Source: Corrie Perkin, The Australian

NEWSPAPERS have a greater chance of surviving the 21st century if they embrace bloggers, rely more heavily on readers to provide news coverage and abolish subscriber fees for use of online archive material.

Canadian blogger Cory Doctorow, the 36-year-old award-winning science fiction novelist and international champion of the digital age, said newspapers and their journalists should welcome the vast range of opinion now available on the internet, rather than fear it.

"As consumers of information, we have more tools than ever — not fewer — to discern the bias in the way information is being presented," he said yesterday. "And bias is not a product of the internet, it has been present in all media forever."

Doctorow — who is no relation to US writer EL Doctorow — said the biggest problem facing print media was "a complete failure to come to terms with what is happening to classified advertising on the internet, which is bizarre given that if there’s anyone who really should get classified advertising, it’s the daily print media who historically are masters of it".

He highlighted The New York Times as a paper that had failed to appreciate the financial advantages of linking bloggers and its own advertisers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Most watched progams:

1 Prime News Monday to Friday PRIME 72000

2 Kath & Kim PRIME 66000
3 RSPCA Animal Rescue PRIME 62000
4 Seven News Sunday PRIME 61000

5 Seven News Monday to Friday PRIME 59000
6 Australia’s Best Backyards PRIME 53000

7 McLeods Daughters NBN 53000

8 Border Security PRIME 52000

9 Medical Emergency PRIME 51000

10 Friday Night Football NBN 51000

Station ratings:

                Week 34
2007     Week 34
2006     Prog
2007     Prog
2006

NBN             29.9                     37.4                 30.4             33.4

PRIME         35.3                     27.7                 32.1             29.9

TEN             18.8                     19.4                 19.8             20.3

ABC             12.6                     11.2                 13.1             12.2

SBS             3.4                        4.3                  4.7                4.3

Most watched programs:

1 NBN Evening News Sunday NBN 102000

2 NBN Evening News Saturday NBN 99000

3 Thank God You’re Here 3 TEN 95000

4 Kath & Kim PRIME 95000

5 Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show NBN 87000

6 RSPCA Animal Rescue PRIME 83000

7 Medical Emergency PRIME 83000

8 A Current Affair NBN 82000

9 Spicks & Specks ABC 80000

10 My Name is Earl PRIME 79000

Station ratings:

                Week 34
2007     Week 34
2006     Prog
2007     Prog
2006

NBN             31.1                     37.3                 34.8             36.9

PRIME         26.4                     21.2                 25.0             22.4

TEN             21.0                     17.4                 18.0             19.3

ABC             15.6                     17.8                 16.4             15.8

SBS             6.0                         6.3                 5.9                5.6

Source: David Dale, SMH

With all the bad publicity, and the nation thrown into terror and panic about the threatened departure of Ray Martin, Channel Nine should be doing far worse in prime time audience share than the 26.5 per cent it averaged last week.

Even though Channel Ten has three shows in the top ten, and Nine has only one, Nine can boast that it is Still The Two!

Ten could only average 23.2 per cent of the audience last week, while Seven scored 28.8 per cent (ABC 16.3 and SBS 5.3). That’s because Australians are loyal to programs, not networks, and Nine can still rely on Getaway, CSI, Temptation, and RPA to pull in the venerable viewers.

But Nine is now getting tough competion for the grey vote from the ABC. With viewers over 55, the most watched show of last week was Midsomer Murders (while Kath and Kim was only their number 4).

What Australia watched, week ending August 25

1 KATH & KIM Seven 2,511,000
2 THANK GOD YOU’RE HERE Ten 2,050,000
3 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,734,000
4 HOUSE Ten 1,698,000
5 MEDICAL EMERGENCY Seven 1,697,000
6 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,657,000
7 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,656,000
8 AUSTRALIAN IDOL - FINAL 24 Ten 1,563,000
9 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,477,000
10 SEA PATROL Nine 1,466,000
11 GETAWAY Nine 1,436,000
12 MIDSOMER MURDERS ABC 1,428,000
13 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,421,000
14 AUSTRALIAN IDOL - TOP 100 Ten 1,415,000
15 MY NAME IS EARL Seven 1,388,000

Source: Lara Sinclair, The Australian

ADVERTISING industry growth could approach 10 per cent this year, putting the sector firmly back into boom times.

According to recent revised forecasts the sector will push well above $11 billion.

Yesterday Fusion Strategy revised its 2007 growth forecast up from 8.43 per cent to 9.23 per cent, thanks to stronger-than-expected first-half spending on television, radio, outdoor and cinema advertising.

Forecaster Steve Allen said that while his initial forecast was greeted with mirth last year, consistent retail sales growth had created a strong marketing and advertising climate in the six months to June that would slow only marginally over the full year.

Citibank is understood to have predicted growth of 9.1 per cent.

WPP’s media-buying alliance GroupM has also revised its numbers strongly upwards to 6.9 per cent for the full year, while Mitchell & Partners is tipping 7 per cent to 8 per cent growth until the end of 2008, spurred by the Beijing Olympics.

"Radio and TV, and maybe even magazines, are stronger than we originally forecast and online slightly weaker," Mr Allen said. "We also hear that newspapers might be trending a bit ahead of (our unchanged 1.48 per cent forecast)."

Mr Allen commended newspaper publishers for their $10 million advertising campaign aimed at persuading advertisers to use the medium, but predicted it would take a year to be seen in the sector’s revenue numbers.

The metropolitan radio industry grew by 8.2 per cent in the seven months to July, while audited free-to-air revenue numbers showed growth of 6.6 per cent to June, both higher than Fusion’s predictions.

Mr Allen tipped that online spending would grow by 50.35 per cent, down from his initial forecast of 54.4 per cent, and that the $212 million pay-TV sector would slow from 32 per cent growth last year to 24.35 per cent.

GroupM is tipping slower but buoyant, growth of 36 per cent and 24 per cent respectively in online and pay-TV.

Source: MediaSpy

The Nine Network has shelved Temptation and will replace it with a weeknight series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, to be hosted by former CEO Eddie McGuire.

The move now puts hosts Ed Phillips and Livinia Nixon’s futures at the network in question, with the program to be shelved for the remainder of the year, winding up in October.

Hoping to get a return on the $4 million dollar salary of the former boss of the network, Nine will air the program in the 7pm slot weeknights.

The Daily Telegraph understands that a forty episode season will be produced to see out the final eight weeks of the ratings season.

McGuire is due to hit the Melbourne studios to commence production in the coming week.

This comes following rumours that had McGuire hosting a new 6.30pm lifestyle and current affair show as a replacement for A Current Affair.

But sources say he is one of a number of hosts touted for the show which wouldn’t start until 2008 and was “very embryonic” in its development.

Nine sources said the decision to bring Millionaire back was necessary to “keep the rights to the show alive”.

The show was shelved in February last year when McGuire became the network’s chief executive.

The show was unsuccessfully run as a weeknight show two years ago in the 5.30pm, up against Seven’s Deal or No Deal.

Even though Temptation has rated well in its 7pm weekday timeslot, often beating Seven’s soapie Home and Away, it hasn’t been so successful in the summer period, with viewers tuning out in droves over the non-ratings period.

This leaves Phillips and Nixon jobless, with Nixon’s side-project Things To Do Before You Die being confirmed as a one-off series.

However, Temptation cast and crew have been told that the show will be back next year, and that the show has not been axed.

Most watched programs:
1 Prime News Monday to Friday PRIME 79000

2 RSPCA Animal Rescue PRIME 70000

3 Seven News Monday to Friday PRIME 68000

4 Medical Emergency PRIME 62000

5 All Saints PRIME 58000

6 Border Security PRIME 57000

7 McLeods Daughters NBN 56000

8 A Current Affair NBN 53000

9 Backyard Blitz NBN 52000

10 Seven News Saturday PRIME 50000

Station ratings:
                Week 33
2007     Week 33
2006     Prog
2007     Prog
2006

NBN             30.0                     33.4                 30.4             33.3

PRIME         32.4                     30.3                 32.0             29.9

TEN             19.8                     21.4                 19.8             20.3

ABC             14.4                     11.1                 13.1             12.2

SBS             3.3                        3.8                  4.8                4.3

Most watched programs:
1 NBN Evening News Sunday NBN 114000

2 Friday Night Football NBN 103000

3 Spicks & Specks ABC 99000

4 A Current Affair NBN 99000

5 NBN Evening News Monday to Friday NBN 93000

6 Sea Patrol NBN 90000

7 Thank God You’re Here 3 TEN 90000

8 Backyard Blitz NBN 89000

9 Midsomer Murders ABC 89000

10 Big Dog Goodnight NBN 88000

Station ratings:

                Week 33
2007     Week 33
2006     Prog
2007     Prog
2006
NBN             33.3                 35.8                     34.9             36.9
PRIME         24.2                 21.9                     24.9             22.4
TEN             18.8                 18.9                     17.9             19.4
ABC             17.5                 16.6                     16.4             15.8
SBS             6.3                     6.9                     5.9                5.6

The Sydney Morning Herald ran a very interesting article on Bruce Gordon of WIN Television on Saturday 18 August. Following are excerpts:

Bruce almighty

He’s smooth, savvy and supremely confident. Bruce Gordon tells Lisa Murray how he would rule the world of free-to-air television in Australia.

….there is one piece of memorabilia ….that has taken on particular significance in recent weeks. It is a letter dated February 28, 1958 - a job offer from Gordon’s mate Rupert Murdoch.

The offer of $2000 a year to run Murdoch’s newly acquired television station in Adelaide was turned down.

"I didn’t want to live in Adelaide, for a start, and I knew nothing about television at the time," Gordon says.

But the 78-year-old is living proof that if you stay in an industry long enough what goes around, comes around. WIN now owns the station - Channel Nine in Adelaide - after settling its $105 million purchase three weeks ago.

It also picked up Channel Nine in Perth this year.

And if PBL Media doesn’t resurrect the fortunes of the Nine Network, which owns Nine in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Newcastle, another piece of memorabilia on WIN’s boardroom wall might take on extra meaning: a 1991 newspaper article with the heading "WIN TV may buy Packer network".

Read the rest of this entry »

They not only topped the ratings on Sunday night — they brought back to television nearly a million people who had apparently given up watching this year.

The audience for the commercial debut of Kath and Kim was 2.5 million — more than they’ve ever managed before (their record on the ABC was 2.09 million) and more than any program in the ratings year so far.

Suddenly Kath and Kim are worth every cent of the $3 million Seven paid for the series and Sunday nights are looking very good again for the network. Seven had 6 of the top 10 programs last night while Nine had 2 and TEN and ABC one each.