HD Heads-Up: September 6
September 6, 2018 
6 Comments
The Last Animals: Garamba National Park is the second oldest park established in Africa. In 1977 there were 22,000 elephants. Today there are about 1,200. Garamba is the second oldest national park in Africa and one of the deadliest for both elephants and rangers. The Lord’s Resistance Army and Sudanese rebels are both active in the park.
➢➢ TVNZ continues to put many of its best shows online instead of on-air. Coming soon to TVNZ OnDemand are: Deep Water: The Real Story, which explores the truth behind the violent gay-bashing epidemic that tarnished Sydney in the ’80s and ’90s (from September 15); The Last Animals, which exposes the killing of African elephants and rhinos (from September 17); and My Dad’s on Death Row, which interviews some of the most notorious inmates in a Texas prison (from September 17). Also new from September 15 will be season three of RuPaul’s Drag Race …
➢➢ Three will launch its watching-the-viewers series Googlebox in an 8.30 Wednesday slot on September 19. The show will observe the reaction of a wide range of households to what’s on the box each week. To make it a success, 
Three is teaming it with top-rating The Block NZ and will repeat it 9.45 Fridays after another signature hit, 7 Days …
➢➢ The same week Three will premiere three specials: the two-hour documentary, I Am Paul Walker (8.30 Monday), The Funny Girls NZ Suffragette Special (8.30 Thursday), and Gaylene Preston’s documentary, My Year With Helen (9.30 Thursday), which follows ex-PM Clark’s bid to become UN secretary general …
➢➢ Living With Tourette’s – Renee’s Brain (Prime, 8.30 September 17) is billed as an “inspiring documentary” that follows New Zealand’s most severe sufferer of Tourette Syndrome, 25-year-old Renee Harvey, as she embarks on risky but potentially life-saving surgery …
➢➢ Also new to Prime that week will be the series Animal Babies (7.30 Saturday), which explores how animals adapt, grow up and survive in three very different wild environments; The Truth About Obesity (7.30 Sunday), which reveals the real reasons why we get fat; and Prime Rocks: Classic Albums — Carly Simon (8.30 Wednesday), which charts the making of 1972’s No Secrets …
➢➢ Duke is to strip double episodes of The Simpsons 7.30 weeknights from September 17. It will start from season one for the 7.30 broadcasts and flash-forward to season 17 for the 8.00 episodes. It’s not been confirmed if S1 has been remastered in HD but S17 will be in HD. On Mondays, the back-to-back episodes will lead into double-eps of Family Guy, South Park and American Dad …
➢➢ Also new that week will be the latest seasons of The Hotel Inspector Returns (TVNZ 1, 8.05 Saturday), Shop Well for Less (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Tuesday) and The Imposters (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Tuesday) while ending their runs will be The Curious Mind, Fear the Walking Dead, Criminal Minds, Station 19, Secret Life of Girls, Poldark, Empire, Ugly House to Lovely House and The Undateables …
➢➢ Not one of the networks has a free-to-air movie premiere in the week starting September 15. And of the nine movies scheduled for TVNZ 2 and Duke, only four will be in HD. Here are the week’s coming attractions in HD:
- Tomorrowland (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
- Beverly Hills Cop III (Three, 8.55 Saturday)
- Les Miserables (Three, 11.00 Saturday)
- The Pacifier (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Sunday)
- Furious 7 (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
- Babel (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
- Tammy (TVNZ 2, 9.20 Sunday)
- Pitch Black (Prime, 9.30 Monday)
- Last Action Hero (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
- Old School (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday)
- Limitless (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Friday).
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September 6, 2018 at 10:59 am
Philip, why only 4/9 movies in HD on TV2/Duke? Surely all these movies should be in HD. What’s TVNZ’s excuse?
Wow. I don’t think season one of The Simpsons has been on in New Zealand since 2004 when TV3 took over the rights from TV2 and went from episode 1.
Hi Mike. The ratio’s actually worse — only four of 10 movies will be in HD. The movies that will be in SD are Rock Star, 28 Days, Good Kill, Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Groundhog Day. Good Kill was made in 2014, so I’m surprised that’s not in HD but the rest were pre-2010 and probably licensed as part of SD packages. Even so, it’s a poor look in today’s HD-saturated schedules and when you can buy Groundhog Day on 4K-UHD. Hopefully one day TVNZ will get around to updating its Big Bang Theory deal so the first three seasons can air in HD.
I can’t believe with licensing across multi-platforms there’s still an “SD” broadcast package? HD was once a premium product but with the HD saturation as you suggest now, even my rubbish $150 Samsung phone can shoot in full HD! Which then leads me on to the soft looking Prime for us suckers who only have “Freeview HD” via terrestrial …
The deals for these movies probably date back several years, before multi-platforming was a priority — although TVNZ’s only offered HD streams recently — and when distributors didn’t always have HD masters. While this is now an aberration rather than the norm, in my dealings with broadcasters most still seem puzzled about why I keep pestering them for HD info. Three and ThreeLife are the only broadcasters that list which programmes are in HD and have 5.1 audio.
HD = increased cost with no benefit to the broadcaster. No surprise that they have to be dragged kicking and screaming. For a retailer HD = higher ticket price (and more $ margin). For a manufacturer HD – higher ticket price (cf SD) (and more $ margin for the manufacturer and retailer). What’s in it for the broadcaster? No apparent HD premium for advertising. Audience is at the margin – good content in SD will always trump lousy content in HD.