HD Heads-Up: August 30
August 30, 2016 
5 Comments
Kiwi Coro fans streets behind … TV One lifts lid on MasterChef Oz … TV2 spices up kids TV with Sesame … Stranger Things new Netflix hit …
Coronation Street fans will be the biggest losers when it comes to TV One’s coverage of the Rio Paralympics. The network’s nightly highlights package means the warhorse soap won’t screen on September 10, 16 or 17 while the September 9 broadcast will be cut from two hours to one to accommodate the games. Lucifer and Undercover Boss USA also will be pre-empted by the 9.30 highlights, which start on September 8, but Coro’s disgraceful treatment is another example of TV One’s disdain for a staple it refuses to relinquish for competitive reasons while ensuring fans remain nearly two years behind UK screenings, where there’s been an upheaval in cast exits …
Coro’s pre-emption isn’t just due to the Paralympics — TV One premieres the latest season of MasterChef Australia on September 14, and that week’s Friday instalment will run from 7.30-9.50. Quipped the Sydney Morning Herald of the premiere: “In the end, nineteen aprons were granted, which sets a new record for aprons handed out during the first episode of a MasterChef season. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb: that’s a record for aprons handed out during the first episode of any television programme” …
TVNZ has picked up Sesame Street after MediaWorks relinquished the rights when Four transitioned to Bravo. The children’s series will air 6.30am weekdays from September 12 on TV2. And even better news for tykes is it will be in HD for the first time …
Sky Movies has set up a pop-up channel to honour Gene Wilder, who died today at the age of 83. Screening in HD on Channel 035 from 7.00 tonight to 9.15am tomorrow will be three of the star’s best movies: The Producers (1968), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Blazing Saddles (1974) …
Wilder’s longtime collaborator, Mel Brooks, is one of this week’s guests on Prime’s The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. He appears with Rita Ora on Wednesday’s show (11.30) while David Spade and the young stars of Netflix hit Stranger Things are lined up for Thursday (11.15). Harry Connick Jr and Zara Larsson round off the week (11.30 Friday) …
Stranger Things has become the third most-watched attraction on Netflix, reports Variety. “Within its first 35 days on the streaming service, the supernatural drama averaged 14.07 million adults 18-49. Only season one of Fuller House and season four of Orange is the New Black drew larger demo audiences in their first 35 days” …
Among Netflix originals, Stranger Things beats Making a Murderer (13.35 million), Daredevil season two (13.35 million), Jessica Jones (6.26 million), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt season two (6.08 million), The Ranch (6.01 million) and House of Cards season four (5.67 million) …
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August 30, 2016 at 7:58 pm
Stranger Things is by far the best show of the year, when is season 2 coming? 🙂
Stranger Things S2 hasnt been officially renewed but it would be hard for Netflix to ignore its popularity at a time when it needs more original content hits to retain customers. And if it hasnt been officially renewed then it hasn’t been funded for production … so it’ll be quite a few months before anything. And therein lies another problem of dropping a whole season vs weekly drip-feeding. Now the whole season has to be greenlighted, produced and then released.
So the next question I was expecting was: “Why hasn’t it been renewed?” You’re the production company and suddenly you’re the new sleeper hit in town. Economics. Let’s say you have a contract that gives Netflix first right on renewal. Suddenly whats that renewal worth? And if Netflix doesnt have first right then what’s it worth to an HBO, AMC, FX or any other traditional network?
Netflix wont tell you how many people watched your series but you have independent, unverifiable numbers of 14m people (18-49) in the first 35 days. One hour of Netflix watching is worth about 13c-16c ($8-$10 over 60 hours per month).
Assuming there is no tail of viewers AND your demo is only 18-49 viewers AND content accounts for 50% of total revenue AND all viewing hours are of equal worth then that means your show could be worth $900k-$1.1m per episode. Relax some of these assumptions and you could get to some of the pricing that FX has talked about for big name or big hit shows of $3-4m per episode.)
Pure speculation on so many levels but can you say … renegotiate?
I doubt Netflix’s contracts would be such that they could be extorted for a second season. Of course, they will have first right of renewal. It’s probably more of a case of right time, right place to announce once the deal is done. It might already be done.
Guess what … “Season 2 will debut in 2017 and will consist of 9 episodes … Insiders tell Variety that work on the second season has already been underway for quite some time” http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/stranger-things-season-2-renewed-netflix-1201840420/