MāoriNow fills a niche Ross doesn’t think is being catered to, one focused on showcasing high quality fluent Māori content.

“That narrows our audience down but we believe that in the digital world, niche is king. It’s like the anime apps, people go to those because they only want to watch anime.”

Fluency is one of the pair’s main focuses for the content that will be hosted on MāoriNow. It’s their way of fighting against the funding models that often focus on those learning the language, missing out on those who already have the reo, and want quality content to watch, they say. Ross explains it’s like a spectrum. Those on the left have little to no interest in the reo, and those on the right are fluent. Without high-quality fluent content, those on the right risk sliding left.

“We need all sorts of drama and high quality TV for the people on the right of the spectrum because we exhaust so much energy and focus on the left we actually become neglectful of the audience on the right,” Ross explains.

But that’s not to say MāoriNow won’t be available for people at any point on the spectrum. Subtitles will be offered to help anyone without a full grasp of the reo to enjoy the content, though Ross says good storytelling has never been about language anyway.

Read more: The Spinoff