Neill Rea drives the Brokenwood Police car in the 2015 Kumeu Christmas parade
I have no particular opinion on the virtues of TV3’s planned soap (and no affiliation with its producers) but I hope NZ on Air will be publicly pressed to explain themselves a little more. They say a soap doesn’t match their priorities, which begs the question… whose priorities exactly? What kind of influence does NZ on Air truly have on what we watch? If they are guided by the power of ratings, which is the only measure of success which matters to our current government, then there is at least as much logic in investing in a nightly soap on a major channel than there is in pumping another $4m subsidy to little-watched Prime for Brokenwood Mysteries (just for example). The one soap we have consistently tops the ratings for its host channel after 25 years despite an increasingly fragmented market and changing viewing habits. It has out-rated every other drama series that NZ on Air has ever invested in (except perhaps Outrageous Fortune at its very peak). Which would be less embarrassing if those other shows really were ambitious serious non-commercial dramas. But they’re not. Most of them have been flashy soaps with bigger budgets. NZ on Air say they favour “returning series”, but a series designed to return four nights a week indefinitely doesn’t interest them.
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