James Warburton outlines Seven’s ambitous plan to snare Covid recovery ad revenue

Seven will this week launch an ambitious pitch to capitalise on its strong ratings performance so far this year.

Seven CEO James Warburton: ‘We want to give clients the opportunity to … get things moving post-lockdown.’ Picture: Nikki Short

Seven will this week launch an ambitious pitch to capitalise on its strong ratings performance so far this year, offering advertisers a suite of post-lockdown packages as it prepares to announce its on-air schedule for 2022.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Australian, Seven chief executive James Warburton said Seven, which is leading this year’s television ratings battle, was positioning itself to be at the forefront of the industry’s post-Covid resurgence by offering generous deals to advertisers who want to engage with the network.

The move follows a significant softening of advertising revenue across the media industry during lockdowns.

“In January, February, March … as we reach the end of lockdowns, and into recovery … there’s going to be, in our opinion, so much scrambling by clients to get premium airtime, to get the big slots in the big events,” Mr Warburton said.

The Seven boss said the initiative, labelled Kick Start, would coincide with the network’s big-ticket offerings for 2022 — namely, the end of the Ashes cricket series, the Big Bash, February’s Winter Olympics, and the launch of reality shows The Voice: Generations, and Dancing With The Stars.

“That line-up will give us a much better start to the year than we had in 2021, but more importantly, it gives clients so many options for premium spots,” Mr Warburton said.

“We want to give clients the opportunity to … get things moving post-lockdown.”

Nick Durrant, managing director of media agency Magna, said the evidence from Australia and overseas markets is that after extended lockdowns, advertising spend has bounced back, often to pre-pandemic levels.

“It was the case last time round in Australia, I don’t see why it won’t be the case this time. Especially if the tourism market comes back,” Mr Durrant said.

Mr Warburton said the network would be investing an additional $30-40 million into its programming content for 2022, and is hoping that the “bespoke packages” it is offering to advertisers will translate to a strong lift in revenue. The Seven boss said the network was on track to win this year’s ratings race, having finished behind Nine for the past two years.

“Any way you want to cut it … in the calendar year, or the survey period, whether you count the Olympics or not, we’re in the leadership position,” he said.

Mr Warburton said the network’s sports slate would provide strong momentum into 2022, with the Ashes and the Big Bash running through December and January, before the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

“Like Tokyo, we’ll be going the ‘full shebang’ with the Winter Olympics, with as many as three linear channels, and up to 16 digital channels,” he said.

Mr Warburton would not be drawn on whether Seven was actively engaged with the NRL for the sport’s next free-to-air broadcast deal, which would begin in 2023. But The Australian has previously reported Seven is looking at the possibility of bidding for the annual Origin series, and one NRL game per week.