Changing Fortunes for TV3 Shows Online

Robyn Malcolm and Kirk Torrance

The HD debut of the most popular NZ drama series ever, Outrageous Fortune, has been credited with boosting online viewership of TV3 and C4 shows.

MediaWorks Interactive today reported its video on demand service has more than tripled the number of shows streamed since its relaunch in May and doubled its audience base.

It has jumped from a pre-launch average of 15,000 to 20,000 weekly viewers to 60,000-plus; the 40,000-60,000 average streams before the relaunch have since topped 180,000 streams.

This growth is partly linked to the launch of the final season of Outrageous Fortune, which is considered to be the second most popular on demand show of any type in the country with 58,509 streams, and the service’s new video on demand player.

While MediaWorks Interactive says video on demand is proving to be a popular alternative to home recording devices, because of bandwidth issues there are no plans to offer HD streams of shows like Outrageous Fortune, Glee, CSI: NY, NCIS, Nurse Jackie and the soon to bow New Zealand’s Next Top Model and Lie to Me.