I think it's because historically NZ had terrible access to media. Often you wouldn't even be able to buy movies or TV series even if you wanted to, and TV show

I think it's because historically NZ had terrible access to media. Often you wouldn't even be able to buy movies or TV series even if you wanted to, and TV shows would air 6 months to a year behind the USA, now it's usually within the same week. I remember sometimes even torrenting DVD rips for movies before they were even in the cinema.