TVNZ Pulls WB Superhero Shows
September 26, 2017 
8 Comments
TVNZ 2 is pulling Arrow and Supergirl from its overnight Sunday schedule following Sky’s announcement that it has locked up new seasons of these series.
It will replace Arrow with a new season of The Vampire Diaries and Supergirl with re-runs of Marvel’s Agent Carter.
The changes take effect from this weekend, which is a blow for fans who had hoped to see out the latest seasons of each in HD.
Arrow was only four episodes into its fifth season and while the Sunday run of Supergirl was a season one repeat, season two had been screening Saturday afternoons and has been cut short at episode six (a new series of The Fosters will replace it from October 7).
It’s not clear when these seasons will resume on Sky.
In its press release, Sky said the latest seasons will premiere early next year on the Box, which is an SD channel, and earlier seasons will be available on Sky Go, On Demand and Neon.
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September 26, 2017 at 2:13 pm
Oh dear. Not so good for the poor viewer is it? Can someone remind me, did MediaWorks pull The Simpsons and Family Guy from its schedule when TVNZ got the rights to the new season – and reach again for the red ink writeoffs to programming? Or did MediaWorks play out the remaining episodes to maximise their value?
Yes, it was very swift: https://www.screenscribe.net/channels/doh-mediaworks-loses-fox-shows-for-now/ But I’m still surprised at the abrupt TVNZ-Sky transition for the WB shows given (i) how collegial the press release made the deal sound, and (ii) how unnecessary it is to deprive fans of their HD fix mid-season when Sky won’t be launching the new seasons until the new year.
But The Simpsons and Family Guy were retained by MediaWorks at the time MediaWorks relinquished the Fox output deal. Those two programmess were retained “only to then undermine their potential by switching them back-and-forth from TV3 to TV4, and in and out of different time slots” https://www.screenscribe.net/channels/will-tvnz-hit-a-homer-run-with-fox-hits/ But what happened when TVNZ acquired those two properties and TVNZ was gleeful about its coup? Did MediaWorks pull mid season or play out S17 of Simpsons?
D’oh! You’re quite right, Mike. TVNZ announced they had secured The Simpsons and Family Guy on 22 December 2015 but they continued to re-run on MediaWorks. TV3 screened The Simpsons for the last time on 19 March 2016 and Family Guy bowed out from Four a month later. According to my records, TV2 premiered S27 of The Simpsons on February 14.
This sucks big time as I don’t have Sky. Looks like I’ll have to get them elsewhere from now on. Not happy with TVNZ.
Hamish, it’s a good thing that the box sets are so readily available. And in better quality, too. Or is it the prospect that previously someone else paid for the right for you to watch it and now you don’t want to have to pay yourself?
Policeman Mike strikes again … lol.
Will TVNZ be updating our international sci-fi/fantasy shows for our new 2020 season? We need to put a spell on you so TVNZ 2.