John McCready: television programming and a changing screen industry...

Interview – 2015

Programmer John McCready has had a significant impact on the television industry in New Zealand. After extended time in music and radio he joined TVNZ in 1989 as Manager of Presentation and Promotion, just as TV3 came on air. The following year McCready became TVNZ's Director of Programming, and revamped both TV1 and TV2 over a four year period. After time overseas he became Director of Programming and Marketing at Sky TV. Before retiring in 2007, McCready successfully launched The Living Channel and Food TV on Sky.

In this ScreenTalk interview, McCready talks about:

Getting into television by accident
Taking on fledgling TV3 as Director of Programming for TVNZ, and highlighting the differing branding of TVNZ's channels
How changing TVNZ into a competitive venture was his biggest challenge
Overseeing the beginnings of reality TV on New Zealand screens
Being proud of his part in commissioning Shortland Street, and fighting internal opposition to cover Australian Rugby League
Having to rethink his mindset when moving to Sky TV
Why he launched Sky News in New Zealand
The importance of reality television to the local TV production industry
Needing public service TV to create good drama shows, and the unfortunate cancellation of the Nothing Trivial series
What the future of TV is likely to be
Looking back on a varied and interesting career — and one of his biggest regrets

This video was first uploaded on 28 April 2015, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

In my time at Sky I think the thing I'm most proud of is actually getting Sky News up and running in New Zealand. Because it was running in Australia and the UK, but we were very heavily in this country CNN orientrated. And I thought that the Sky News from the UK and Australia had far more relevance to us in New Zealand, and managed to persuade everybody to bring that channel on board.
– John McCready on his influence on Sky News in New Zealand

John's Full Profile