‘Jonah from Tonga’ is yet to premiere on broadcast television in Australia but it is already an outstanding success.
Over the past weekend, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) took the step of making available on iview all six episodes of Chris Lilley’s new series. During the 48 hours ‘Jonah from Tonga’ was available online it received 551,000 plays, which made it the most played program on iview over the weekend.
ABC Director of Television, Richard Finlayson said:
“ABC TV is committed to innovation in new platforms to connect audiences with our incredible Australian-made shows and I’m over the moon viewers have embraced our bold initiative to preview the show before its first traditional TV broadcast on Wednesday night…the Jonah preview binge re-writes the traditional TV rule book but is also creating huge anticipation for the broadcast premiere at 9pm this Wednesday night.”
The ABC initiative was replicated in the UK by BBC Three.
‘Jonah from Tonga’ screens Wednesday nights from May 7 at 9pm on ABC1, with each episode being made available again on iview after broadcast.
Reference
Australia binges on a puckload of Jonah!