Seven well-placed to take ratings crown from Nine: James Warburton

Seven’s long-running push to grab a bigger slice of younger audiences appears to be finally paying off.

Seven West Media CEO James Warburton: ‘I liken it to a footy team that was down in the first quarter and has come back to the point where we’re well and truly winning.’ Picture: Nikki Short

Seven’s long-running push to grab a bigger slice of younger audiences appears to be finally paying off ahead of next month’s Olympics, with the network winning the ratings race for the past six weeks.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Seven West Media chief executive James Warburton said the company was well-placed in 2021 to prise the annual ratings crown from Nine for the first time since 2018.

Despite starting the year with two major on-air disappointments – Ultimate Tag was a ratings disaster and Holey Moley fell away badly after a strong launch – Mr Warburton said Seven’s slate of second quarter shows, most notably Big Brother, had clawed back lost ground and had put the network in a strong position.

“I liken it to a footy team that was down in the first quarter and has come back to the point where we’re well and truly winning,” Mr Warburton said.

Seven edged out Nine in the TV ratings over the past six weeks, after Nine won the first nine ratings weeks of 2021.

Given the accepted industry wisdom that the July Olympics will be a ratings powerhouse, Mr Warburton said the network would leverage the popularity of the Games to provide its two biggest offerings of the second half of the year – The Voice, and SAS Australia – with a powerful launching pad. He refused to say whether Seven would bid for the broadcast rights to the next summer Olympics, to be held in Paris in 2024, but Seven has the rights to cover the next Winter Olympics, in Beijing next February.

Mr Warburton told The Australian one of Seven’s key aims was to continue to dominate the 25-54 demographic, the most lucrative from an advertising ­perspective.

“This week we’ve grown our core demographics (25-54s) by 15-20 per cent … there’s a big swing (towards Seven) in the market at the moment,” he said.

Last week, Mr Warburton issued a company-wide email, telling staff while the business’s heavy debt pile had already been whittled down by $195 million so far this year, and is likely to sit between $270 million and $280 million by the end of the next financial year, there was still a “hard road” ahead.

“The continued push to reset the cost base by $200 million and to keep the cost-out permanent has been extremely important in ensuring we have a sustainable business over the long term,” Mr Warburton wrote in the email.

“We continue to be extremely focused on where we are spending our money and what purpose it serves. It’s a hard road to avoid putting costs back in, or seeking more resources, and I urge you to keep thinking about focusing on the things which truly create value and to stop doing things from the past that don’t.”