ScreenScribe

The downside of SoHo screening Game of Thrones only hours after HBO is NZ fans are subject to the same interruptions as those in the US. Because the medieval fantasy is going “on hiatus” for one week next month, Sky will replace it with a documentary about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. SoHo bills [...]

Sky TV doesn’t release ratings figures for channels like SoHo but it confirms this week’s third-season Game of Thrones premiere posted a big jump in viewership. “There was an almost 20 per cent increase in average viewership for Monday night’s season premiere compared with the season two premiere last year,” entertainment programming boss Travis Dunbar [...]

Last night’s Game of Thrones season premiere and tomorrow night’s Walking Dead season finale (above) scored record ratings in the US. If you missed Game of Thrones’ return, SoHo will repeat episode one tomorrow at 6.30am, 11.30am and 4.45pm, and Sunday at 9.30pm. Sky also is offering a free catch-up screening for all domestic subscribers [...]

US critics are in an effusive frenzy over season three of Game of Thrones, which premieres here Monday (SoHo, 8.30) within three-and-a-half hours hours of its HBO debut. This is the medieval fantasy’s fastest turnaround yet on NZ TV — although Australia’s Foxtel will screen it even earlier. Foxtel’s Showtime will premiere the first of [...]

Two of the year’s most anticipated TV-on-Blu-ray series release this week: Africa and Game of Thrones’ second season. The former lands here a day after ending its broadcast run and the latter three weeks before SoHo launches the third season. “Game of Thrones continues to absolutely astonish on Blu-ray. This is pure reference quality material.” [...]

Just when you thought SoHo was losing its mojo, with also-rans like Banshee, Hunted and Durham County, Sky has announced its premium HD drama channel will air season three of Game of Thrones within three-and-a-half hours of its HBO broadcast. It will screen 8.30 Mondays from April 1, a month after season two’s release on [...]

Warner Bros will release The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Blu-ray six weeks earlier in the US than in NZ. The 2D and 3D editions of the theatrical cut are scheduled for March 19 in the US but won’t go on sale here until May 1. It’s unclear why there will be such a delay when the [...]

While Kiwis are getting to see The Dark Knight Rises on Blu-ray a week earlier than Americans and Britons, we’ll have to wait a couple of weeks longer than the US for season two of Game of Thrones. The Dark Knight Rises went on sale on Wednesday, just as the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, [...]

A year after the launch of SoHo, Travis Dunbar, Sky’s director of entertainment, reflects on the premium HD drama channel’s successes, strategies and significance: As SoHo marks its first anniversary, which shows have proved (i) most popular and (ii) least popular? Overall, drama has performed better than the lighter, more comedic series on SoHo. Perhaps predictably, HBO’s [...]

When will Sky TV pay the Emmy Awards the HD respect it does the Academy Awards? The irony of the satcaster dumping TV’s answer to the Oscars on its SD entertainment channel, Vibe, is many of the nominees that stand to win big are being showcased in HD on SoHo. Vibe largely is a re-run platform for [...]