HD Feed: October 2

TV3’s Homeland returned on Monday with about half the viewership of its time-slot rivals, Beyond the Darklands on TV One and Grey’s Anatomy on TV2. It averaged 5.7% – 6.8% of the key demos, compared to Darklands’ 7.0% – 12.1% and Grey’s 11.6% – 13.3%. It’s a disappointing result given the excellence of the series and the extensive publicity surrounding the season premiere, including last week’s Emmy wins (which boosted viewership by 60% in the US). While the season two premiere was well up on the previous season’s, TV3 typically fared better with its popcorn action movies at 8.30 Monday than it did with one of the finest HD dramas on TV — although it wasn’t help by a weak and incompatible lead-in — a double-bill of 111 Emergency and Kalgoorie Cops — that was crushed by TV2’s My Kitchen Rules. Lead-out  Californication rated even more dismally at 9.30, when it averaged 2.2% – 3.3% against Unforgettable’s 3.6% – 6.2% and Private Practice’s 5.8% – 9.2%. Shameless, which TV2 aired two hours later, rated almost as well (1.8% – 3.1%) off the back of Army Wives (3.1% – 5.5%).

In other ratings news, Sunday’s NZ’s Got Talent posted its lowest ratings so far this season, against TV3’s Anna Guy interview on 60 Minutes. NZGT averaged 10.5% – 16.4% and 60 Minutes, 8.4% -11.2% — or double what it often rates. Nothing Trivial slipped to 6.9% – 9.5% and Offspring to 3.5% – 6.5%. On Saturday, Annabel Langbein The Free Range Cook averaged a healthy 5.9% – 10.9% opposite improving HD food group rival ITM Fishing Show (2.9% – 5.0%) but TV3’s CSI duo, NY and Miami, dipped to sub-4% averages. TV2 dominated Friday with The Big Bang Theory and The Voice while TV3’s The X Factor USA averaged 10.2% – 13.2% to win the second half of its hour. But the network urgently needs first-run Graham Norton Shows or an alternative at 8.30, with viewers clearly wearying of the chat show re-runs (Friday’s averaged only 5.2% – 6.8%).

Quickflix continues to expand its streaming content but most of it remains SD only. It can now be accessed on all 2012 Samsung SmartHub TVs, Blu-ray players and home theatre systems. Further support for 2010 and 2011 models will be launched within the next few weeks. Quicklfix already is on Sony’s Bravia range, with some content in HD. Quickflix recently took issue with an article I wrote for The Press lamenting the dearth of HD services in NZ, including SD streaming services like Quickflix that had nixed HD streaming for the time being. “There is HD content already available on Sony Bravia and Quickflix is looking to significantly expand the number of HD titles they offer across all devices,” a spokeswoman said. “As an online movie service, Quickflix have to consider the issue of data caps (ie HD movies eat more data) but they will be seeing an increasing number of HD titles on Quickflix and their HD plans have certainly not gone on hold.”

Quickflix would be better to expedite their HD upgrade than spend dosh on free trials for its SD service, such as its latest promotion for Mercury Energy customers (one month’s free movies and TV). It has just added an impressive number of suppliers to its stable, including Warner Bros, Walt Disney, Starz Digital Media and independent distributors like Madman, Umbrella, Bounty, Accent Films, Gryphon and Transmission Films. The deals provide more than 200 new and recent titles for pay-per-play and streaming, many of them available as soon as they’re released on DVD and Blu-ray. Due this month are The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers and Rock of Ages and next month Snow White and the Huntsman, The Dark Knight Rises, Brave and Ted. But until Quickflix goes HD, the tech simply can’t match the talk.