HD Ratings: Vigil Sinks On Air But Not Online
October 17, 2021 
8 Comments
Sunday night thriller Vigil may be sinking in the overnight ratings but TVNZ Sales reports it’s see-worthy and shipshape online.
“Vigil has had the strongest first week of any drama in the history of TVNZ OnDemand,” it says, citing more than 430,000 streams in its first week and nearly 800,000 in its second.
However, on TVNZ 1, where it airs 9.30 Sundays, the Suranne Jones thriller about murder on a nuclear submarine has been below the low tide mark of 1.0% of the key commercial demographics for most of its run.
The September 26 premiere averaged 1.2% of 25-54 year-olds and 1.0% of 18-49s. But subsequent instalments have averaged 0.8% / 0.5% and 0.9% / 0.5%.
Once, TVNZ 1 would have used Vigil’s online exposure to drive more viewers towards its linear run, with only catch-up episodes being made available to stream.
But in this case it unloaded all six eps online the night after the season premiere, signalling how much the free-to-air business model is shifting from broadcast to streaming AVOD for strategic content.
Vigil’s linear popularity has been hindered by a weak lead-in from The Weakest Link Australia, which last week averaged 3.1% / 2.0% of the core demos, with even a movie as dated as Three’s 2014 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 beating it.
TVNZ 2 deservedly was punished for inflicting on primetime viewers an even older release, Starsky & Hutch, with the 2004 reboot averaging only 0.8% of the network’s 18-49 viewership.
A bigger surprise was TVNZ 2’s live Silver Ferns flops, when the Cadbury Netball Series match averaged only 1.9% of 25-54s and 1.2% of 18-49s, although this was more than double its Sky Sport viewership.
As a result, TVNZ 2 scored shockingly low demo shares of 8.2% (25-54) and 7.4% (18-49) for the night, vs 33.1% / 30.3% for TVNZ 1 and 27.5% / 28.7% for Three.
Note: These overnight ratings exclude viewership of the networks’ +1 SD channels.
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October 17, 2021 at 5:37 pm
I’m confused as to why people use TVNZ OnDemand when the picture and resolution is lower than the TV and has 2-channel audio instead of 5.1 surround sound. The TV broadcast is always better than the on-demand that local broadcasters are providing. It’s only the international streaming services like Netflix or Disney+ that are worth watching. Do people not value maximum picture or audio quality? And do people seriously prefer 2 channels over 5.1 or Dolby Atmos? This has to be a joke.
I do feel like 9:30pm on a Sunday night is a tough ask in this day and age. Seems to be the night people go to bed earlier than most other nights of the week just from my own observations of friends etc.
You’re quite right, Fsmith, but with some shows, like Vigil, you don’t want to have to wait weeks for the mystery’s resolution. Some will tolerate a trade-off in PQ for binge gratification. However, sometimes the NZ streaming quality is better than the broadcast PQ. Case in point: Sky’s American Rust, which is riddled with jaggies and artefacts on SoHo yet relatively pristine on Neon. Why that should be, I don’t know, but S3 of Mr Inbetween was plagued with similar PQ problems on SoHo.
As I see Disney owns the classic TV show of Starsky and Hutch. I wonder if we will see it on Disney+ ?
Actually, Trevor, I think Sony TV has the rights rather than Disney. There was talk of an S&H reboot for Amazon Prime Video before one of the instigators, James Gunn, fell from grace. According to this trade paper report, Sony owns the Spelling-Goldberg library of shows like S&H, Charlie’s Angels and SWAT.
FSmith – unfortunately I suspect you’re vastly over-estimating the number of people like yourself (and ourselves!) who value the crystal clear broadcast and audio. It’s hard enough to find anyone with a ‘traditional’ TV connection and I suspect the regular TV punter just doesn’t care that much.
Darn, that annoying Sony again. I bet Disney hates them ?
If all local broadcasters in any platform had 10mb 1080p bitrate and 640kb 5.1 audio at a minimum I would definitely stream from them. However unfortunately I obtain my content from the Internet as I can get these specs. And 4k resolution at a minimum 15mb and 778kb Dolby Atmos. I remember back in 2011 the RWC was as sharp and detailed like a Blu-ray diss. Now its 40% less quality and appears dull. I always tend to prefer Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray remux as it has the highest quality for the consumers.