Source: David Dale, Sydney Morning Herald

There’s been a bit of slippage in shows proclaimed by the networks only
recently as hits. After starting with 1.5 million viewers in the
mainland capitals, The Bionic Woman found herself below a million last week. She’ll be lucky to survive the US writers’ strike.

The new local comedy The Librarians
lost 200,000 viewers in its second week, dropping to a million, but the
ABC was consoled the next night by an unexpected 1.22 million viewers
for The Sounds of Aus, John Clarke’s survey of our linguistic eccentricities (or, as he would say, lungwustuc airxairntrucities).

The Melbourne Cup was also a big loser, with its lowest audience
this decade. Even the cricket — Australia vs Sri Lanka — could manage
only 794,000 on Saturday. Could it be that thousands of Australians are
avoiding all television at the moment for fear of being confronted with
another election announcement?

Channel Seven won the week with 28.6 per cent of the prime time
audience, while Nine got 26.3, Ten got 21.8, ABC got 18.2 and SBS got
5.1.

What Australia watched, week ending November 10

1 MELBOURNE CUP-THE RACE Seven 2,191,000
2 DANCING WITH THE STARS Seven 1,778,000
3 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,621,000
4 KATH & KIM (R) Seven 1,585,000
5 CITY HOMICIDE Seven 1,559,000
6 THE CHASER’S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC 1,486,000
7 NEW TRICKS ABC 1,425,000
8 HOUSE Ten 1,418,000
9 SURF PATROL Seven 1,418,000
10 CSI Nine 1,389,000 371,000
11 AUSTRALIAN IDOL Ten 1,370,000
12 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC 1,362,000
13 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,357,000
14 MISSING PERSONS UNIT Nine 1,311,000
15 THE FARMER WANTS A WIFE Nine 1,304,000

Popularity: 1%

Newcastle based agency Sticky Advertising has launched an innovative new e-letter covering the region’s
media and ratings results.

The Sticky Report is a spin-off of Media Hunter, providing in-depth analysis of local media, survey figures and news.

Whilst Media Hunter provides the latest news and commentary and basic ratings results, The Sticky Report takes it much further providing readers with much more detail than the public generally receives.

The Sticky Report has been designed as a service for clients of Sticky Advertising but is also available to selected subscribers.

To subscribe, email Sticky Advertising with your business and contact name. Please note that competitors of the agency and its clients may not be eligible for subscription and Sticky Advertising reserves the right to determine recipients.

Sticky Advertising is a boutique advertising agency based in Newcastle Australia. The agency has enjoyed vigorous growth in the last 3 years since a change of ownership and name, winning a host of new accounts and building a talented and dedicated team.

Sticky clients include Companion Credit Union, Metroll, Heritage Motors, Caltex Energy and Newcastle City Hall (Blue Star Catering).

Note: the author is also managing director of Sticky Advertising

Popularity: 4%

Source: The Australian

YES, she’s a woman, but for NBN Television chief executive Deborah Wright,
more significant than being the first woman to hold the job is the fact
that she’s also a local. Localism is a watchword for Wright, who has
spent 24 years at the Nine Network’s regional NSW
affiliate, including 14 as sales and marketing manager and the past two
as station manager. Her elevation to the top job followed Nine owner PBL Media’s outright acquisition of NBN in May for $250 million, outbidding Bruce Gordon’s WIN Corp.

“The recognition of a local who understood the business, and what
the business means to staff, viewers and the community, sent an
extremely powerful message to our marketplace,” Ms Wright said. Not
that she isn’t also proud to be only the second female chief executive
in Australian television, after former Seven boss Maureen Plavsic.
“I have been fortunate to find a company like NBN where I can genuinely
say gender hasn’t been an issue. Being a female is secondary.
Performance says it all.”

Without going into specifics, Ms Wright said her plan for NBN would
be to “refresh the business”. She wouldn’t be drawn on the “rigorous
but reasonable” revenue targets PBL has set for the business. She did
say fears the Nine takeover would result in job losses were unfounded.
She also promised there would be no cutbacks in its flagship local news
service, an hour-long weeknight and 30-minute weekend bulletin fed by
bureaus in Lismore, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Tamworth and
the Gold Coast. “Our hour news is our point of difference and the core
value of our news product has been its local factor,” she said.

Popularity: 1%

Source: The Australian

Months after it was first announced, the largest cross-media deal in 20 years was finally completed yesterday with Macquarie Media Group (MMG) taking control of the assets of what is now the former Southern Cross Broadcasting (SCB).

MMG representatives are believed to have been at the SCB
headquarters in South Melbourne yesterday.  A formal announcement
confirming the transaction is due to be made to the market before the
opening of trade this morning.

The deal, believed to be worth $1.35 billion, now has Southern Cross’ regional television assets controlled by MMG with the Southern Star production company and the capital city radio network, including 2UE, 3AW and 4BC, to be on sold to the Fairfax group for $520 million.

It is believed that most of the former Southern Cross board of directors, including chief executive Tony Bell and chairman John Dahlsen, have tendered their resignations.

Mr Bell, who built SCB from a value of $70 million fourteen years
ago to the $1.35 billion it sold for, will exit with a $10 million pay
out, including share options and eighteen months salary as compensation
for his role ending.

Fairfax is expected to take immediate control of the radio network, following approval from the Australian Communications and Media Authority

Popularity: 1%

Most watched programs:

1    All Saints    PRIME    54000
2    Border Security    PRIME    48000
3    60 Minutes    NBN    47000
4    Dancing With The Stars 7    PRIME    47000
5    Surf Patrol    PRIME    46000
6    Prime News Monday to Friday    PRIME    45000
7    Seven News Monday to Friday    PRIME    44000
8    M – Child in a Million    PRIME    42000
9    Kath & Kim    PRIME    41000
10    Spicks & Specks    ABC    41000

Station ratings:

                Week 44 2007    Week 44 2006    Prog 2007    Prog 2006
NBN                24.4                    34.9                30.5            33.8
PRIME            33.6                    27.4                31.7            29.6
TEN                20.6                    21.4                19.5            20.4
ABC                15.7                    12.3                13.6            12.1
SBS                5.7                        4.1                4.7              4.2

Popularity: 1%

NBN has won yet another week in Newcastle, holding off Prime by 1.8%. Nevertheless, NBN must be nervous about the consistently close results over last month. While Prime has improved its audiences this year, the main reason for the closer results appears to be the shedding of viewers at NBN, particularly in News and A Current Affair.

Most watched programs:

1    CSI: Crime Scene Investigation    NBN    97000
2    Spicks & Specks    ABC    93000
3    Dancing With The Stars 7    PRIME    86000
4    City Homicide    PRIME    79000
5    The Chasers War on Everything    ABC    79000
6    NBN Evening News Sunday    NBN    78000
7    NBN Evening News Monday to Friday    NBN    78000
8    New Tricks – Ev    ABC    76000
9    Missing Persons Unit    NBN    76000
10    The Gift    NBN    73000

Station ratings:

            Week 44 2007    Week 44 2006    Prog 2007    Prog 2006
NBN            29.8                    34.2                34.1            36.7
PRIME        28.0                    24.3                25.2            22.2
TEN            18.8                    19.8                18.5            19.3
ABC            17.0                    16.4                16.3            16.2
SBS            6.3                       5.3                 5.9               5.7

Popularity: 1%

Source: David Dale, Sydney Morning Herald

Political discussion was way down on the national agenda last week.
TV news programs drew smaller audiences than usual — unless you count
The Chaser….It was almost as if Australian televiewers were actively
avoiding all mention of the campaign.

What they wanted instead was a laugh. With 1.27 million, the ABC’s new comedy The Librarians held onto the audience built by Summer Heights High while Spicks and Specks pulled 1.33 million. Channel Seven’s repeat of a Kath and Kim episode originally shown on the ABC managed 1.52 million. And Shaun Micalleff’s new satire vehicle, Newstopia, was the number nine most watched show on SBS, with 257,000.

Seven averaged 28.9 per cent of the prime time audience, with Nine on 25.6, Ten on 22.1, ABC on 18.1 and SBS on 5.3.

What Australia watched, week ending Saturday November 3
1 DANCING WITH THE STARS Seven 1,837,000
2 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,677,000
3 CITY HOMICIDE Seven 1,583,000
4 KATH & KIM (Rpt) Seven 1,517,000
5 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,483,000
6 CSI Nine 1,451,000
7 THE CHASER’S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC 1,424,000
8 HOUSE Ten 1,390,000
9 AUSTRALIAN IDOL Ten 1,386,000
10 NEW TRICKS ABC 1,376,000
11 NATIONAL BINGO NIGHT Seven 1,370,000
12 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Seven 1,356,000
13 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC 1,327,000
14 60 MINUTES Nine 1,307,000
15 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,300,000

Popularity: 5%

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%