Sky wins as Three hits dire ratings

Comment: Warner Bros Discovery, the owners of Three, have decided there is more money to be made by putting its premium content on Sky than setting up its own streaming service in New Zealand or showing it on Three Now.
This is good news for Sky whose entertainment offering has looked a little shaky lately with Netflix, Disney, Apple and TVNZ+ turning up the heat.
New series of big hits like The Last of Us, The White Lotus and Euphoria from WBD’s streaming service, Max, will now be on Neon and Sky’s entertainment channels. WBD’s classic franchises such as Friends, The Big Bang Theory and Rick and Morty are also part of the deal.
Back in July 2023 WBD extended its long running HBO Max programme supply agreement with Sky but left the door open to launching its own streaming service and going directly to consumers. At the time it told Newsroom the deal “provides optionality for the future launch of Max in New Zealand, including a provision to retail Max on Sky platforms. We have no specific details for the New Zealand launch at this stage.”
While it considered its options here, WBD got busy launching Max as a stand-alone streaming service across Latin America and next month will open in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong. 
But the economics and, maybe, the competition, in New Zealand must have looked too tough for WBD’s liking. It does get some branding (in addition to revenue) out of the Sky deal as viewers will need to click on a Max tile on the home screens of Neon and other Sky entertainment channels.
The deal means that once again Three misses out on the sort of quality programming that could alleviate its perilous position.
Three had a terrible ratings night last Sunday with its 7pm slot sinking to unthinkable lows.
On its debut night, On the Ladder, a show about new ways into home ownership, was watched by only 6,400 people in its target demographic of 25 to 54 year olds. That was barely more than 2 percent of the 7pm audience. 
There would not have been a less successful prime time launch in New Zealand television history. 
Admittedly, it was a tough night, with the Black Caps beating India in a remarkable match being screened on Sky, but Country Calendar was still able to gather 117,400 viewers in the same demographic segment for a 38 point share.
Three’s top rating programme of the night was ThreeNews which is now produced by Stuff. But it was watched by 26,300 people in the demo and 1News hammered it with more than six times the number of viewers. A 56 point share to Three’s nine. When Newshub ended in July its 6pm news was scoring around the 20 share mark, and years before that it was into the 30s.
The performance of On the Ladder would have deeply disappointed Three’s programmers. It is the first of a new model (the production is paid for by Kiwibank) that the network hopes will lead to it being profitable or, at least, losing less money. WBD is now putting little or no cash into local programming.
WBD quoted content director Matt Barthow, in a media release when the show was announced: “On the Ladder with Kiwibank is a great example of the kind of series that resonates with a broad spectrum of New Zealanders, as well as demonstrating WBD’s vision for collaborating with other organisations to create hugely relevant local content.”
The vision just became a little cloudy. 
The ratings would have also sent shockwaves through Kiwibank’s Wynard Quarter HQ in Auckland. Marketing Manager Simon Hofmann has been a great supporter of local media but wouldn’t have been expecting a result like this.
Hofmann told Newsroom the programme, hosted by podcaster Brodie Kane, was part of a broader strategy to help people keep the home ownership dream alive and he is focused on how the programme performs on digital platforms, ThreeNow and YouTube.
“We don’t expect overnight success, and it is always going to be tough to go up against the strong Sunday night schedule including the fantastic Kiwi sport that was being played out. We can already see the audience building in the numbers from on-demand viewing in ThreeNow, which is where we believe most of our audience will engage with the content.” 
“We are working closely with our partners at WBD, and the show is being promoted in several ways. The whole team is passionate about ensuring these compelling local stories about Kiwis doing things differently to achieve their goal of home ownership reach a wide local audience.”
Unless the ratings improve next week, expect to see On the ladder in a new slot – possibly straight after the news at 6.30pm.
The only real rating success for Three recently has been in sport – the Americas Cup. Over the past two months, racing coverage on Three reached 1.5 million viewers aged 5+, with an additional 1.5 million streams on Three Now. 
The Max deal cements the close relationship between WBD and Sky, raising the possibility of Three and Sky Open (formerly Prime) merging into one channel. With additional sport to replace low rating international reality shows it would be a stronger proposition as free-to-air TV comes under yet more pressure.