Alan Jones has cancer
3Jul08

Source: LiveNews and Media Spy

Australia’s highest-rating broadcaster, Alan Jones, has announced on 2GB he is suffering from prostate cancer.

“I have long argued the need for a regular consultation
and medical attention for people so that they can avoid all of this.
And I had hoped that I could as well,” he told a massive media
contingent that had assembled at 2GB’s studios in Pyrmont, Sydney.

“And I hope in speaking as I have today it will encourage others to
be a bit more urgent and active in what they do than is currently the
case.”

The 67-year-old radio veteran explained that on the Gleason Scale -
which is used to plot the severity of prostate cancer – he is around
the middle.

“I guess if you’re on the far right of all of that -
which is where I guess some people might think I belong, but I’m
talking medically – then you start giving away your scarves and your
cuff links.

“I’m not in that category… I’m in the middle of all of this. I’m
told I’m in the better middle than the worse middle. And in that
circumstance they say that surgery will be successful.”

 

The surgery would be carried out at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital
in two weeks, and Jones said he intended to be on air until the eve of
the operation.

Popularity: 1%

Cashed-up Gen Y breaks the rules
3Jul08

Source: Nina Lees, Adnews

MELBOURNE: The somewhat predictable behaviour of Generation Y is being affected by a whole host of modern-day challenges, a new report has revealed.

Youth media and communications agency Lifelounge has found 16 to 30-year-olds are changing their behaviours in line with a range of changes in society.

The 2008 Urban Market Research report measures the self concept of Australian youth and how certain influences such as communication, finance, sex, health and wellbeing are driving choice in their lives.

The research also found that in the past 12 months there’s been an alarming trend of fewer people venturing out to nightclubs, pubs and local gigs, believed to be because of the smoking ban, the increase sales tax on alcopops and the venue lockouts occurring around the country.

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Popularity: 1%

Nine is Australia’s Number 1 in mid-year ratings
3Jul08

Source: Nine Network and Media Spy

1 January 2008 – 30 June 2008 (includes all Summer & Easter Non-Survey dates within this period)

In November Nine announced it was embarking on a
big rebuilding phase and in the first half of the 2008 calendar year,
audiences have responded to the changes.

With a renewed focus on the 25-54 demographic audience, Nine has
achieved a 28.7% share of viewing for the first half of the year. The
result is equivalent to 3.5% year-on-year audience growth against a
6.6% decline for Seven.

Younger audiences have lifted significantly:
16-39 up 5.4% (Seven down 12.5%. Ten down 1.1%)
18-49 up 4.5% (Seven down 8.3%. Ten down 0.3%)

Stand-out performance with young audiences in Sydney:
16-39 up 14.6% (Seven down 7.2%. Ten up 6.8%)
18-49 up 9.9% (Seven down 6.6%. Ten up 7.0%)

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Popularity: 1%

Seven hopes we’ll grow to love its TiVo
3Jul08

Source: Jane Schulze, The Australian

THE
Seven Network has imported at least 20,000 TiVo digital video recorders
as it seeks to take on the rival pay-television product Foxtel iQ.

And
the network will try to team with internet broadband providers to
ensure users of TiVo have unmetered downloads for its future movie
service. Unlike the Foxtel iQ, consumers who buy TiVos must connect it
to their broadband internet connection to be able to access the full
array ofservices.

But TiVo general manager Mark Hughes said while the TiVo connected
through the internet, it was estimated to use about only 5Mb of
capacity for each user a month.

"The amount of information (users) would download on a daily basis from their internet connection is minimal," Mr Hughes said.

"At most the typical user won’t use more than 5Mb per month, which is a handful these days."

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Popularity: 1%

Pay TV, networks argue over who has the eyeballs
3Jul08

Source: Amanda Meade, The Australian

FOR
the first time, pay television has attracted more viewers between 6am
and midnight than any one of the free-to-air networks, according to the
industry’s figures for the first half of the year.

A
report released by the Multi Channel Network, pay TV’s main advertising
sales group, shows subscription TV’s audience share is at a high of
22.2 per cent at the end of June 2008. The Seven Network’s share of all
viewing across the five capital cities for the same period is 21.6,
Nine’s is 20.3, Ten’s 17.1, the ABC’s 12.3 and SBS 3.5 per cent.

MCn is an industry-owned advertising business that represents the
advertising interests of 37 channels on the Foxtel and Austar
platforms. It covers 80 per cent of all advertising on pay TV.

According to MCn, pay TV is also leading the growth in share this
year, compared with the same six months last year, with an increase of
0.7 per cent in share of viewing between 6am and midnight. The ABC is
the only other broadcaster to increase its share, by 0.4 per cent.
Seven has lost 0.9 per cent, Ten 0.3 per cent and Nine 0.2 per cent.

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Popularity: 1%

Age of Conversation 2 authors finalised
2Jul08

Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan’s brainchild, the Age of Conversation, is about to turn 2. The chapters are in and the editing is well under way of the 237 contributions to this years book. Think about it, 237 of the best marketing minds in the world have chipped in to this innovative publication about social media and modern marketing. This will be really worth reading. Meet the authors:

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Popularity: 5%

Prime’s got talent but NBN wins week
1Jul08

Newcastle Television ratings week 26, 2008

Prime had the week’s highest rating show in the Hunter with Australia’s Got Talent gaining 115,000 viewers but NBN ran away with the week again with a 13.6 point margin over Prime and Southern Cross TEN another 3 points back.

Most watched programs:
1    Australia’s Got Talent    PRIME    115000
2    NBN Evening News Sunday    NBN    114000
3    Sea Patrol II – The Coup    NBN    110000
4    Domestic Blitz    NBN    103000
5    A Current Affair    NBN    102000
6    NBN Evening News Monday to Friday    NBN    101000
7    60 Minutes    NBN    99000
8    Spicks & Specks    ABC    97000
9    The Gruen Transfer    ABC    94000
10    Fire 000    NBN    92000

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Popularity: 1%

US: Average TV viewer now aged 50; outside advertisers’ 18-49 target demos
1Jul08

Source: MediaSpy & Variety

The broadcast networks have grown older than ever — if they were a
person, they wouldn’t even be a part of TV’s target demo
anymore.According to a study released by Magna Global’s Steve Sternberg,
the five broadcast nets’ average live median age (in other words, not
including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That’s the oldest
ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade
ago — and the first time the nets’ median age was outside of the
vaunted 18-49 demo.

Fueling the graying of the networks: the rapid aging of ABC, NBC and Fox. The three nets continue to grow older, while CBS – the oldest-skewing network — has remained fairly steady.

“The median ages of the broadcast networks keep rising, as
traditional television is no longer necessarily the first screen for
the younger set,” Sternberg wrote.

For the just-completed 2007-08 TV season, CBS was oldest in live
viewing with a median age of 54. ABC clocked in at 50, followed by NBC
(49), Fox (44), CW (34) and Univision (34).

When live-plus-7 DVR viewing is factored in, the nets (except CW and
Univision) drop by a year — which still reps the oldest median age ever
for the nets.

Sternberg notes that Fox and CW maintain median ages that are closer
to the actual age of the population. The median age for U.S. households
is 38.

Popularity: 1%