The ratings race: Can the singers uphold the dancers’ honour?

Australian televiewers love a grand finale and last week they revelled in two of them — a Sunday freak show called Australia’s Got Talent and a Tuesday schmoozefest called Dancing With The Stars.
They were the reason Channel Seven won yet another week in the ratings
race, averaging 29.2 per cent of the prime time audience, and the
reason Seven will be worrying about retaining its lead this week.

Channel Nine won Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, and ended
up averaging 27.2 per cent for the week, a figure which is bound to
rise once Seven loses its grip on Tuesday nights. Dancing will be replaced by It Takes Two, which averaged only 1.5 million viewers last year.

Ten should have done better than 22.1 per cent, but Big Brother‘s brigade of blondes just isn’t firing this year, and on Wednesdays House is regularly blown down by Spicks and Specks and The Chaser’s War on Everything, which both attract more than 1.3 million viewers in the mainland capitals.

That’s why the ABC managed a healthy 15.6 share for the week. That left SBS with 5.6 per cent, largely due to Mythbusters (657,000) and an Inspector Rex repeat (433,000).

What Australia watched, week ending May 5, 2007

1 DANCING WITH THE STARS – GRAND FINAL Seven 2,199,000
2 60 MINUTES Nine 1,679,000
3 CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION Nine 1,643,000
4 AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT Seven 1,639,000
5 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Seven 1,633,000
6 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,586,000

Popularity: 1%

By JAMES JOYCE

PRIME Television’s Newcastle audience in the all-important 6pm timeslot has more than doubled since it axed local news, ratings figures show.

As fears grow that Nine Network owner PBL Media’s $250 million purchase of NBN could lead to a dilution of the Newcastle station’s local content, ratings data shows that rival Prime’s relay of Seven’s Sydney news and Today Tonight is luring viewers from NBN’s hour of locally produced news.

Shown since the station began 45 years ago, NBN News has been the cornerstone of its ratings dominance since Prime and Ten arrived in Newcastle in 1992.

Last year, NBN had 36.9 per cent share of prime time viewing in Newcastle, ahead of second-placed Prime’s 22.3 per cent share.

But the gap has narrowed in 2007, with NBN’s share so far this year down to 34.6 per cent and Prime’s up, at 26.9 per cent.

A Key component of Prime’s growth has been Seven News and Anna Coren’s Today Tonight.

In 2001, when Prime axed its Newcastle news bulletin after years, Prime Local News and Seven News averaged 28,000 and 26,000 viewers a night, respectively, well behind NBN News, with 115,000 viewers.

This year, NBN News is averaging 92,000 viewers against Prime’s Seven News and Today Tonight, with 50,000 and 68,000 viewers respectively.

Prime’s general manager of news and regulatory affairs, Alan Butorac, said there was "no question" regional viewers wanted local news.

"The people in Newcastle who want their local news dished up in a long form at 6pm are fairly happy getting it from NBN but our alternative is proving to be increasingly successful," he said.

Licence conditions stipulate that regional stations must accrue an average of 90 points a week of "local information programming".

Prime and Southern Cross Ten screen brief news and weather spots in Newcastle, with Prime’s broadcast from Canberra.

"we get across the line each week by a handful of points not by multiples," Mr Butorac said.

Australian Communications and Media Authority data confirms that NBN accrues the most local content points in northern NSW, far more than required.

"No obligation exists to accrue points over and above the required minimum," an authority spokesperson said.

Media analyst Steve Allen, of Fusion Media, said PGL Media would assess the ratings inroads Prime was making against NBN’s more expensive local news.

"They will definitely weigh it up, they will have to," Mr Allen said.

Sourced: ‘The Herald’ Saturday, May 5, 2007

Popularity: 1%

Rumours are circulating that PBL Media, the new owners of NBN, will be looking to rationalise costs quickly and that one of the main areas under threat is NBN’s one hour local News bulletin.

NBN’s nightly news will become a half hour bulletin at 6pm, a tipster claims today.

There will be no 5.30 bulletin. The schedule will be in sync with TCN all day.

The tipster also says National Nine News will get a revamp mid year, with a real set and new graphics, and NBN’s relaunch as Channel Nine. Call signs will be changed to allow “certain things” to take place.

NBN’s News has been a ratings winner for them since aggregation, providing the station with a nightly launching pad that Prime and SC TEN have rarely been able to threaten.

Nonetheless, the News bulletin is expensive to produce and would be an obvious target for he new owners who already have one of Australia’s largest News rooms

The possible rebranding of NBN to Channel Nine make would be a logical one for PBL who would then have continuous branding from Sydney to Brisbane.

What will be interesting though is the reaction of the local market who would lose yet another localised News service (after the closure of the Prime News room about 6 years ago). The Hunter market would then have no local television news and will have lost the original television brand the region has always known.

The big question would then be how much effect these changes would have on NBN’s ratings? NBN has continued to rate much higher than the Nine Network nationally, especially this year when Nine’s programming is very much under threat. These high ratings are generally on the back of the strong News audience.

Prime and Sc Ten might be rubbing their hands together at the latest developments.

Popularity: 5%

SP Telemedia will sell its media assets, including television station NBN Television, to PBL Media for $250 million.

"SP Telemedia Ltd wishes to advise that it has entered into an agreement with PBL Media Pty Limited to purchase the broadcasting and production operations (trading as One80 Digital Post)," the company said today.

SP Telemedia said last month it had received a non-binding proposal from PBL Media, Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd’s new media group.

NBN Television is an independent affiliate of the Nine Network and its market share stretches across New South Wales and Queensland and is the fourth largest market in Australia behind Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

The company said the total consideration for the assets was $250 million.

The SP Telemedia board said it had carefully considered all proposals received from interested parties, concluding that the offer from PBL Media was superior.

"(The offer) provided the best outcome for Soul stakeholders, both in terms of value and deliverability," SP Telemedia said.

The company’s directors have given their unanimous support to the offer, and major shareholder, Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Ltd has also indicated its support for the deal.

SP Telemedia said it plans to focus on its high growth telecommunications, multimedia and media infrastructure businesses following the sale.

It said it would update the market shortly on whether shareholder approval of the deal was necessary.

Source: SMH/AAP

Popularity: 1%

James Packer’s PBL Media and Bruce Gordon’s WIN Corp are now locked in a battle for Channel Nine affiliates in three cities: Adelaide, Perth and Newcastle.

SP Telemedia – owner of the high-rating NBN Network, the Nine affiliate that covers Newcastle, the Gold Coast, Moree and Narrabri – was accepting final bids for its media assets yesterday and could announce its decision as early as this morning. PBL Media is tipped to emerge as the winning bidder.

Meanwhile, the Herald understands that WIN and PBL Media are also in talks to buy Channel Nine in Adelaide from Southern Cross Broadcasting, with an announcement likely in the next few weeks.

And PBL Media is still mulling whether to make another bid for Nine in Perth after its offer was trumped by a $163 million bid from WIN a few weeks ago.

SP Telemedia said in a statement that final binding offers were due by 5pm yesterday and chairman Rob Milner told the Herald the board would meet this morning to make its final decision.

Mr Milner said the company would seek approval from the regulators so that it didn’t have to put the deal to a vote.

He wouldn’t comment on whether there were bidders other than WIN and PBL Media.

Popularity: 1%