HD Heads-Up: February 1 – 7
January 23, 2020 
12 Comments
➢➢ TVNZ 1 will re-run the first season of Bancroft ahead of next month’s season two premiere. Double-episodes of S1 will air January 27 and January 28 after Tonight, a week before S2 begins its 9.00 Monday run. The series stars Sarah Parish as the chief of a merged police force who confronts a new enemy when a double-murder investigation sees her personal and professional lives collide …
➢➢ Critics weren’t any more impressed with S2 than S1. “It spiralled into a schlocky frenzy of secret bunkers, fetishes, incest and creepy dolls,” said The Times. “By the end, this was more Luther than Line of Duty, a psychosexual horror show masquerading as a police procedural” …
➢➢ Three will strip War on Plastic after double-episodes of The Block Australia from February 3 – 5. In the three-part series, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Anita Rani explore the source of the plastic problem and how to solve it …
➢➢ UK reviewers universally acclaimed the series: “hard-hitting environmental journalism rubs along with awareness-raising stunts and a trial involving a cross-section of the Great British Public” (Financial Times); “it aims to shame us into change – and it works” (Daily Mirror); “a new league of investigative journalism” (Daily Mail) …
➢➢ Brits Icon: Elton John will screen as a 7.30 Waiting Day special on TVNZ 1. The honouree will perform some of his greatest hits in his first concert after surgery for appendicitis. Two days earlier, Joan Jett – Bad Reputation (Prime, 8.35 Tuesday), traces the rock star’s life and career from founding The Runaways to establishing Blackheart Records and her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame …
➢➢ Prime also will premiere on February 2 at 8.30 the documentary, The Changing Face of the NZ Dairy, which examines the impact the evolution of the dairy has had on migrants seeking their place here …
➢➢ Have You Been Paying Attention? will return in a new slot next month: 8.30 Wednesdays from February 5. Joining Urzila, Hayley and Vaughan on the season premiere are Ben Hurley, Mel Bracewell and Tom Sainsbury. It will be the lead-in to the 9.30 return of God Friended Me …
➢➢ Also returning to TVNZ 2 that week will be Home and Away (5.30 weekdays) and, in a new slot, The Undateables (8.30 Mondays) …
➢➢ Appearing on the February 6 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.30) will be Jamie Foxx, Michael B Jordan, Jennifer Saunders, Sir Patrick Stewart and musician Michael Kiwanuka …
➢➢ The networks will roll out four HD movie premieres in the week starting February 1: Sing (Three, 7.00 Saturday), Call Me By Your Name (TVNZ 1, 9.10 Saturday) and Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday) and Fifty Shades Darker (Three, 9.25 Sunday) …
➢➢ Other HD coming attractions that week will include:
- Jumanji (TVNZ 2. 7.00 Saturday)
- Colombiana (TVNZ 2, 8.55 Saturday)
- Ghost Town (Three, 9.05)
- ExPatriot (Three, 11.05)
- Lethal Weapon 4 (TVNZ 2, 11.10 Saturday)
- Mom’s Night Out (TVNZ 2, 1.40am Sunday)
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Sunday)
- It (TVNZ 2, 10.35 Sunday)
- Sherlock Holes 2: A Game of Shadows (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
- Vantage Point (Duke, 10.45 Tuesday)
- Ghost Rider (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Thursday)
- Fantastic Four (Three, 7.30 Friday)
- MacGruber (Duke, 8.30 Friday).
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January 23, 2020 at 1:56 am
Hi Philip, do you think we will know soon who Three’s new owner will be? It’s seems CBS is the favourite going by what I have read on Twitter. Having a big USA network behind Three will certainly help them if it turns out to be true. It’s going to be an interesting year 🙂
Hi Trevor. You’d think both CBS and Sky would be contenders: the former already owns an Australian network so there wold be synergies if it expanded its footprint here. Similarly, Sky — although it already struggles trying to make one free-to-air channel viable and may be shy about closing it down to invest in another that turns out to be just as problematic. Moreover, its focus is on streaming and you would think that also would be an easier option for CBS — ie. globally expand its CBS All Access platform — than risk acquiring another network when linear broadcasting is in decline. Who knows? As you say, it promises to be a most interesting year …
My feeling is that it will end up being CBS since they have already bought in Australia, they will have a lot of experience as well. It would be good news for Three 🙂
If CBS do end up buying Three I wonder if they will screen Picard on Three? I just watched episode one on Amazon Prime Video and loved it so much, it’s absolutely brilliant 🙂
@Trevor – was it shown in 4K on Amazon?
I just read on Twitter no Aussie networks are interested in buying Three according to an Aussie news report so I would say that makes it more likely it’s CBS. What do you think Philip? 🙂
Hey, Rosco, Phil here — yes, Amazon is streaming Picard in 4K.
Hi Trevor. The same newspaper that reports the Aussie nets have bowed out also says CBS is no longer interested. The Australian reckons NBC Universal is still a contender (it helped MediaWorks to launch the Bravo channel) and doesn’t rule out a private equity group buying it. Otherwise, MediaWorks will be holding out hope for government support in an increasingly fragmenting NZ media market where, after all these years, MediaWorks still can’t make the TV biz pay.
Yes, I just found out about that via Twitter. There is NBC and also Discovery who are still interested in Three. It must be very worrying for the people who work there but still I can’t see the Government not helping out if they can’t find a buyer. What a messy situation. It’s a shame we don’t have a Bob Iger in New Zealand 🙂
Sorry, Rosco, my mistake. Picard is HD only on Amazon Prime. It was listed as being in HDR but when you stream the season premiere, it’s 1080p. Still looks amazing on a 4K TV like Panasonic’s GZ2000 OLED but disappointing it’s not native 4K. CBS All Access commissioned it for HD streaming. Often Netflix picks up series that have aired/streamed in 1080 on their US or UK platforms and offered them in 4K. But that’s not the case with Amazon and Picard.
Hi Phil. So is Picard shown in 4K on ANY platform? That also seems to account for why Picard hasn’t been uploaded in 4K as the 4K media might not exist! I’ll run it through my 4K TV once I’ve downloaded, and I may have to settle for only 1080 on this show…?!
That appears to be so, Rosco. Star Trek: Discovery was processed in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, which is why it streams on 4K on Netflix (but only in 1080 SDR on CBS All Access). One forum contributor cites Apple TV 4K as having it in 4K but others question this.