Newcastle Market - All Stations Top 10

Program                                                   

1  Friday Night Football Bulldogs v Tigers - NBN - 112000
2 NBN Evening News Saturday - NBN - 100000

3 NBN Evening News Sunday - NBN - 99000

4 The Biggest Loser Finale - TEN - 96000
5 Sunday Night Football Knights v Broncos - NBN -  96000

6 NBN Evening News Monday to Friday - NBN - 96000
7 The Chasers War on Everything - ABC - 95000
8 McLeods Daughters - NBN - 93000

9 A Current Affair - NBN - 93000

10 Spicks & Specks - ABC - 92000

It should have been The One Week Of The Year for Channel Ten. The combination of a Biggest Loser finale and a Big Brother launch was supposed to give Ten the biggest audience share of all the networks. But in the end, it couldn’t even come second.

Channel Seven emerged the winner, just as it has done every other week of the ratings year, with 27.4 per cent of the prime time audience. With no special programming, Nine managed 26.6 per cent, while Ten ended up with 23.7 per cent, the ABC got 16.4 and SBS got 5.8.

What went wrong? The ABC’s Wednesday lineup of Spicks and Specks and The Chaser’s War On Everything beat Ten’s House, and Big Brother is performing well below expectations.

What Australia watched, week ending April 28

1 THE BIGGEST LOSER - FINALE Ten 2,023,000

2 DANCING WITH THE STARS 6 Seven 1,899,000

3 60 MINUTES Nine 1,617,000

4 BIG BROTHER - OPENING NIGHT Ten 1,548,000

5 NATIONAL NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,513,000

6 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,496,000

7 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,493,000

8 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,457,000

9 AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT Seven 1,408,000

10 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,399,000

11 SPICKS AND SPECKS-EV ABC 1,393,000

12 MCLEOD’S DAUGHTERS Nine 1,361,000

13 THE CHASER’S WAR ON EVERYTHING-EV ABC 1,355,000

14 BIG BROTHER - GAME ON Ten 1,341,000

15 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,335,000

16 1 VS 100 Nine 1,334,000

17 HOUSE Ten 1,314,000

18 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,308,000

19 POLICE FILES - UNLOCKED Seven 1,298,000

20 GREY’S ANATOMY Seven 1,293,000

What Australia watched, Sunday
29 May
1 60 MINUTES Nine 1,679,000
2 CSI Nine 1,641,000
3 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,614,000
4 AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT Seven 1,601,000
5 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,589,000
6 GREY’S ANATOMY Seven 1,442,000
7 CSI: MIAMI Nine 1,423,000
8 BIG BROTHER - FULL HOUSE Ten 1,402,000
9 20 TO 1 Nine 1,376,000
10 UGLY BETTY Seven 1,359,000
11 BIG BROTHER SUN Ten 1,166,000
12 ROBIN HOOD-EV ABC 1,046,000
16 ROVE Ten 876,000

What Australia Watched Saturday:

1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,335,000

2 NINE NEWS SAT Nine 1,220,000
3 AUSTRALIA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,179,000
4 PRIMEVAL Nine 1,044,000
5 THE GREAT OUTDOORS Seven 995,000

Source: SMH

What Australia watched, Friday

1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,338,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,310,000
3 NINE NEWS Nine 1,167,000
4 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,145,000
5 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,116,000
6 TEMPTATION Nine 1,063,000
7 BIG BROTHER - FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE Ten 1,062,000
8 ABC NEWS ABC 1,053,000
9 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,037,000
10 BIG BROTHER Ten 918,000
19 PUSSYCAT DOLLS PRESENT: THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT DOLL Ten 694,000
20 NINE’S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 691,000
21 SEVEN’S AFL: RND 5: PORT ADELAIDE V ST. KILDA Seven 670,000
25 NINE’S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 444,000

A strong rumour is circulating that NBN is about to be sold to PBL Media. An insider claims that SP Telemedia is shortly going to request a trading halt on its shares, pending a major announcement on the sale of NBN to PBL Media next week.

It is claimed that an announcement is due to the ASX Tuesday afternoon.

Furthermore the insider claims that the NBN brand will remain in place until 5.59pm on June 3. NBN News will fall into line with the network. 6pm Nine News, 6.30pm ACA.

Late this afternoon a source close to the network said a sale has yet to take place and an announcement will not be made on Tuesday.

Either way, it seems there is about to be some major announcements regarding the future of NBN Television.

Survey 1 Released 20 April 2007

                                     KOFM   NXFM   2HD    NEWFM   1233       JJJ
Overall Share (Mon-Sun)  19.3      19.5     14.2     8.4           11.6         8.7
Breakfast                       19.6       21.4     15.8     7.0           12.5         7.7
10-17 Years                   17.4      55.2       0.5      11.1          0.5         12.3
18-24 Years                    7.1       38.2       1.1      14.2          4.3         18.1
25-39 Years                   19.4      32.3      2.8      14.2           4.8          18.9
40-54 Years                   30.0      17.2      9.6       7.8            11.5         8.2
55+ Years                     14.6       2.7       30.0      0.4           19.3         0.3

Cumulative Audience      144       173        94        93            92          66
(thousands)

Average (thousands)       13         13        10          6              8             6               

WIN Corp executive chairman Andrew Gordon tells The AFR today the company would walk away from NBN rather than enter a bidding war with PBL Media. “Our current view is we might have lost this one. PBL is in there and if they make a large offer, there’s every chance we’ll admit defeat,” said Gordon.

Channel Ten grabbed 33.2 per cent of the prime time audience last night, proving once again how much Australians love series finals. Seven is still slightly ahead for the whole week so far, but the appeal of various forms of footy will determine whether Nine can end up winning its first week for the year.

What Australia watched, Thursday
1 THE BIGGEST LOSER - FINALE Ten 1,995,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,379,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,371,000
4 LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT RPT Ten 1,310,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,230,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,219,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,158,000
8 ABC NEWS ABC 1,125,000
9 BIG BROTHER Ten 1,092,000
10 TEMPTATION Nine 1,050,000
11 MISSING PERSONS UNIT Nine 947,000
12 LOST Seven 926,000
13 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 905,000
14 AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS Seven 901,000
15 GETAWAY Nine 896,000

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Spending by consumer packaged goods marketers on internet advertising is steadily growing, reports eMarketer.

The growing spending for online ads runs counter to the decreased funds they’re putting toward other media. The growth is part of an acknowledgment by food and drink marketers that people are going online for food tips and recipes. Most of that is going toward display and other branded ads and not search ads.

CPG online spending has risen from $470 million in 2006 to $600 million in 2007. That’s expected to rise to $1.132 billion in 2011. Food and beverage spending is roughly steady at about 45 percent of all CPG products. In 2006 online spending was just two percent of CPG budgets compared to the 62 percent that goes toward TV.

Caroline Overington
    of The Australian reports:
April 27, 2007

THE ABC is preparing to embrace a more commercial future under managing director Mark Scott, with the potential for ABC-owned, commercially funded websites being investigated.
New revenue-raising plans may also include charging people a fee to download popular programs from ABC websites.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian Magazine, to be published tomorrow, Mr Scott said the ABC had to seek new sources of revenue. More than 95 per cent of the ABC’s funds are currently provided by the taxpayer.

"The ABC is certainly pursuing new sources of revenue," he said. "We are going to have to make changes and make choices. We are going to have to be bold."

In his first magazine interview since being appointed last May, Mr Scott resisted entreaties from some staff to rule out website advertising.

"I won’t make any blanket statements about what we will rule in and what we will rule out," he said. "We are looking at ways of maximising revenue and, of course, of protecting our reputation."

The ABC already allows advertising in its range of magazines including Delicious and Gardening Australia.

He said the ABC would "look at the potential for wholly owned ABC websites, such as the Countdown site, which take advertising".

The ABC would also consider charging people to download programs from its sites, just as it charges people to buy copies of its programs on DVD.

"People already pay for the ABC’s archive," Mr Scott said. "If people decided they would rather download the program from the website and pay for that download, would that be appropriate? Perhaps."

Mr Scott said the ABC would benefit greatly from increased revenue, which could be put towards program-making.

There was no reason to believe the federal Government would cut funding if the broadcaster started raising more of its own revenue, he said.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan said in a statement last night that there were no plans to cut ABC funding, regardless of whether it raised more funds of itsown. "In terms of funding, the Government supports the ABC and current level of funding provided to them, regardless of any commercial opportunities that the ABC may or may not propose," Senator Coonan said.

She said the ABC charter would protect ABC-TV and radio from commercialisation.

The secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union’s ABC section, Graeme Thomson, said: "I’m surprised by the approach Mr Scott is taking. If you are genuinely trying to protect the ABC, you must prevent advertising on all the platforms.

"The minute you’ve got ads stuck around ABC sites, or sites that the public know are ABC-owned sites, you may as well then start putting them on the TV screens as well."

Friends of the ABC campaign manager Glenys Stradijot said Mr Scott’s statements were "very worrying".

"The fact is that news and programs made for the ABC end up on the website. He seems to believe that you can firewall between editorial and commercial, and you can’t, and the SBS is a living example of the pressures that are brought to bear once the commercial foot is in the door."

Broadcaster Quentin Dempster, who has served on the ABC board, said the ABC’s enabling act "should immediately be amended to extend the current prohibition on advertising from TV and radio to ABC Online".