Streaming video services like Netflix have been big winners from lockdowns delivering up captive audiences around the world. But local broadcasters and subscriber services are also offering new options for films and documentaries - for free.
Revenge of the Electric Car - one of the documentaries available on new streaming service iWonder. Photo: supplied
COVID-19 lockdown has played havoc with broadcasters regular schedules and shaken up audience habits.
For example, TV broadcasters enjoyed an increased appetite for news and those live briefings, but some parts of their output were virtually redundant.
Live sport didn't exist, and most sports news has been about sport not actually taking place. Likewise lots of entertainment arts and events coverage.
Worldwide, the global titan of VoD Netflix has made a mint from captive audiences..
But on demand platforms here have had a boost too - especially TVNZ’s one.
During lockdown, TVNZ says just over a million NZers steamed a total of 41 million shows and movies on TVNZ OnDemand.
But its beefed up library also created a problem for people trying to find what they want.
Netflix spent millions on recommendation algorithms that point users to what they might want based on what they’ve already watched, but no single media company can hope to match it.
This week TVNZ added eight new sub 'channels'. for specific interests or genres.
For food fans there’s Gusto TV - and foreign film fans can go straight to those.
AUDIO: 24 May 2020 WONDER 01 filmstream
And people who like the subtitled stuff might also like WALTER PRESENTS - created for UK's Channel 4, curated by tv tastemaker Walter Iuzzolino who personally introduces the international TV shows he’s picked:
AUDIO: 24 May 2020 WONDER 02 walter
These days there’s not much room any more for documentaries in prime time on our most watched TV channels.
Reality shows and movies and comedies occupy most of the airtime between dinner time and bedtime
There are now two new TVNZ on Demand sub-channels for global documentaries - both entirely free as well.
One called PULSE
The other is sourced from a paid subscription service service - called iWonder - offering its ful library for $6.95 a month.
And its not the only one.
Australia-based streaming service DocPlay beat them to it - it launched with a section of dozens New Zealand documentaries included - for the d=same monthly fee in laste 2017.
iWonder turns out to be a sub-brand of a Netflix competitor called iFlix based in Singapore which cut the deal for a slots on TVNZ on Demand before the COVID-crisis struck.
Back then I asked iWonder’s CEO James Bridges - how do they work out what to put on TVNZ on Demand for free and what do they hold back for subscribers.
And where do they get the 1,000+ documentaries n the library in the first place
AUDIO: 24 May 2019 JAMES BRIDGES interview
b/anno: James Bridges - CEO James Bridges of iWonder, an online subcription service offering documentaries on demand for a fee -- and a smaller selection for nothing on one of TVNZ on Demand’s new sub-channels created to make factual shows easier to find on the fast growing platform enjoying a post-lockdown boom.
Some of TVNZ OnDemand's new 'sub-channels' for documentaries. Photo: screenshot
iWonder is based in Singapore, and it’s backers claim it “curates the content to reflect current events”.
News stories are integrated into the home page paired with programmes exploring similar themes and topics.
For instance, an article about the rise to power of Chinese President Xi Jinping from Australia’s ABC links to China Rises = a TV documentary series from Canada’s PB the CBC.
As it happens, that series dates back to 2006. China and its leaders have moved on a bit since then but many of the documentaries are up to date and not available here on other services or channels.
16 of them are hosted on TVNZ on Demand after a special deal between the two.
But both platforms hoping to hook streaming subscribers with factual shows have one big common problem - coming from California.
More than a million households are now subscribing to Netflix which has a pretty big slate of international documentaries.
Even the biggest broadcasters in biggest TV markets are struggling to compete
In the UK, public bcatser the BBC and commercial rival ITV have team up to launch a service called BritBox in the US and Canada - offering almost all their original new programmes and stuff from the archives like Dr Who - also for 7 dollars a month (US dollars, that is).
The new service iWonder turns out to be a sub-brand of a netflix competitor called iFlix which has around 15 million subscribers in Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
iWonder’s CEO James Bridges reckons aboout 30,000 documentaries produced each year and most fly under the radar without Hollywood marketing budgets, thay can find an audience audiences that are increasingly migrating to streaming.”
But with nothing but documentaries can iWonder really cut through in the local market here?
