HD Heads-Up: January 14

Having just added 130 more countries to its reach, Netflix may sound as if it’s about to rule the world of home ent but ratings for some of its most popular shows released by an NBC Universal executive suggest it’s not yet a threat to the networks: from September to December, Jessica Jones averaged only 4.8 million adults aged 18-49, Master of None 3.9 million and Narcos 3.2 million. “I don’t believe there’s enough stuff on Netflix that is broad enough and is consistent enough to effect us in a meaningful way on a regular basis,” NBC Universal’s Alan Wurzel told reporters on the Television Critics Association tour. “Compare these programmes to shows like The Big Bang Theory, Empire or Blind Spot, and they pale in comparison. It’s not that people aren’t watching, but they (streaming) aren’t replacing broadcast. The reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated” …

Today’s NZ Herald reports “secret codes” to unlock everything on Netflix and asks why NZ had to wait 20 days to see the series finale of Downtown Abbey (make that 21 if you want to see it in HD — the Blu-ray comes out tomorrow) — for those of us who grew up in the days of single-channel, black-and-white TV, less than three weeks still seems lightning fast but the article also has interesting observations from TVNZ programming boss John Kelly about why some series get to air quicker than others …

Deadline Hollywood reckons TVNZ OnDemand’s Legends Of Tomorrow “could prove well worth sticking around for. However, it needs to find its footing and, with sometimes uneven pacing, take it a bit more one day at a time for the fun to begin and the potential to be mined … While Prison Break alum Wentworth Miller and Alias vet Victor Garber (who played his Dr Martin Stein character on Flash) are solid foundations for the show, it’s hard to get a handle on the other Legends between the seemingly endless set-up, battle scenes and one hell of a bar brawl” …

Deadline Hollywood was more receptive to a new comedy Steve Carell’s co-created: “If you love brash gags, relentless in-jokes, wordplay and un-self-conscious goofiness as I do, then Angie Tribeca is so for you … With clear homages to the short-lived Police Squad! from 1982, its Naked Gun spinoff film franchise and Get Smart, whose 2008 big-screen reboot was fronted by Carell, the half-hour Angie Tribeca is seeking shameless hilarity at the expense of the forces of law and order and everyone else … It will be hard to watch the likes of Law & Order or other so-called serious police procedurals without a giggle now” …

Other than the late-night season four premiere of Blue Bloods on January 23, TV3’s schedule continues to be dominated by movies in the last week of January, including HD repeats of Legally Blonde, The Descendants, X-Men: First Class, A Serious Man, Just Married, Australia and Hitman …

In case Black-ish fans have overlooked it, TV2 is burning off season one on Saturday afternoons after twice failing to build an audience for it in primetime …

Variety wonders if Billions, which premieres Tuesday on SoHo, will be “TV’s first Wall Street-based hit“. Showtime boss David Nevins told the trade paper: “The show is really a Trojan horse for examining our complicated feelings about class and wealth. We have this new class of the super-wealthy in this country. People aspire to have that kind of wealth, but we also are having the discussion about inequality and what’s fair and what’s not” …

Stuff’s Pattie Pegler’s already a fan of Billions: “I’ll be honest, I’m hazy on the details of hedge-fund management. Start talking finance and my eyes glaze over. So the scenes of alpha males striding along gleaming corridors talking about backstops and shorting stock, well, it just felt confusing and a little hackneyed. But, I am utterly hooked. At its heart this is an age-old tale of power and greed but with a thoroughly modern twist, some great writing and captivating main characters” …