Ten beats jungle drum of ratings

The lucrative battle for television viewers this year is gearing up to be a cracker.

Angie Kent is on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

The lucrative battle for television viewers this year is gearing up to be a cracker.

With Australian small screens flooded with cricket and tennis coverage over the summer ahead of the start of a new TV ratings year, Network Ten last night launched its reality show I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! two weeks earlier than in previous years.

The show features a dozen B-grade celebrities, including Gogglebox’s Angie Kent and Yvie Jones, competing for food in the African jungle.

CBS-owned Ten says it brought forward the launch of the show to give viewers an alternative to the avalanche of sport on rival commercial networks Seven and Nine and pay-television group Foxtel. But Ten has known about the huge sporting line-up for months. Advertising executives believe Ten may be struggling to attract viewers after losing the rights to the Big Bash League to Seven and Foxtel last year.

Lucie Jansen, head of investment at media agency Blue 449, says Ten has had a “slow start to the year in terms of audiences”, adding that it’s not a huge surprise to the industry or the network, given the success of the cricket on Seven.

“With the cricket running into late February and Nine in such a strong position with the tennis and Married at First Sight, Ten is likely to struggle to compete for audience share,” she said. But Ms Jansen believes Ten is prepared for this, and its focus is on the rest of 2019 as well as a younger audience in comparison to main rivals Nine and Seven.

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Pete Bosilkovski, joint chief executive of advertising agency VMLY&R, said Ten’s decision to bring forward I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! could “either be an attempt to lure audiences early or make up audience numbers due to Ten not having any sport this summer”.

Either way, Mr Bosilkovski believes it is a first by a commercial broadcaster in Australia.

Ten chief content officer Beverley McGarvey says the company knows that “Aussies love their sport but there is a lot more to TV this summer”.

“We are focusing on first-run premium shows and providing audiences with fun, escapist family entertainment.

“We’ve seen many of our entertainment franchises perform well against big sporting events, so we know there is always appetite for a premium entertainment alternative,” Ms McGarvey said.

The average audience for the three MasterChef episodes that aired on Ten against the three State of Origin matches was 825,000 viewers last year. On Nine, the three Origin matches averaged about 1.7 million viewers.

Ten’s 2019 program line-up includes 13 new Australian shows, including Trial by Kyle, starring FM shock-jock Kyle Sandilands. Other shows include Bring Back Saturday Night, Celebrity Name Game, My Life is Murder and The Secrets She Keeps.

Seven has already claimed victory with its inaugural coverage of the Test cricket series between Australia and India, despite the local side losing 2-1.

More than half of all Australians, about 14.1 million people, tuned in to the Test series in recent weeks. This included more than 4 million people on Boxing Day, the first day of the third Test in Melbourne.

Seven head of network programming Angus Ross is confident the network will continue to dominate the ratings after finishing 2018 in No 1 spot for the 12th consecutive year.

“Building off this great result in 2018, we’ve come into summer with our first summer of cricket, Australia’s No 1 summer sport, which has delivered outstanding ratings for us across both Test matches and the Big Bash League,” Mr Ross said.

“Our dominant summer ratings provide an incredible launch platform for our Q1 2019 shows. Exciting new shows such as Undercurrent, Operation Live and Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, along with our returning staples such as My Kitchen Rules, The Good Doctor and Home and Away, will provide viewers with the very best entertainment to kick off 2019.

“We’ve then got plenty more new and established programming to come across the year underpinned by AFL, 7 News and our dominant suite of multichannels. We’re excited about delivering another year of leadership in 2019.”

Nine, which was the home of cricket for decades, kicked off its summer coverage with hours of tennis, firstly the Hopman Cup in Perth, and then the Brisbane and Sydney international tournaments. It will wrap up its new tennis coverage with the Australian Open, which starts today and runs until January 27.

A day later, Nine will launch the sixth season of hugely popular dating reality show Married At First Sight.

Nine chief sales officer Michael Stephenson is confident about its show line-up, singling out Married At First Sight, plus The Voice, Ninja Warrior and The Block.

“Married surpasses expectations every year and has done for a number of years now. Of course, this year it has the great benefit of the promotional platform that is the Australian Open,” he said.

Mr Stephenson also expects Nine’s drama shows, Bad Mothers and SeaChange, as well as Hamish & Andy and Travel Guides to do well this year.

“I’m incredibly confident that we’ll continue to grow the demographics that we focus on, which is 16-39 and 25-54 and grocery buyers and children.”

But competition will be intense, given the vast amount of money set to be spent by the industry.

“Seven, Nine, Ten and Foxtel have all spent or will spend a record amount of money on producing local Australian content, and that is for Australian audiences.”

The popularity of cricket has also benefited Foxtel, which is majority-owned by News Corp, the publisher of The Australian.

Pete Campbell, head of Fox Sports at Foxtel, said the company was “extremely pleased with the audience for our first Test series”.

“This new content, plus our sophisticated integration solutions, have meant we can continue to deliver our partners exciting opportunities and deeper, richer partnerships.”

Regardless of the shows on air this year, Mr Bosilkovski believes commercial broadcasters will fight an uphill battle to increase viewer numbers, particularly given the popularity of streaming services.

“They will struggle to attract strong audiences (specifically younger audiences) with the likes of Netflix producing hits like the Bird Box attracting more than 45 million viewers.

“The commercial broadcasters will be very reliant on sport and … shows like MKR and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!”

The big unknown is Ten, according to Mr Bosilkovski.

“Aside from a new logo, what will CBS bring to the table to change the rules of the game and give the top two a run for their money?

“Clearly, their investment isn’t in sport, which I believe they will always struggle with — not having sport as part of their arsenal, however, they may just surprise everyone.

“Netflix doesn’t have sport and it has managed to dramatically change the game with its content. Can CBS do the same is the question.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom, with the upcoming federal election set to boost ad spending on TV.

“From an advertiser’s perspective, it will be a massive year for commercial TV broadcasters. It’s an election year and there will be significant spending,” Mr Bosilkovski said.

The 2019 TV ratings year kicks off on February 10.