campgrrls's blog

Does anyone know if there will be any free-to-air coverage of the NPC rugby competition. Can’t see it anywhere in the schedules.

I’ve seen promos for both Spooks & Robin Hood in the last couple of days. They said the progs are coming soon to NZ TV. Brilliant!!!

I’m looking forward to these 2 matches: netball tonight on One and Rugby Sat night on Prime.

These are the best matches, when I don’t know who will win, they are going to be hotly contested, and which ever side wins will claim it as a confidence booster for the up-coming world championship/cup.

Bring them on!!!!

Why is Heroes season one being discussed on a spoiler thread on Throng, long after season 1 has finished on NZ TV?

I avoid spoilers like the plague so don’t have Throng spoilers ever switched on. And as far as I can see the Heroes season 2 thread includes season 1 discussion plus spoiler suggestions about season 2 – evident on the glimpses on the Thorng “Latest” page.

I come to Throng to avoid spoilers for shows that haven’t yet shown in NZ, and to read and/or participate in discussions of shows once they’ve shown here. I would like to participate in a Heroes thread that discusses season 1, but so far have missed most of it.

At the same time Robin Hood season 2 is discussed on a thread that isn’t classified as a spoiler. Why do people come to an NZ site to discuss prog seasons that they can discuss on an international site?

Well I’ve had a lost 14 hours or so with a looong power cut in West Auckland. Most of the mainstream media doesn’t seem to have noticed our plight out west. The radio and NZ Herald just seem to say that most of the power outages in Auckland have been on the North Shore. Is this because most Auckland news journos live on the North Shore or Waiheke? Except I heard a bit of a talk back session with 2 women on Radio Live that had a lot of Westies ringing in saying they had had no power for several hours.

The worst thing was that I was hoping to get power in time to record Battlestar Galactica, but without luck. I’ve seen this series but want a legal copy of it. At least there was only one prog I missed that I wanted to see. Glad it wasn’t tonight because Primeval starts.

The power first went in my area around 3pm yesterday. Was working on my PC, but most of the document was recovered when it came back on within half an hour. Then the power went out again around 4,30pm. Was heading for sanctuary in Auckland, as a friend said they had power, but I gave up as the weather seemed to wild to travel far. Hung out in a mall for a while cause it was cold at home. Went home. Local shops still without power. Wrapped us warm, then put on some socks and went to bed, hoping the roof wasn’t going to blow off. I have bad memories of a hail storm in Sydney when my ceiling sprung leaks.

Every so often the power came on, with me thinking it was back for good. But each time my pc hadn’t finished checking its drives before the power went again. Eventually I unplugged my PC. Power and lights came back on around 2-3am, then went again a couple of times, but was on when I finally woke this morning.

Fingers crossed it stays on. Primeval tonight! And message to the MSM… there is still life out West!

I heard that there’s a bit of a currebnt trend to make some TV programmmes as straight-to-DVD. This is apparently due to the rise of TIVOs etc which is cutting down on ratings and advertising revenues. A couple that are going this route are Dead Like Me and Babylon 5.

http://www.syfyportal.com/news423577.html

“Dead Like Me,” the popular Showtime television series starring Mandy Patinkin and Ellen Muth, is returning as a made-for-DVD movie. MGM told Moviehole.com that Stephen Herek (“The Mighty Ducks”) will direct the new film. There’s no word yet on who’ll be starring in the film — but hopefully they’ll revive the original cast.

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23963

Published on Monday, July 24, 2006

I’ve checked around the Internets, and have found little (or no) reference to the news conveyed through the messages below. But this is definitely worth sharing, so here you go…

During last weekend’s San Diego Comic Con…at a panel that (evidently) didn’t enjoy the “in your face” notoriety of, say, TRANSFORMERS or SPIDERMAN 3… producer/writer/director J. Michael Straczynski (JMS, or “Joe”) made an announcement regarding the future of this little concept he has called BABYLON 5.

The thrust of the news is this: straight-to-video BABYLON 5 adventures…involving B5 characters in an anthology format…should arrive late next year. Written and directed by JMS.

On the NZ Herald it’s got a list of progs nominated for the 3rd annual Air NZ Awards:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10449360

Surprisingly Maddigan’s Quest is in there – but I thought it was more than a year ago that it showed on NZ TV???

Karaoke High has got a nomination and a lot go to Outrageous Fortune.

In order to get away from a thread dedicated to a celebrity story, and a little bit of slanging, I want to talk about what I think TV news should be like, and the problems currently with TV News in NZ aiming for ratings and entertainment, rather than to inform people so that democracy can thrive.

There were 2 really good comments on the topic from the net and radio yesterday.

From David Slack’s blog ( as linked by Rachel on that other thread), here is a response that I liked from the discussion :

http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,520,island_life_an_appetite_for_scandal.sm?i=40#forum-replies

Bart Janssen
From: Auckland

Of course trivia and gossip rate highly. Good grief if E-news played at 6pm on TV2 followed by 30 minutes of the weather channel neither TV1 nor TV3 would get a look in. (BTW that programming idea is mine all mine).

But that shouldn’t be what the national news programmes are about. News isn’t just about getting ratings. A news broadcast serves an important role in society, it is there to inform the public about events of significance and importance. Gossip is neither significant nor important but it does get ratings. Gossip is also extraordinarily cheap to produce and require virtually no intellectual input from the reporters or editors.

TV1 or TV3 could choose to deliver news at 6 pm. Instead they play for ratings. The NZ herald does the same. There is little of the NZ media that doesn’t allow ratings to define what they present to the public.

Against that background, how can we expect the public to make intelligent choices about events. The news is necessary to inform the public to allow choices to be made intelligently. When the news stops doing that some very bad things can happen.

The media scream bloody blue murder if anyone tries to restrict their freedom to publish. But forgets that with that right comes a responsibility to publish what is significant and important. I’d argue that given the current performance the media does not deserve a “right to publish” because frankly they’ve abandonned any real pretense of public responsibility.

If “it’s all about ratings” then I think we ought to take away all the privilages journalists enjoy. They are entertainers and as such should have no special privilage or place in our society.
cheers
Bart

I would’ve cheered for the Diamonds if they were in the major netball semi-final tonight. Instead I’ll be supporting the Magic. I like seeing van Dyke doing her stuff. Sooooooooo………….

Go The Magic!!!!!!!!!

There is no doubt that television is undergoing changes in the face of digitisation and viewing of TV programmes on multiple platforms: internet, DVD, mobile phones. It’s still an open question as to how TV will change in the long run. People will continue to watch a lot of TV IMO, but what progrmmes, in what contexts and with how many viewers?

On the question of ratings raised on a couple of previous threads: yes the measurement of ratings is imperfect and unreliable; yes IMO the NZ Herald does print many articles that knock TV – not an orchestrated conspiracy, but a reaction to TV as one of the main competitors for newspapers.

But IMO there are 2 apparently contradictory trends at the moment: many people are watching TV programmes on DVD and from downloads rather than waiting til they get broadcast on NZ TV; TV still remains a form of entertainment that large numbers of people enjoy, often as a social experience or as a way to feel connected to the rest of the country or world.

I think this may be the reason for the dominance of so-called “reality”, game, news and 60 minutes, Fair Go types of documentary progs. These are shows that many people either like to watch with groups of friends and families, or that enable people to feel connected to the wider society.

In comparison in the last month or 2 it seems to me that overseas drama series have had less prominence in primetime. But this may be because a significant and increasing number (tho possibly still a minority)of Kiwis have watched popular series on DVD or from Internet downloads, before they got to show on NZ TV. These are being watched more like films, and the viewing can be more of a solitary experience than watching TV.

Like radio, I think TV, even with the fragmenting effect of Freeview, will continue to provide a significant and central social experience for large numbers of Kiwis. The question remains tho, exactly what form of TV programming and viewing will dominate in the future?