Prime Television

World Screen Weekly, December 18, 2008

CHANNEL: Prime Television

COUNTRY: New Zealand

LAUNCH DATE: August 30, 1998

OWNERSHIP: SKY Network Television

DISTRIBUTION: Prime is a free-to-air network available to all households in New Zealand.

DESCRIPTION: Targeting the 25-to-54 set, the channel provides a mixed bag of programming, spanning documentaries, drama, reality series and comedies, coming from the U.K., the U.S. and Australia, as well as locally produced.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT:

Channel Manager: Karen Bieleski

Associate Channel Manager: Kathy Wright

Head, Publicity: Lisa Franklin

Marketing Executive: Kate Whittle

Director, Entertainment Programming, SKY: Travis Dunbar

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: Providing an eclectic alternative to New Zealand’s main free-to-air channels is Prime’s main focus. It sets itself apart by providing a broader mix of genres—documentaries, drama, reality, comedy, news, sports—than its competitors.

The NZ network also stocks around 80 percent of its schedule with acquired product, coming from the likes of Outright, ShineReveille, FremantleMedia, BBC Worldwide, RDF and ALL3MEDIA, as well as a wide range of other independent distributors. Prime’s channel manager, Karen Bieleski, points to Top Gear, Doctor Who, Midsomer Murders, Bondi Rescue and Man vs Wild as regular favorites on the network."Music specials can do well for the channel with the appropriate artist," Bieleski adds. Other acquired shows airing on Prime include the BBC’s EastEnders, the U.S. soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and competition series American Gladiators. It also airs the late-night talk show Late Show with David Letterman.

Prime is also committed to building up its New Zealand content. This is particularly evident in the network’s news offering, Prime News: First at 5:30, as well as locally-produced programs such as Return to Paradise and The Crowd Goes Wild. Sports is also quite prevalent on the network. New Zealand consumers can view delayed free-to-air sports programs such as rugby, rugby league and cricket on Prime.

The network’s companion website was relaunched in July. It offers viewers information and a schedule for Prime’s programming, as well as exclusive content for some of the channel’s top shows. "It hosts several ‘mini-sites’, web pages dedicated to providing viewers with more content from and about their favorite programs such as Top Gear and Sportbox," explains Bieleski. "The Prime News mini-site offers the daily news on video immediately after it airs on Prime, and allows viewers to help report events by submitting tips directly to our news team. In August, Prime also presented a dedicated website for New Zealand’s Got Talent, offering viewers videos, photos, blogs and a more information about the top talent show. It also retransmitted each episode from NZ’s Got Talent, free to view, 24 hours after airing on TV."

And Prime’s extended reach is not limited to just its website, Bieleski explains. "SKY has been active in the new-media arena for nearly two years now. In January 2007 it launched SKY Mobile TV in conjunction with Vodafone, offering a selection of channels and pay-per-view content to Vodafone customers with a 3G handset, a first for New Zealand. In May 2008 it launched SKY Online, a broadband download to the PC service allowing SKY subscribers to ‘catch up’ with their favorite movies, entertainment and sport that they may have missed on the broadcast television service, as well as watch pay-per-view events streamed live via broadband."

WHAT’S NEW: The two-part mini-series Tin Man premiered earlier this month, and a host of new shows will make their debut shortly. These include the BBC drama Merlin, from FremantleMedia Enterprises; Australian drama The Sunshine Strip, from Channel Nine; and BBC documentary series Stephen Fry In America.

WEBSITE: www.primetv.co.nz