6 Sep 2020

Where are the TV audiences? Mostly not watching TV

From Standing Room Only, 12:17 pm on 6 September 2020

The latest survey by NZ On Air about how we consume our entertainment in 2020 is makes sobering reading.

Where are the audiences? it asks.  And the answer is - increasingly, not on traditional TV any more.  Audiences are going digital - which means video on demand and streaming services like Netflix.  Surprisingly - or not - the most popular sites across the board is YouTube and Facebook, which have now pipped TVNZ 1 at the post for that role.

Most affected by this trend, you'd think, would be New Zealand-made programmes - fiction and non-fiction.   How do they compete with the big overseas giants?

Or is the survey not asking the right questions?   Why are audiences going elsewhere, and what are they watching and listening to there?

Lynn Freeman talks with TVNZ's Head of Content, Cate Slater,  with Frances Morton, Head of TVNZ's Youth Current Affairs stream, Re, and with the CEO of New Zealand's top drama producer, South Pacific Pictures, Kelly Martin.