ROSEMARY ABBOTT | Sport
RATINGS RESCUE
After a string of job cuts, low ratings, and the existential dread of executives wondering if people remember that TVNZ still exists, the state broadcaster has finally found a lifeline: sport. Lots of it.
Next year, Kiwis can feast their eyes on the NPC, the ANZ Premiership netball, and the FIFA World Cup. This move is one CEO Jodi O’Donnell is hoping will get actual people watching their platform, as opposed to just being on in the background at rest homes.
“We’re hoping paying for the World Cup will make people forget about Netflix, Disney+, and the crushing void of all our other programming,” O’Donnell said after making the bold decision .
TVNZ will screen All Whites matches free, presumably as a way of baiting people in. But if the casual punter wants to see all of the games, they will have to pay up. It’s being billed as a “game-changer,” which, in media-speak, roughly translates to: “We’re hoping people will give us money and forget that they’re already paying for Netflix and one or two other TV services.”
“Frankly, we tried everything else. Dramas, documentaries, cooking shows and people just… didn’t want to watch any of them, or they found something better on another platform” she said, “ Turns out, if you show a live sport where no-one knows what the result will be, people will watch to find out.”
“Honestly, if this works, we might even start dreaming about having a regular audience again,” she concluded, while also being quite serious.
More to come.
