms I guess similar to Hulu & Disney+. Otherwise they might just start to bed in the Discovery+ brand and then whatever they call a Warner-Discovery combined app could be a lot of change in a fairly short time…
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I’m surprised it’s going to replace Three Now, I would’ve thought there was still a need for a separate BVOD service for the FTA arm of the business, even if it shared some UI with Discovery+.
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Not surprising at all. Discovery+ can be localised with specific content for specific regions. So it will be a localised version of Discovery+ that can be beefed up with the global content made by Discovery. Great move - and will have TVNZ scared.
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I see what you’re saying, but TV3 or Three has history in NZ whereas Discovery (the company) is still fairly new to FTA and so too will be Discovery+.
Streaming is definitely the way forward, but I still think Three Now even though it is fairly ordinary in its current form has a place as somewhere to catch-up, live stream and check the TV Guide, updates etc
I think you’re underestimating the NZ audience a little… I’m confident Discovery as a brand is pretty well known (probably with marginal thanks to The Bloodhound Gang, he added smirkingly), I don’t think Kiwi’s will have any trouble equating Disco with +HR=E, Choice or HGTV.
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In the UK where Discovery has both FTA (eg; Quest & Really) and pay (eg; Discovery & Animal Planet) channels, Discovery+ offers free access to shows/streams from the former group while a subscription is required to access content from the pay channels as well as Discovery+ exclusives.
Guessing they’ll do a similar thing in NZ
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Yeah assume so, they have already made Sky sign a “co-exclusive” deal to allow them to do exactly that with their pay-tv content
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Interesting Shortland Streets latest storyline is about a COVID outbreak.
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It’s more interesting that it’s taken them this long to get to one.
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I wonder if it is filmed 6 months ago like Home and Away is?
The storyline didn’t last long though given what i saw last night.
Home and Away they seem to ignore it, latest storyline they’re planning a 3 month trip to Japan.
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Choice TV programming has joined +HR=E now, now. Saw a flashy ad for it last night on the channel formerly known as TV3. choicetv.co.nz now redirects to 3now.
The final week of The Amazing Race Australia is on TVNZ2 this Friday (double episodes) and Saturday (season finale) from 7.30pm.
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NRL rights remain with Sky until the end of 2027… commitment to make more games FTA.
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Looks like Sky and Discovery are getting cosy with some sports sharing agreements, have these been available on FTA previously?
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Wimbledon used to be LIVE on TVNZ 1 and Prime also showed it LIVE back in the day. Can’t remember it ever being on Three until now. Looks like with Sky retaining the NRL rights we may see some LIVE league games on Three with this partnership.
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Surely more proof Prime is for the chopping block at some point…
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Yeah, I’m thinking these are the final few months of Prime. The Olympics, Origin, Wimbledon all going to the big two networks. Probably just waiting for the contract with Newshub to expire before closing up.
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Yeah, agreed. If Sky can make money by onselling FTA sports rights to Discovery (and TVNZ) it must recognise the battle has been lost.
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