TVNZ takes giant leap forward
When TVNZ promised advertisers at their 2010 season launch that the final season of Lost would screen as soon as possible after it had aired in the US we eagerly awaited news of the premiere date. Our hope was that the ABC would screen the final season on Tuesdays in the US so that the Wednesday night time slot that TVNZ had scheduled Lost into would provide a waiting time of only hours. When ABC answered our prayers, it came down to waiting to see if TVNZ would indeed follow through with their promise. Now, it appears, they have.
This is an enormous step forward for television broadcasting in New Zealand. As this story indicates, Lost was the second most downloaded TV show of 2009. When you're able to download an HD version of the show overnight, why would die hard fans choose to wait weeks, or months, to see how things pan out for the survivors of flight 815?
What TVNZ have done is effectively remove the need to download and that is the ultimate weapon in any war against supposed piracy. Rather than complaining about lost revenue, create an environment that is better than the alternative. To download still costs time and money and by bringing forward the broadcast date, TVNZ will have ultimately improved productivity. Something that one can only imagine the ISP's will be happy about.
It will be incredibly interesting to watch the ratings following the broadcast of the show to see what impact this wise programming decision makes. Of course, it's completely dependent on whether or not those with people meters in their homes also download. In any case, it'll be a fascinating watch.
No we just have to sit back and wait for TVNZ to officially confirm this. Despite their Plan It schedule saying this is happening, TVNZ are still suggesting that it is dependent on sourcing materials from the distributors on time.
Then there is the issue of mid-season breaks. With the series going up against American Idol, one would expect that ABC wont be wanting to give viewers any reason to move to FOX. AI wont be taking any breaks so it wouldn't make any sense for ABC to interrupt the schedule since they've made the bold move of going up the biggest show on Television.
The only thing that does concern me is whether or not the two hour season premiere will screen as one episode here. The Plan It schedule only has one hour block set aside. Ideally, TVNZ would shift the pilot for Flash Forward and screen it either the week after or the week before. It would make no sense to go to all these lengths only to screen half of the season premiere and then put us a week behind.
Avid TV viewers will be desperately hoping that this move by TVNZ is just the beginning of steps in the right direction. Understanding that viewers don't want to (or need to) wait for their favourite shows is vital for the success of broadcast television. Now, if MediaWorks can match this by fast tracking Heroes and 24 (as well as upgrading C4 to HD) we may just be starting to get somewhere.
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GoTVNZ!
TVNZ does a prety good job in its programming. except for the odd show they are slack at but they CANT please everyone! and who cares if we are a 'whopping' 2 or 3 episodes behind the US. We are still going to see it in true HD quality just like them. Its not like there will be spoilers in the news where you will find out the ending before it airs here unless u go searching on the net. and i am picking for shows like american idol tv2 will screen the finale only hours behind like last year. lets give tv2 some props FOR ONCE, this might encourage them to fix the SMALL errors they do have.
ImNotLost...TVNZ is!
Its suckers like you that encourage tvnz be be so damn useless... good on ya mate!
nzchuckfan
It is possible the last few episodes could be aired closer to US air date with only 16 episodes sloted in and with 18 episodes in Season 6...
Rachel
New Zealand is 2-3 episodes behind the US (depending on where you are in the week).
GoTVNZ!
haha yea shame bro. tvnz aint that far behind the ball. good on ya tv2.
aaronimpact
TV2 is playing the second episode tonight, thank you very much.
ImNotLost...TVNZ is!
TVNZ have got to be frikken kidding themselves!
I've already seen up to and including episode 4 of season 6, by watching it online on overseas sites, and Episode 1 hasn't even aired here in New Zealand.
TVNZ... this is simply not good enough! Stop handing us B*llsh*t and get with the programme!!!
LOST
I think any fans of lost should start sending emails to TVNZ to try and get them to at least play the First episode of lost as a 2 hour double episode instead of the 1 hour episode they have scheduled on the 10th of February. Otherwise we will end up being the last country in the world to see each episode.
Every Other county in the world seems to be getting a double episode except us.
They could delay flash forward for one week and run it from 8.30 till 10.30 or delay torchwood for one week and run it from 9.30 till 11.30.
LOST
Can we change the title to "TVNZ takes giant leap backward"It looks like it will air a week after the US broadcast which would be ok (Not Great) But they don't have a time slot for the double episode so that will then make us 2 weeks after the US air date once we have seen the first episode.
Thanks For Nothing TVNZ.
Betty Spaghetti
The Freeview guide has been updated and... the premiere is not airing on the 3rd.
The Day of the Triffids is airing in the 8:30-10:30PM timeslot.
Betty Spaghetti
I'd say it's unlikely to be FlashForward - the 7:30PM-10:30PM block for TV ONE is split into seperate blocks of 'To Be Advised' which indicates more than one show will air across this period but the one of TV2 from 8:30-10:30PM is one solid block...
regan
That could still be Flash Forward and Lost...
Betty Spaghetti
It looks highly likely Lost is will start airing the new season on February 3rd.
The 14-day Freeview guide has been partially released for the day. A large piece of the guide still says 'To Be Advised' but there is a chunck running from 8:30PM - 10:30PM which says 'To Be Advised' which matches the TVNZ Planit! schedule which says Lost will air.
regan
Heroes is still one of the most downloaded shows so fast-tracking it would still be beneficial.
Y
I don't watch Lost, but the fact that TVNZ is doing this is pretty awesome. Fast tracking Heroes would be kind of pointless though, its pulling terrible ratings.
on Holiday
Do you think if you shot yourself in the head, you would be deaf when you got to heaven?
on Holiday
Do you think if you shot yourself head, you would be deaf when you got to heaven?
Purple Tentacle
Now we're getting somewhere...
regan
One step at a time. But I'm so with you on that!
Pablo
That's the right move, but how long til we can legally download this and other TV shows? TVNZ and TV3 post some of them on their websites, but that's no substitute for a HD episode download that I can watch anytime on my TV.
Kerry
Could be interesting, if they do in fact stay a day behind and not split up the double episode (which, it must be said, they do every single time). Bodes well for the future.