MEDIA WATCH: Why Paul Henry is the future of MediaWorks
Paul Henry’s Rebuilding Paradise to premiere April 20 on Three
Broadcaster Paul Henry is returning to New Zealand TV screens with a brand new show that starts next week.
Rebuilding Paradise with Paul Henry premieres Monday, April 20 at 9.30pm on Three and its 30-minute episodes will be broadcast four nights a week for four weeks.
The series is described by MediaWorks, which owns Newshub, as a positive yet hard-hitting show, aimed at finding the truth about where we are as a nation as we come out of lockdown and what possibilities lie ahead for us in the future.
The market has been broken because Facebook and Google have sucked all the advertising revenue out of NZ which means Paul Henry is the future of MediaWorks.
Long term solutions are either making TV One advertising free (which would force advertisers to move to TV3) or a special media tax on transnationals which is ring fenced and put back into NZ broadcasters.
Short term solutions for Mediaworks are cutting expensive programs like The Project and replacing them with cheaper studio based operations using broadcasters like Paul Henry who have the ability to generate outrage while keeping a large audience.
MediaWorks will need to scout for broadcasting talent who can do their thing inside a studio rather than expensive writers and costly post production. The short term future will be more like talk back radio with pictures that can generate ratings and gain advertising profit from greatly reduced costs.
That’s what we are seeing with Henry announcing a new week nighty show. It will either replace The Project – which costs a fortune – or become a new night show.
Expect lots more talking heads as TV for the foreseeable future.
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“The Martyn Bradbury show”- perhaps Martyn?????
Now THAT ,… would be awesome.
Imagine it ! – the debates and exposures and solutions would be so palpable you could cut it with a knife !
And the education of the public to critically think of things and access our collective positions in real time,- would be revolutionary.
As for Paul Henry ,…
I kind of think of the Hosking guy when I think of Henry,… and I have a song for both… its called ‘ Bugger Off’…
Here’s some Irish sentiment for the pair of them.
Bugger Off
https://youtu.be/jrXP5zoFxss?t=6
Like he says 🙂
Unlikely. The funding streams for blogs will come under considerable pressure. It is discrestionary expenditure, and in a downturn thats the first spending to go. The number of journalists losing their jobs means that the number of potential commentators as at an all time high, but the funding for said roles at an all time low.
If I were a journalist or blogger, I would be urgently retraining.
Henry is a revolting specimen and I would no more watch him than try and sell refrigerators to Inuit.
How about a combined show with Hoskings and Henry?
Be nice to boycott two revolting specimens in one go. Be like eliminating covid 19 and ebola in one blow.
My favourite SciFi was doomed the moment Paramount started losing audience numbers to the Internet and began leaning on there biggest earners, Indiana Jones, Aliens and of course Star Trek.
The rule of thumb in the producing world (and Iv hung around New Zealand’s top News producers enough to talk about this stuff) is revenue has to be a minimum 3x more than what is spent on producing content, just to break even.
In the JJ Abrams universe of Star Trek, so after Insurrection, the Star Trek franchise was grossing about 300-500 million per film yet they were spending over $200 million on production (that’s $100 million more than they should have been spending) because they had to compete with Netflix and the Marvel and DC franchise so everyone just assumes that the more flash and CG is in a film that that will translate to more revenue (boy where they wrong).
If Paramount had of focused on less flash, less CG and more on writing they would have budgeted a $100 million per film for Star Trek and made a tidy profit while keeping there fans together. Instead they went with a social justice narrative because fucking diversity is supposed to pump up sales revenue and well we know how well that worked out.
Uhura is a fucking 60kg communications officer. She sits on the bridge decoding stuff, getting that vital piece of information needed to complete the mission. She doesn’t take on 400kg fucking Klingons and murder them. Even in sci fi, a 60kg woman murdering Klingons who’ve spent there whole fucking lives murdering shit and then being taken out by a 60kg communications officer is fucken condescending, that split the fans. It was fun, it was flashy, we got to see a 60kg communications officer go on away missions while standing on top of flying shuttle craft fighting 400kg death machines and making them look like they’d never fought in there lives, feminist got to cheer, and it was also just bad writing and ultimately bankrupted the Star Trek franchise.
So yeah. Reduce costs to fit into new public funding models. Get rid of the flash, no one wants to pay for click bait when it is available free on the Internet. Focus on good writing. And tax Facebook, Google and YouTube so we can publicly fund New Zealand journalism with a kiwi acsent.
I always kinda liked Paul Henry. He’s outspoken, often amusing, self-depreciating, not woke, a solid interviewer, and (for me at least) no where near as grating Mike Hosking in his presentation. Also he despises The NZ Herald. I suspect he’s probably far more centrist than many people think, although he obviously has a lot of money and done very well for himself.
He only has a ‘lot of money’ because of the free market neo liberalism he knew how to manipulate,… like every other shitty little weasel that sniffed the wind when there was a regime change.
But now hes fucked liked everybody else, therefore if he try’s to wank on about his pet right wing free market neo liberal bullshit and how we all have to tighten our belts while masses of people become unemployed and small businesses go under?
He better start hiring armed guards every time he enters the studio.
And as I saw on the Standard the show won’t have the traditional ‘producer’ given the ‘star.’
They’ll have a proctologist.
“Expect lots more talking heads as TV for the foreseeable future.”
Sounds like coronavirus in human form infecting TV. Quarantining that.
I think I’ll pass.
Henry might appeal to a minority,but I doubt it’ll be sufficient to pay the bills.
Meantime, Netflix, et al, offer quality programmes & draw huge paying audiences.
Mediaworks dont seem to have made the connection between Quality & More Viewers vs Crap & Shrinking Audience.
[comment reposted from my Twitter]
If think splitting the fans is a majorly stupid idea. There’s no continuity between me waking up early on Saturday morning to watch cartons and Paul Henry. The moment Paul Henry shatters our childhoods it will all be over.
The name given to the Paul Henry Show is “Rebuilding Paradise”.
The true name should be Re-entrenching Neoliberal Capitalism in the NZ psyche, with all its inherent extremes of social inequality, and promotion of a mandate for permanent exploitation of the land and the people by foreign and corporate owners.
Post-Covid-19 Propaganda is about to be launched.
Inadvertently tuned in to Hoskings this morning on radio retard -God he’s awful, hates anything Jacinda does, and waffles on dumbly. Funny how Dunning-Kruger people get on the airwaves.Listened for a few minutes as one listens to the comedic people on Fox just for the ridiculousness.
When Henry returns must be more careful with the dials to avoid further infection.
When you’re in despair over Trump’s steady 40% plus ratings, contemplate the sad fact that Hosking’s radio spot is the most popular by a country mile.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
Just watched Rebuilding Paradise and quite frankly if that shit is the way forward for Mediaworks, they’re doomed.