Seven opens fire in ratings war
THE chief executive of Seven West Media has accused a rival of hubris as he fires the opening salvo in the closest ratings war for years.
THE chief executive of Seven West Media has accused a rival of hubris as he fires the opening salvo in the closest ratings war for years.
Seven boss Tim Worner went on the offensive after the network’s cooking reality series My Kitchen Rules began by topping the ratings in a head-to-head tussle with Nine’s The Block: Triple Threat and Ten’s new series I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!.
“We have not ever or do not ever go the early crow but My Kitchen Rules is bigger than those other two shows put together,” Mr Worner told The Australian.
Mr Worner’s comment is a barely veiled shot at Ten, which mounted a publicity blitzkrieg to draw attention to its biggest launch of a new reality series since 2009.
On Sunday evening, Ten’s most expensive programming bet of the year I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! began with 1.119 million viewers.
But Seven turned the tables the next day, with My Kitchen Rule’s sixth season pulling in 1.596 million viewers, only 5 per cent down on last year’s launch of 1.67 million viewers. It was an exceptional result against stronger competition.
“We never talk about the opposition but that jungle show looks a bit narrow to us, and a lot of their schedule rides with it,” Mr Worner said. “No cause to rush them with the cheque book just yet.”
All three reality formats lined up at 7.30pm on Monday. Nine’s The Block came off worst with 802,000 capital city viewers. The network’s key franchise is down 24 per cent on the first week of last year’s The Block: Fans v Faves.
Nine executives said the long-running series typically grew audience numbers gradually, with audience figures peaking in the closing stages.
Ten will be satisfied with I’m A Celebrity’s average audience of 755,000 viewers, which is up on its 2014 average in the timeslot despite being down on the premiere episode’s 1.1 million viewers.
Ten Network CEO Hamish McLennan said he was pleased with a significant ratings improvement in the 25-54-year-old demographic, whose consumers attract the vast majority of advertising dollars.
“We’re up massively year-on-year on all major demographics and in 25-54-year olds,” he told The Australian.
“We’ve just added another brick in the wall. We’re very confident with how I’m a Celebrity will track.”
That the bosses of the main commercial networks are already trading blows indicates free-to-air TV is still in rude health, despite armchair pundits predicting its death. “There is as usual at this time of year all this rubbish about the death of television,” Mr Worner said. “And it is plain wrong and grossly undervalues the power of quality Australian content on free-to-air television.”
Viewing habits have evolved among younger viewers, but people continue to watch an astonishing amount of TV the old-fashioned way, as much as 4½ hours a day on average.
“Those audience numbers off the back of our Australian Open tennis coverage also show that free-to-air television still works,” Mr Worner said. “And in fact nothing works anything like it.”
US streaming giant Netflix will make its official debut in the local market next month amid hype about digital technology disrupting and displacing traditional media business models.
Yet FTA TV remains an effective way for advertisers to reach consumers at scale, with only newspapers also able to offer big brands mass audiences.
The rise of online streaming services is one of the factors behind a recent de-rating of the Seven, Nine and Ten networks. A flat advertising market has also depressed investor confidence in FTA TV.
In the last six months, investors have wiped $670m and $333m off the market value of the Seven and Nine networks. During the same period, Ten’s market capitalisation fell by $198m.
But investors need only tune in to the rising fortunes of Britain’s commercial broadcasters to see that advertising markets can turn quickly.
Investor concerns about structural challenges from streaming services appear to be overstated. Seven and Nine are now involved in joint streaming ventures for which they have locked up exclusive content, while Netflix’s audience growth is expected to be slow.
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