Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

The ABC is going gangbusters at the moment, and not just because of youth-appeal shows such as Spicks and Specks and The Gruen Transfer.
Last week, for the first time in living memory, the ABC’s news beat
Channel Nine’s news, by averaging 1.21 million viwers to Nine’s 1.20m.
Its documentary series Wild China (1.26m) and The New Inventors (1.06m) made up for the surprisingly modest performance of the Jane Austen bonnet drama Northanger Abbey (931,000).

The other national broadcaster, SBS, is also doing well, thanks to Top Gear (826,000) and Food Safari (443,000).

Channel Seven won the week with 28.2 per cent of the prime time
audience, while Nine got 26.3, Ten 20.7, the ABC 18.8 and SBS 5.6. The
most watched shows were Seven news Sunday, with 1.88 million; 60
Minutes (9) 1.62m; and Australia’s Got Talent (7) 1.59m (Top 40 below).

The most watched programs on Pay TV included Australia’s Next Top Model (Fox8) with 311,000; the rugby league match between Storm and Cowboys (FoxSports2) with 269,000 and Selling Houses Australia (Lifestyle) with 204,000.

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Here are a few vox pop pieces we did at PubCamp 08 in Sydney

PubCamp – The Web 2.0 Media Day from Sticky Advertising on Vimeo.

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By Craig Wilson

At the Sydney PubCamp Web 2.0 Media Day much of the discussion and vigorous debate centred around the topic of traditional verses new media. The room largely divided into two camps, with the majority supporting new media. This was fairly predictable given the nature of the day and the web 2.0 focus of the event.

What surprised me was the strength of conviction and belief in one form of media over the other. There seemed to be very little middle-ground.

As a representative of an advertising agency I saw the debate from a very different perspective. We are heavy users of traditional media but very interested observers and emerging users of new media. Our view is definitely that there is room for both and will continue to be for quite some time.

The passionate new media fans clearly believe that new media will swamp, overtake and render extinct the traditional media channels such as television, radio and press. Clearly there is evidence that Gen Y and younger have adopted significantly different media consumption habits than their predecessors. TV viewing in declining, radio and press have experienced a similar downturn in overall consumption.

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Yesterday Gordon Whitehead and I trekked to Sydney to attend PubCamp 08 – The Web 2.0 Media Day. We took video and mic in hand to capture some of the presentations and random comments at what was a fascinating event.

So far our workload has prevented us from getting to the video but we will be posting soon…stayed tuned.

Meanwhile, in the spirit of Web 2.0 style collaboration and information sharing, please take the time to read the thoughts of one attendee, aka Stubborn Mule…..

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Source: Amanda Meade, The Australian

NATIONAL Nine News has made a historic shift into the digital age, becoming the first Australian news service to make its 6pm bulletin available live online.

The Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane bulletins are being streamed live from tonight and can be watched from anywhere in the country or internationally on Ninemsn.

Ninemsn editor-in-chief Max Uechtritz said today video was a key component of a rapidly converging industry and that the integration of the Ninemsn website and the Nine newsrooms was inevitable.

He said there was no danger of eroding the television ratings, measured by OzTAM, as all the international research showed that online streaming enhanced rather than diminished the television ratings.

“There’s two different audiences you want to catch so it’s adding not subtracting,” Uechtritz told The Australian. "

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Source: Karen Dearne, The Australian

THE world will run out of internet addresses by 2010, with only 700 million separate addresses remaining for allocation out of the 4.3 billion available on the present network.

Every device that connects to the internet needs a separate address, and 30 years ago web designers assumed four billion would be ample.

Now all internet users must move to an upgraded platform – called Internet Protocol version 6 – to access the 340trillion-trillion-trillion new addresses needed to connect not only billions of new users but also the trillions of sensor devices that will require networking as technology takes greater control of people’s lives.

"IPv6 provides more addresses in cyberspace than there are grains of sands on the world’s beaches," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society.

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Source: Amanda Meade, The Australian

THE ABC beat Ten in the ratings nationally, in Sydney and in Melbourne last night (Sunday night), as reality TV original Big Brother failed to excite viewers.

While the ABC had two shows in the top 10 which both had more than 1.2 million viewers, ABC News and Wild China, Ten had none. More people watched the ABC’s game show The Einsten Factor at 6.30pm than tuned into an early Big Brother show.

The Nine network won Sunday night with a healthy 30 per cent share, but Seven had a lot to celebrate too as its new show Battle of the Choirs peaked at 1.49 million viewers and averaged 1.44 million over the hour. It is up against the eternallty popular 60 Minutes on Nine, which won the hour.

It is another ratings triumph for Sunrise host Daviod Koch, who has also done well in prime time with Where are they now?

The Big Brother Eviction Show featured the return of Kyle Sandilands after a two-week absence but the program only managed to pull just one million viewers.

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Newcastle TV ratings week 24, 2008

The NSW State of Origin team was thumped last week by Queensland in one of the most lopsided games ever. Lopsided is also a great description for the Newcastle TV ratings that week. Viewers tuned in en masse to watch the footy and help NBN to a massive win for the week. Overall Prime was a distant second, 15 points behind while Southern Cross TEN sat around the same numbers as usual.

Most watched programs:
1    State of Origin Game 2 Match    NBN    178000
2    State of Origin Game 2 Pre Match    NBN    152000
3    State of Origin Game 2 Post Match    NBN    150000
4    NBN Evening News Sunday    NBN    120000
5    NBN Evening News Monday to Friday    NBN    101000
6    Sea Patrol II – The Coup    NBN    99000
7    A Current Affair    NBN    97000
8    NBN Evening News Saturday    NBN    97000
9    Sunday Football    NBN    87000
10    Australia’s Got Talent    PRIME    85000

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Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

A record audience of 2.08 million for Wednesday’s State of Origin match
was only one of the reasons why Channel Nine won the week and looks
like winning the year. Another reason is that, apart from its news,
Channel Seven seems to have run out of puff. With Desperate Housewives and Australia’s Got Talent finishing
their seasons soon, Seven’s schedule is seriously short of hits. The
Olympics will provide a boost, but the advertising industry does not
include such extraordinary events in its annual assessment of a
station’s success.

Ten is in far worse shape. Not even the disappearance of co-host Kyle Sandilands could bring the viewers back to Big Brother, which has settled into a rut below 900,000 a night. Nine doesn’t even have to try.

The most watched shows last week included Better Homes and Gardens (7) 1.61m; Seven news (7) 1.60m; NCIS (10) 1.57m; Australia’s Got Talent (7) 1.56m; Sea Patrol (9) 1.48m; and Domestic Blitz (9) 1.36m (see below for the full Top 40).

The ABC managed 18.3 per cent of the prime time audience, thanks to Spicks and Specks (1.2 million) and The Gruen Transfer (1.1m), while SBS got a healthy 6 per cent, thanks to Top Gear (897,000). Channel Nine got 28.5 per cent, to Seven’s 26.7 and Ten’s 20.5.

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Is the low rating Newcastle radio station back on track or have they had a "Claytons relaunch" – the relaunch you have when you are not really having a relaunch?

Last week NEWFM began their latest crusade to turn around their ratings slide with what was labelled a "soft relaunch by management. It was a case of what was old is NEW again at the Bill Caralis-owned Sandgate station. Ex-announcers Steve St John and Don Mayo returned to the fold to spearhead the campaign as the "new" breakfast team as St John and Don. The remainder of the line-up is basically unchanged.

St John has also taken on the Program Directors role, subtly re-jigging the station playlist with a slightly more rock sound, cherry-picking hits from the 70′s, 80′s 90′s & 00′s. It sounds remarkably similar to the KOFM playlist and one can only assume they intend to try and beat KO at their own game targeting a broad 25 to 54 year audience.

The new NEWFM slogan is Maximum Music Variety as opposed to KOFM’s claim of Newcastle’s Widest Variety of Music

Otherwise the "relaunch" sees the station with the same name, same logo (first sited in 1989), same call sign and the same very basic website (which is has apparently been updated, but its hard to tell).

The big question now is what do the listeners think? Will the changes have an impact on NEWFM’s ratings? (They currently languish on a record low 5.6 points). Have they taken the right options with the on-air line-up and sound?

Tell us what you think.

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