Anatomy of a Hit Off Air
May 18, 2016 
6 Comments
Martin Henderson scrubs up as Dr Nathan Riggs in the new season of Grey’s Anatomy.
The latest season of Grey’s Anatomy has become one of TVNZ’s most viewed properties even before it goes to air.
Season 12 opens here on May 31, as the new stablemate for Quantico (TV2, 9.45 Tuesdays), and is notable for the casting of Kiwi Martin Henderson as one of the doctors (he makes his debut in episode six).
The season ends this week in the US but fans locally have been able to watch fast-tracked episodes online at TVNZ OnDemand.
Last month it notched up 36,000 streams an episode, making it the second-most streamed series after Shortland Street.
The next most popular streams in April were The Walking Dead, The Big Bang Theory, Coronation Street, Blindspot, Filthy Rich, Home and Away, The Flash and Empire (see graph below).
TVNZ Sales reports Filthy Rich recorded 700,000-plus streams over its inaugural season while the first week of My Kitchen Rules served up nearly 50,000 streams.
There were more than 10 million streams across One News Now and TVOD in April: 5.8 million TVOD videos were viewed and 4.2 million ONN videos.
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May 18, 2016 at 5:29 pm
Interesting to see how well a TVNZOnDemand property performs. But the more interesting question, as streaming becomes more prevalent, is why TVNZ OnDemand isn’t growing? Number of videos viewed is down yoy for Jan, Feb and March. And the total daily hours viewed is also not growing compared to 12 months ago. Why?
Maybe people don’t want to watch OnDemand on PCs or tablets?
Perhaps. Hopefully the decline in usage will result in both Chromecast and Apple TV app developments. Perhaps it’s a lack of HD content. It would be hard to imagine that Netflix’s growth has stopped (or usage has fallen you). Although it mightn’t be that hard to think that Lightbox growth has ceased (hence the prop up from parent company Spark).
I think it’s the Netflix factor that’s most relevant. If ever there was a textbook example of streaming, this is it: comprehensive library (even in this market), original content, not only HD but also 4K, reliable streaming, ubiquitous app … It puts TVNZOD, 3NOW and Neon to shame. Most damning of all re all these NZ services is their SD streams, although TVNZ’s have improved immeasurably, both in terms of streaming quality and exclusive content.
I agree on quality delivered by Netflix but beg to differ on the aspects like original content and the comprehensiveness of the Netflix library (which hasnt grown since it launched in NZ) … (See Guest Post: How Streaming Stats Stack Up for more on this).
Why are we having boring viewing on Wednesdays in primetime? From June 8 TV2’s got a stupid mix of sitcoms and documentaries instead of good dramas. And Grey’s Anatomy should be earler in the evening [Tuesdays] and why not slot in The Catch there as well?