Curated content key to success
TVNZ is thinking – and acting – local to counter the rise in global streaming services, finds James Croot.
Collaborations like the DanishNew Zealand one that produced Straight Forward, above, are a great way of getting drama that ‘‘feels Kiwi’’ onto our screens.
Curating content that resonates with Kiwi viewers. That’s what TVNZ’s content director Cate Slater believes is key to the state broadcaster differentiating and protecting itself from the rise of global streaming services like Netflix.
Speaking ahead of this week’s announcement of forthcoming TVNZ programming, Slater said combating the vast resources of international rivals was ‘‘about being there with a service that adapts to changes in viewer behaviour’’.
‘‘Netflix has really driven a change in how people are consuming video, which is why we’ve had such a focus on building our on-demand service. But while Netflix is very much about buying global rights and having a global service, we are about creating something to suit the local environment.’’
That means providing a mix of reality shows, documentaries, drama and comedies, created locally and bought from abroad, that TVNZ believes will strike a chord with New Zealanders.
With so many viewing choices available, one of the company’s other aims was to try to simplify that for them. ‘‘We’re focused on shows that will really cut through the clutter and make it easy for viewers to discover them,’’ Slater says, citing The
Great Kiwi Bake Off and Doctor Who as recent
examples.
Both are shows that families can watch together, she says, adding they had looked at a
Bake Off series for years, but now felt like the right time. ‘‘It provides the right kind of contrast to other reality TV shows that are out there. It’s called the nicest show on television and it really is. It’s got such a feel-good factor to it.’’
Slater was pleased with how Bake Off had been received so far, particularly on TVNZ2.
‘‘We could have made a very different style Bake Off that would have suited 1’s audience, but I think that has worked really well for 2.’’
However, it is the viewing figures for OnDemand and TVNZ1 that has particularly delighted Slater and her team this year. NZ On Air research released in August showed that TVNZ1’s daily reach had increased from 40 per cent to 43 per cent since 2016, while OnDemand rose from 10 to 13 per cent over the same time.
‘‘It is nice to see such growth when the market is declining. That TVNZ1 figure is phenomenal for a daily engagement with a free-to-air channel and shows just how big free-to-air TV still is.’’
Those same NZ On Air figures though also offer a warning about the very real threat from the likes of Netflix and Lightbox – Netflix’s daily reach increased from 14 to 27 per cent in the past two years.
Slater admits that what is of particular concern to TVNZ is that there is product that Netflix is ‘‘just taking out of the market before we even get a chance to look at it’’.
She was particularly frustrated that it snapped up the BBC’s new top-rating drama Bodyguard,
‘‘before it even made it to the market. It is one of the best UK dramas in years.’’
That, coupled with NZ On Air resources limiting the number of locally made dramas that can be funded, has meant TVNZ has entered into a number of co-productions. There was the collaboration with ABC and Netflix on The Legends
of Monkey (which will return for a second season next year), the upcoming BBC adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s Booker Prize-winning novel The
Luminaries and a Kiwi-infused slice of Scandi-noir. Announced this time last year, Straight
Forward is an international crime comedy drama set in Queenstown and Copenhagen.
The first Danish-New Zealand co-production is a tale of a Danish woman trying to leave her criminal past behind her and make a fresh start in rural New Zealand.
Slater says while they were always on the lookout for collaborations as a way of getting drama that ‘‘feels Kiwi’’ onto our screens, this
particular storyline made a lot of sense. ‘‘It is set in both places and has cast from both countries’’.
Co-productions were great for the local film and television industry, Slater says.
Other innovations in the past year have included the arrival of Kiwi kids-oriented platform HeiHei, which Slater says has ‘‘smashed all its targets’’. However, she says the network has no current plans to create any more ‘‘targeted’’ online services, despite the imminent arrival of global brands like the horror-themed Shudder.
‘‘It makes sense to have a separate safe space where parents know they can hand over their device and know that their child isn’t going to encounter anything they shouldn’t, but while we’ll look at anything that makes sense to have as a standalone service, at the moment, having all our live channels, on-demand service and news all through the one portal makes sense for us.’’