Media Insider: Awards swipe – John Campbell v Mike Hosking; Jason Momoa exits Hollywood blockbuster in NZ; HBO Max boss on NZ entry; TVNZ’s World Cup plans

Hosking has been on leave overseas for the past fortnight and beamed into the NZ International Convention Centre auditorium via a pre-recorded video acceptance speech from Edinburgh, Scotland.

For those who have heard him speak at previous award ceremonies, it was typical Hosking: delivered drolly with plenty of ribbing of colleagues.

He told of being harassed by one of his bosses to produce a video “just in case I happen to have won”.

“So if you, I guess, are looking at this now, you’re thinking ‘bugger it, he’s won yet again’.”

He also took a potshot at the number of awards being presented for podcasts and at the ceremony itself.

“… I hope that tonight, so far, has been culturally appropriate because no one loves a culturally appropriate ceremony like I do,” said Hosking.

Mike Hosking beams in from Edinburgh in his pre-recorded radio awards speech.

The throwaway line was in keeping with the overall tone of his speech – and appeared to be received by many in that context – but at least one high-profile broadcaster in the audience was distinctly unimpressed, Media Insider understands.

RNZ Morning Report co-host John Campbell – he replaced Dann in April, outside of the awards period – took exception to the remark, sources say.

As guests streamed out of the auditorium, Campbell was overheard labelling Hosking’s “culturally appropriate” comment as a “disgrace”.

That was confirmed by another source, although RNZ did not respond to a direct question about the comment, and declined a Media Insider request to speak to Campbell.

Morning Report co-hosts John Campbell and Ingrid Hipkiss. Photo / RNZ

Instead, a spokeswoman deployed a masterclass in public relations diplomacy – both a polite defence and a subtle counter-punch.

“RNZ’s team who attended the New Zealand Radio & Podcast Awards valued the opportunity to celebrate colleagues,” she said.

“It was a great event, from the karakia and mihi that opened the evening to the banter and commentary throughout the night.

“The awards are a lively and noisy celebration, and it’s no surprise that views are freely shared and the audience reacts. It’s what you’d expect from any awards night for an industry known for talking.”

While this was no Will Smith-Chris Rock or Kanye West-Taylor Swift awards event controversy, it certainly adds another dash of spice to one of the biggest media storylines in New Zealand this year – Campbell’s arrival at the Morning Report microphone and a renewed battle at breakfast featuring two broadcasting heavyweights.

Jason Momoa exits Hollywood NZ project

A major, big-budget Hollywood film, which is due to be produced in New Zealand, has lost its blockbuster star, Jason Momoa.

According to The Cinemaholic website, production on Helldivers is scheduled to start in Auckland in August but producers are now scrambling to find a new lead.

The film, due for release in November 2027, is based on the hugely successful PlayStation game of the same title. In the game, a squad of elite soldiers must protect “Super Earth” from an alien attack.

Helldivers is being directed by Justin Lin, the director behind several of the Fast & Furious films and a range of other action and superhero movies.

Hollywood A-list star Jason Momoa. Photo / Getty

Lin told a CinemaCon audience in April that producers were about to head to New Zealand to start filming.

He outlined why Momoa was the perfect person for the movie: “Helldivers balances satire with humanity … and the only person who I think can pull this off is Jason Momoa.”

However, Momoa has departed the project, for reasons that are yet to be disclosed, according to Deadline, which first reported the news.

“Sony and PlayStation Productions have been steadily building out their gaming-to-screen empire but their latest big gamble has just been hit with a big setback,” reported The Collider.

US reports say the project is proceeding, with Sony searching for a new headline star.

“… this might be an opportunity for Sony to re-examine what a Helldivers movie should actually be, because the idea of it having one single star instead of a cavalcade of stars who replace each other with every hilariously gory and painful death almost misses the point,” reported The Collider’s Chris McPherson.

“Official plot details are under wraps just now, but it shouldn’t be too tough to figure out where it’ll go.”

Momoa has a tight connection with New Zealand – professionally and personally.

He has filmed A Minecraft Movie, Chief of War and The Wrecking Crew in New Zealand in recent years.

He has also come to love the All Blacks, and is mates with a number of high-profile New Zealanders, including Taika Waititi.

In April, it was announced that Momoa, Waititi and Cliff Curtis had acquired Auckland-based film studio Studio West in a bid to bring more jobs and Polynesian-led storytelling to the country.

The studio, set up in 1997, was previously owned and operated by Enki Enterprises’ Kay and Glenn Howe.

Reports in the US say Momoa has a lot on his plate, with filming currently taking place on A Minecraft Movie 2 and pre-production taking place on the next Fast & Furious movie. He will also be busy with the upcoming releases of Supergirl, Dune Part Three and Street Fighter.

‘We’re incredibly excited’: HBO Max launches in NZ

On the eve of the New Zealand launch of one of the world’s most popular streaming services, its boss tells Media Insider of its hopes for Kiwi audiences.

HBO Max bosses were keen to discuss a deal in which Sky TV customers could still access hit shows such as The White Lotus and The Pitt, as part of their Sky subscription package.

But they say Sky TV opted to completely sever ties with the streaming giant’s new platform.

HBO Max launches as the latest direct-to-consumer streaming service in New Zealand on Tuesday, offering Kiwi viewers yet another option for their leisure-time entertainment viewing.

For a few more days, HBO Max content – including historic shows such as The Sopranos, Game of Thrones and Succession and ongoing hits such as The White Lotus, The Pitt and House of the Dragon – will be available through Sky’s Neon service.

The Pitt moves from Sky’s Neon to Warner Bros Discovery’s HBO Max next week.

After that, they will be available only on HBO Max’s new platform, which will be competing head-on in the pay-TV space with the likes of Neon, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and Hayu – and with TVNZ+ and ThreeNow in the broader streaming battleground.

So just how successful will HBO Max be as a standalone product in a streaming market that’s awash with options?

HBO Max parent company Warner Bros Discovery says it has done extensive research.

“If you asked New Zealanders directly, ‘Do you need another streaming service in your life?’, the answer is probably ‘No, but we would like a better one’,” Warner Bros Discovery Apac managing director Michael Brooks told Media Insider.

“That’s what we’ve brought to the table and tried to do in Australia as well. We joke that we have this last mover advantage here, but we’ve certainly learned a lot by watching other platforms over the years – seeing the successes they’ve had, or the missteps, and learning from that.”

HBO enters the market with a special cut-price rate that’s available until July 16 – $10.99 per month for the first six months, or $109.99 for the first year. After that, pricing sits at $15.99 per month (standard), $20.99 per month (premium), or $159.99/$209.99 per year.

HBO is offering an ad-free experience at this stage, but don’t be surprised if it moves to an ad-tier model before too long.

A selection of HBO Max titles.

Those prices compare with $14.99 per month for Neon (with ads) or $23.99 per month/$239.99 per year with no ads.

The eventual $20.99 HBO Max premium price is not only cheaper than Neon’s equivalent tier but includes 4K (like all the global streamers) and Dolby Atmos.

Meanwhile, Netflix starts at $17.99 per month (it will add a cheaper ad-free option next year) and Disney+ offers a $9.99 monthly deal (with ads) or a standard plan starting at $18.99 per month and premium plans of up to $25.99 per month.

Amazon Prime is $10.99 per month with ads and $12.99 ad-free. Apple TV is $17.99 per month.

Brooks is fully aware of the pressure on people’s wallets.

“You come into a market like New Zealand where there’s plenty of competition, and you realise that consumers are getting far more savvy with how they spend their money,” he says.

“We’re also going through a cost-of-living crisis at the moment, so people are looking for value. They’re managing their subscriptions – how they manage their subscriptions is very much front of mind.

“It’s up to us as a service to make sure that we’re putting the best product out there.”

He said New Zealand, on average, had two to two-and-a-half subscriptions per household. “We need to be one of those subscriptions – that’s based on delivering a consistent premium slate, which is something that we really focus on.”

He said New Zealand and Australia were important markets for streaming companies, with a high average revenue per user (ARPU) number.

The third season of House of the Dragon starts six days after the New Zealand launch, and HBO Max is also talking up the new Harry Potter series due to start later in the year.

New seasons of The White Lotus and The Pitt are also on the cards next year.

“We’re incredibly excited,” says Brooks of next week’s entry into New Zealand.

“HBO has had a huge fan base in New Zealand for many years. New Zealand is a really important market for us.”

HBO Max’s Australian experience

HBO Max has been available as a standalone service in Australia since March last year, after years of its content being licensed through Foxtel’s streaming platform.

Despite Foxtel losing HBO Max content from its own menu, it and Warner Bros Discovery struck a commercial deal that means HBO Max, as a standalone and separate platform, is still available to Foxtel subscribers – for no extra charge.

Warner Bros Discovery Apac managing director Michael Brooks.

Brooks said he had been hoping for a similar deal in New Zealand.

“We indicated many months ago that we were always planning to go direct to consumer – that was a clear conversation that we had with Sky.

“In Australia, we had a similar situation with Foxtel, whereby we had a long-standing partnership. The content was licensed there for many years, and we managed to work with them to create a wholesale hard bundle where essentially their customers would be able to get uninterrupted access to HBO content.

“We were certainly happy to have the same conversation and create a similar deal with Sky, but they made the decision to go in a different direction.”

A Sky spokeswoman said yesterday: “Our decision not to pursue a co-exclusive arrangement for HBO Max content was grounded in data and our insights into what our customers watch and value.

“We’ve chosen to invest in a diverse range of content that we know our customers love, through a broad range of studio partnerships, including Paramount, BBC, Studiocanal and Sony to name a few.”

According to Sky TV’s latest annual report, Neon subscription numbers sat at 259,409 in 2025 – up slightly on its 2024 numbers but down on the 318,000 subscribers in 2023.

The Sky spokeswoman said the company would share updated details on Neon’s performance at its full-year results. “There are no changes to our pricing tiers.”

Media Insider was first tipped off last October that Sky and HBO were parting ways and that it was an unhappy divorce, especially on the Sky side.

Sky, for months, refused to confirm or comment on that scenario – there’s no doubt that losing the HBO content is a blow.

Brooks is still diplomatic. “We’ve got an excellent relationship with Sky, we always have had, that’s not going to change based on this, but they made their decision based on their own business needs, I guess.”

Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy in The House of the Dragon.

In Australia, HBO Max exceeded all expectations in its first year, achieving positive ebitda earnings. Brooks called that a “remarkable” achievement.

“We weren’t focused on at the start, I can tell you. Obviously, we want to be a profitable business – it’s not just about subscriber numbers; profitability is a huge focus for us as a global streaming business.

“But we looked at that ability to be in an ebitda positive place in year one and thought, OK, that’s a great goal for us to tackle.

“Now, I’m not saying that we’re going to achieve the same thing in New Zealand – there are a lot of metrics that come together and there’s a lot of unknowns when you go into this, but we certainly feel confident based off that.

“We’re significantly up on our original forecasts in Australia, and we’re hoping that we can replicate the same thing to some extent in New Zealand.”

Brooks won’t say what sort of subscriber numbers Warner Bros Discovery is expecting in the first year in New Zealand, but said having HBO Max as a standalone product was key to its success.

“… to see what happens when you actually take the product outside of a wall or an area that it’s been in for so long, that was the slightly unexpected surprise for us … just what happens when it becomes highly accessible at a really good price point.

“That was the explosion that we saw in Australia.”

Brooks is looking forward to seeing the data from having a direct HBO Max service.

That will also play a role in determining whether HBO Max moves into local productions at some stage (in addition to parent company Warner Bros Discovery’s blockbuster New Zealand-set films such as Minecraft and Lord of the Rings).

“You’ve got to remember our content has been with somebody else for a long time, we don’t necessarily see all the data of performance, so we need to see that for ourselves.”

While Warner Bros Discovery has not partnered up with Sky, HBO Max’s content will be available through Amazon Prime, which is increasingly becoming a platform hosting its own original content, as well as a shop window for its rivals’ shows and movies. Amazon, for example, also showcases Apple TV shows on its home screen.

Brooks will be in New Zealand next week for HBO Max’s launch and launch party – the event at the Viaduct Events Centre is just a few blocks away from Sky TV’s HQ.

I don’t expect there will be many Sky TV staff heading along.

TVNZ’s new business era kicks off

The opening match of the Football World Cup this morning – Mexico hosts South Africa from 7am – not only marks the start of the world’s biggest and most watched sporting tournament, but a new business era for TVNZ.

Its $44.95 Event Pass kicks into gear, heralding the first time that TVNZ has entered the pay-TV sports market.

England’s Harry Kane, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and New Zealand’s Tim Payne are all representing their nations at the Fifa World Cup. Photos / Photosport, Getty Images

While this morning’s match is one of 22 matches that TVNZ is screening free-to-air, the Event Pass gives subscribers access to those and the other 82 cup games across the next four weeks.

With a new digital platform, and a five-year digital-plus strategy, the state broadcaster is now a direct and aggressive competitor in the sports rights market, taking on Sky TV.

TVNZ is hoping to open a rich new vein of revenue with sports subscriptions.

TVNZ head of sports, events and partnerships Melodie Robinson spoke exclusively to Media Insider this week, outlining TVNZ’s hopes and expectations for the tournament, and beyond.

TVNZ head of sports, events and partnerships Melodie Robinson. Photo / Dean Purcell

TVNZ was bracing for a surge in Event Pass purchases in the build-up to today’s opening game – but just how many of them will TVNZ need to make this a profitable business project?

“I will get into trouble if I talk absolute numbers, but what I’d say is we’re looking on track to be successful,” Robinson told Media Insider.

“The thing about this is we have also had such big interest from commercial partners; the partnerships that we’ve put together for it are huge – bigger than we imagined, and the interest from the advertising and the agencies has been incredible.”

In other words, advertising revenue will complement the subscription income, although Robinson says the latter will still be bigger.

Let’s say 100,000 people sign up for a five-week Event Pass, that’s obviously almost $4.5 million into the TVNZ coffers. What we don’t know, of course, and what TVNZ won’t tell us, is how much it paid for the World Cup rights.

Nevertheless, Robinson – a former Black Fern and double Rugby World Cup winner – is not shy about the desire to take sports rights away from Sky TV.

“I think that they’re going hard, very hard for all the other rights. I don’t think they’ll be surprised by us again, let’s put it that way.”

TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

On LinkedIn last night, TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell also marked the significance of today’s move.

“Many people think TVNZ is funded by the taxpayer – TVNZ is not. TVNZ is owned by the Crown as a commercial business with public value, and tomorrow our business model changes.

“The importance of why we are doing this is because to be sustainable, TVNZ needs to evolve its commercial offering. It’s a big step change for our business, and I’m incredibly proud of the TVNZers who have worked so hard to get us to this point. This has been a true whole-of-TVNZ effort.”

Robinson has been front and centre of TVNZ’s new business strategy.

Only last week, Media Insider reported that Robinson – alongside O’Donnell and head of content and news Nadia Tolich – were making an aggressive move for more sports rights, with TVNZ formally registering a bid for NRL and Warriors rights from the end of next season.

Robinson indicated that TVNZ was keen on NRL rights, but said confidentiality agreements generally prevented her from speaking about specific deals.

“What I would say about NRL is it’s the best piece of sport content that you can buy in this country, for the main reason that there’s less production costs, and you have got ultra fandom with the Warriors, and with the growth potential of another New Zealand team.

“It’s no wonder your report was saying that there is international and [domestic] competition for the rights in New Zealand … that’s the creme de la creme.”

Robinson said TVNZ would love to have more sports rights, “for sure”.

As well as the Football World Cup, its new UFC Event Pass starts next week, with UFC 250 on the White House lawn on Monday afternoon (NZT).

Robinson also said persistent TVNZ+ bugs were now generally ironed out – she had reassuring words for those fearful of another technical blowout, like pay-TV newcomer Spark Sport experienced at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

“Back in the day we were the failover backup, and we still have all those same processes in place,” said Robinson.

If something goes wrong with the Event Pass, she says, TVNZ will switch World Cup games straight to free-to-air channels.

“It’ll be on Duke, and if there are concurrent games, ie, two games at once, then we’ll go Duke, and Duke+1. And if there are any issues with that, we’ll go to Duke and TV2.”

TVNZ is relying on international commentators to call the matches, but Robinson reveals that if there’s an “adverse” reaction to them, a well-known Kiwi commentator is ready to step in for All Whites games.

She wouldn’t say who.

“I’m just really excited. I can’t wait,” Robinson said.

PHD keeps its Spark

Chalk this one up as a win for the global ad agencies.

Spark has retained Omnicom-owned PHD as its media and advertising agency following a competitive pitch – it’s fairly rare that an incumbent retains an account when it goes out to market like this, so kudos to the PHD team.

“I can confirm Spark is progressing PHD through to a final stage of negotiations, following a competitive review,” said Spark’s Leela Ashford.

“PHD stood out on every measure and impressed us with the strategic thinking and creativity they brought to each brief. They pair that with real depth in technology and trading capability, and a strong, talented team we’re genuinely excited to continue partnering with.”

MediaWorks sale

A report out of The Australian this week speculated that a management buyout might be on the cards for MediaWorks, the operator of some of New Zealand’s biggest music radio stations, including More FM, The Breeze and The Rock.

The report, quoting unnamed sources, suggested a private equity deal involving management is on the cards.

It speculated on a $120 million-$150 million sale price.

Media Insider’s own sources were sceptical about a management buyout and MediaWorks chair Barclay Nettlefold did not return a message.

With expressions of interest in MediaWorks now closed, the report in The Australian comes as MediaWorks’ owners seek the best possible price.

At this stage, there don’t appear to be too many realistic buyers in the market – Sky TV is one; Australian sport broadcaster SEN might be another.

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.