Come Fly With Me cast. Image from BBC

Last week I ranted about the poor offerings on Freeview, especially on the commercial channels. Today there’s even more reason to complain.

Tonight at 8pm the Nine Network (which these days also owns NBN Television) will begin showing Come Fly With Me, a new series by the guys from Little Britain. This was the highest rating new comedy series in the UK last year and a second series has been commissioned by the BBC.

After a run of comedic flops on Nine this year (Ben Elton, Mike & Molly and Sh*t My Dad Says) the eagerly anticipated Come Fly With Me offers a reason to finally flick over to the self-described “home of laughter” for a genuine laugh.

But NBN and WIN have decided not to run Come Fly With Me fearing it might offend regional viewers. Instead it will run repeats of Big Bang Theory.

Nine are running an edited version of Come Fly With Me they feel is suitable for the 8pm PG timeslot, yet NBN and WIN feel even this is too risque for our regional sensibilities.

If viewers in the NBN and WIN regions want to watch Come Fly With Me they can wait until 10pm and watch it on GO!

What’s more offensive, running a new program that’s already been a proven winner in the UK or deciding that regional viewers are somehow more sensitive than their capital city counterparts and would be happier with a safe old repeat?

At a time when free to air TV is under threat from Torrent downloads, subscription TV and a plethora of other entertainment options this decision is baffling and provides another reason for viewers to drift away from FTA as their first choice for entertainment.

As the principal of an advertising agency I want commercial television to be strong so clients have the opportunity to reach the best possible audience, but safety-first programming like this is actually harming the industry.

What do you think about NBN and WIN’s decision not to run Come Fly With Me despite it running in all capital cities on Nine?

Update: Somebody close to the action at NBN has just told me that the word is it was a directive from head office at Nine not to run Come Fly With Me in prime-time in regional areas, not a local programing decision. While Nine have been suffering badly in the ratings against Masterchef, NBN and WIN are still performing strongly. The thought is that Nine were willing to sacrifice Come Fly With Me against Masterchef as they have nothing to lose, however NBN / WIN would be better sticking with what has been working for them. If this is the case, and it hasn’t been confirmed, then at least it makes sense from a purely strategic point-of-view and is a much better explanation than what has been offered officially. Perhaps they should just come out and say it.

Update 17 May: Ironically Come Fly Turned out to be the best comedy premiere for Nine this year after the failure of Ben Elton, Sh*t My Dad Says and Mike & Molly. Its also one of the best performing shows for Nine at all this year. Come Fly With Me debuted with 1.488million viewers in the capital cities last night, not far behind the nights top program Masterchef (1.571m) and ahead of the much hyped Amazing Race Australia (1.258m). If the previous theory bout sacrificing CFWM against Masterchef is true then Nine must have been pleasantly surprised with the results. It once again begs the question, why aren’t NBN and and WIN showing it. I’ll post Newcastle results as a comparison when I get them.

Update 720pm 17 May: NBN General Manager Deborah Wright has just announced that they will now show Come Fly With Me at 8pm Mondays from next week following the success of the program. We observe that this might also have something to do with the fact Masterchef rated very well in Northern NSW against NBN while Come Fly With Me performed well in the capital cities for Nine.

As Freeview rolls out another promotional campaign, their 3rd by my count, to tell us how ‘everybody loves it’ I can’t help but think what a wasted opportunity this has been for the free to air TV industry.

In the last few years Australia has gone from 5 FTA networks (ABC, SBS, Nine, Seven & TEN – plus affiliates) to 16 stations. In what should have been an excellent opportunity to grow market share and thwart the multiple threats of subscription TV, web downloads and a generally distracted, multitasking population, FTA have managed to roll out very few reasons to tune in.

The commercial stations have been the worst offenders. 7 Mate, 7 Two, GO!, Gem and 11 are all home to tired repeats and second rate programming. I can honestly say that I have never had any reason to switch on four of these five channels. The promise of quality programs that weren’t quite ratings friendly enough for the main channels running in prime time slots on the new digital channels hasn’t really eventuated. There are a few quality programs buried in the schedules, usually at less than friendly times. But there’s plenty of I Love Lucy, Hogans Heroes, ‘Allo ‘Allo and other retro schtick if you’re into that sort of thing.

For example look at tonight’s programs on the newer commercial channels:

Channel         730pm                                   830pm                                930pm

ONE                Cops                                      Mysteries of Survival       1 Week at a Time

11                  Futurama/Futurama             Supernatural                    Dexter

7Two              Heartbeat                             Jonathan Creek                Gil Mayo Mysteries

7Mate             How I Met..Mother          Family Guy/American Dad    Family Guy x 2

GEM               The Zoo                             Mary Queen of Shops      Kitchen Nightmares

GO!                Wipeout                              Top Gear                              Two 1/2 Men

Not exactly groundbreaking television is it? Sure Family Guy and American Dad have been critical hits but they are being flogged to death on high repeat on 7Mate now.

At least ONE (part of the TEN Network) made an attempt to offer a real alternative as a sports-focused channel. I suspect their long-term plan was to win more significant broadcast rights over time but this has been stymied by the Packer-Murdoch investment in TEN, seemingly to protect their FOXTEL investment. Since then ONE has been repositioned to be a blokey channel with sport and some programs last seen 3 years ago on PayTV.

As usual, its left to ABC and SBS to push the envelope. Kudos must go to ABC who have launched ABC2 (a worthwhile extension of their overall programming and an opportunity to catch up on previous night’s main shows), ABC3 as a dedicated children’s channel, and ABC24 as a dedicated 24 hour news channel. At least these have added value to the overall market.

I understand the 3 commercial network’s hunger for ratings leads to broad, populist programming like Dancing with the Stars, Masterchef and CSI:Everything, but surely they could have used their secondary channels to foster a few strong niches with a focus on quality. This would give advertisers the chance to direct spending to tighter demographics and potentially attract new advertisers, in the way SBS has done over the years.

Meanwhile, 3 times as many FTA channels has actually resulted in me watching even less FTA TV. Its an opportunity wasted.

What do you think: Are you also watching more or less FTA television these days? What would you do with the new digital channels?

 The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending November 21

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

All the stations ratings seem to stay on a constant plateau, except SC TEN. Why is that? What is this station doing right or wrong each week that it’s ratings are like a yo-yo?

NBN keeps a steady win in the 30′s, Prime a consecutive 2nd place around the 20′s, but what about SC TEN? This station, every week, keeps rising and falling around the high teens.

Where do you keep disappearing to SC TEN?

Check out who made the Top Ten Most Watched Programs for last week. 

What We Watched:

1 NBN Evening News Monday to Friday NBN 95000

2 Packed To The Rafters PRIME 91000

3 Two And A Half Men NBN 87000

4 20 to 1 NBN 86000

5 NBN Evening News Sunday NBN 83000

6 NBN Evening News Saturday NBN 75000

7 The Big Bang Theory NBN 72000

8 A Current Affair NBN 69000

9 Last Chance Surgery PRIME 69000

10 60 Minutes NBN 66000

 The Stations Ratings:

The National TV Ratings
Week ending November 21
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

Channel Seven consolidated its victory for the year, averaging 30.0 per cent of the prime time audience last week (a figure that includes the audience for 7TWO). Nine and GO drew 27.4, Ten and ONE 20.1, ABC1&2 17.1 and SBS1&2 5.4. Go below to see what women watched last week.

Pay TV boosted its share of viewing last week, apparently because the free to air stations seem to have declared the silly season two weeks early. This was Pay’s account of itself: “The ‘Tiger Woods show’ topped the week with FOX Sport’s coverage of Live: Golf: JBWere Masters drawing 152,000 viewers. In other sport, Rugby League: Four Nations was watched by 88,000 people, Live: Football: A-League Bris v Melb had 73,000 viewers and Live: Cricket: Ford Ranger Cup was seen by 69,000 people. Finally, in the early hours of Sunday morning, 63,000 dedicated fans watched the Socceroos beat Oman in Live: Football: AFC Asian Cup Qualifier Oman v Aust (all on FOX Sports).

“New Zealand’s Next Top Model on FOX8 scored a season-to-date best result when it was seen by 127,000 viewers, Midsomer Murders on UKTV was seen by 119,000 people and The Contender Australia on FOX8 was watched by 92,000 people. Law & Order: SVU on TV1 was seen by 85,000 people, Location, Location, Location on Lifestyle was seen by 82,000 people and Dora the Explorer on Nick Jr. was watched by 78,000 people.

“In week 47, subscription TV was the number one choice for TV across Australia, with STV channels representing 22.3% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 22.6% of all regional viewing and 60.6% of all viewing in subscription TV homes.”

What Women 25-54 watched:

1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 576,000

2 BONES Seven 433,000

3 TWO AND A HALF MEN -MON Nine 430,000

4 NCIS Ten 378,000

5 CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 369,000

6 PRIVATE PRACTICE-TUE Seven 364,000

7 FLASHFORWARD Seven 360,000

8 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 358,000

9 THE FORCE – BEHIND THE LINE Seven 353,000

10 BEAUTY AND THE GEEK AUSTRALIA Seven 353,000

11 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 349,000

12 THE MENTALIST Nine 343,000

13 CRIMINAL MINDS-MON Seven 340,000

14 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 332,000

15 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 328,000

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending November 14

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

Apart from looking at the Ratings flogging that NBN gives each station every week; let’s look towards the Most Watched Programs instead. ‘Oh wait’, they’re identical in the beating that NBN gives as well.

Every week NBN rules this Ratings Roost, so instead of ignoring the consecutive winner, lets have a look at what and why this station must take out that winner spot every week.

Check out what we are watching and how they rate. 

What We Watched:

1 Packed To The Rafters PRIME 97000

2 Getaway NBN 84000

3 NBN Evening News Monday to Friday NBN 83000

4 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation NBN 81000

5 The Mentalist NBN 79000

6 60 Minutes NBN 78000

7 A Current Affair NBN 75000

8 NBN Evening News Sunday NBN 74000

9 The Big Bang Theory NBN 72000

10 20 to 1 NBN 72000

The Stations Ratings:

The National TV Ratings
Week ending November 14
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

As we race towards the silly season (only two weeks of normal programming to go), Seven draws further ahead of Nine, Ten keeps sinking and ABC is thriving. The prime time audience shares last week were: SBS1&2 5.7 per cent; ABC1&2 18.0; Ten&ONE 19.8; Nine&GO 26.3; Seven&7TWO 30.1.

This was Pay TV’s account of itself: “Tiger Woods and the other competitors in the Australian Masters were watched by 132,000 people on the FOX Sports’ broadcast of Live: Golf: JBWere Masters. Other sports highlights this week include Live: Cricket: ODI Ind v Aus 6th ODI S2 watched by 257,000 viewers, Football: EPL Highlights seen by 69,000 viewers and Live: Golf: Euro PGA: HSBC C’ship Final watched by 67,000 (all on FOX Sports).

“Grand Designs on Lifestyle was seen by 125,000 viewers, Midsomer Murders on UKTV was seen by 107,000 people and New Zealand’s Next Top Model on FOX8 was seen by 103,000 viewers. Law & Order: SVU on TV1 was watched by 102,000 people, Quantum of Solace premiered on Movie One with 96,000 viewers and Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards 2009 premiered with 95,000 viewers.

“In week 46, STV channels represented 22.2% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 21.5% of all regional viewing and 58.9% of all viewing in subscription TV homes.”

What Australia Watched:

1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,853,000

2 THE FORCE – BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,601,000

3 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,515,000

4 TWO AND A HALF MEN -MON Nine 1,456,000

5 BONES Seven 1,362,000

6 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,319,000

7 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Seven 1,313,000

8 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,296,000

9 LAST CHANCE SURGERY Seven 1,292,000

10 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,272,000

11 NCIS Ten 1,251,000

12 BORDER SECURITY -WED (R) Seven 1,233,000

13 MIDSOMER MURDERS ABC1 1,224,000

14 HIGHWAY PATROL Seven 1,217,000

15 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,211,000

Amanda Meade From: The Australian November 16

WHEN the official ratings survey closes at the end of next week, Seven will hold on to its crown as the leading commercial free-to-air network.

But it is set to be beaten by Nine and Ten in some of the key advertiser-friendly demographics.

No 3 Network Ten wins the prize for hit of the year with MasterChef Australia.

According to OzTAM data, Seven has won the year to date with a 27.9 per cent share to Nine’s 26.6, Ten’s 22.5, ABC’s 17 and SBS’s 5.9.

But Seven is not as far ahead as it was three years ago, when it first beat Nine by more than two full share points: 29 to Nine’s 26.9.

Nine has been catching up, especially with younger audiences.

And although Seven had the most consistently successful programming line-up, it was not represented in the list of the top 10 programs, dominated by Ten’s MasterChef Australia (3.7 million for the finale) and sport events.

The Nine Network was given a late boost by the surprise success of two Hey Hey It’s Saturday Reunion specials, both of which attracted more than 2.1 million viewers.

Nine chief executive David Gyngell is soon to announce details of the show’s return next year in a series of specials starring Daryl Somers and the crew.

Nine won both the 25-to-54 and 18-to-49 demographics, albeit by finishing a mere 0.1 percentage point in front of Seven.

The Ten Network won in the 16-to-39-year-old demographic with a 30.8 per cent of the five-network share, beating Nine on 27.4 and Seven on 27.

These official OzTAM figures include the multi-channels too, putting Seven at some disadvantage because its digital channel, 7TWO, has only started recently.

When multi-channels Nine’s Go! and Ten’s One are not included in the figures, Seven fares better.

In a breakdown of the three commercial channels, Seven wins in total people with a 36.9 per cent share to Nine’s 34.4 and Ten’s 28.7.

Seven wins also in the 18-to-49 and 25-to-54 ranges, although Ten is very strong with younger audiences and wins in the 16-to-39 group with a 35.7 per cent share to Nine’s 31.8 and Seven’s 32.4.

The Ten Network’s has the two most successful launches of new programs this year with MasterChef Australia and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation.The popularity of the cooking genre has exploded, with all networks planning more cooking and food shows for next year.

The Shaun Micallef vehicle Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation averaged 1.6 million viewers.

But the highest-rating regular show of 2009 was Nine’s Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities starring Matt Newton.

The drama based on Sydney’s underworld was also the only regular show this year to average more than two million viewers.

The third series, Underbelly: The Golden Mile starring Sigrid Thornton, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Mark Furze, isin production for next year.

The second series of Underbelly averaged 2.1 million, more than the first series last year, which averaged 1.7 million, because it was initially banned in Victoria.

Seven also successfully launched two new shows this year: World’s Strictest Parents and Thank God You’re Here, which was not strictly new but new to the channel, which stole it from Ten.

Seven News finished comfortably in front of Nine News, with an average national audience of 1.6 million to 1.4 million.

Seven’s raft of locally produced shows had a drop in audiences this year, Find My Family being the hardest hit in losing 300,000 viewers. It fell from an average audience of 1.8 million last year to 1.5 this year, Border Security fell from 1.6 million to 1.5 and RSPCA Animal Rescue from 1.6 million to 1.4.

The National TV Ratings
Week ending November 6
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

Channel Seven won the week, needing no help from its offshoot 7TWO. Here’s how OzTAM says the prime time audience shares broke up: SBS2 0.4; ONE 1.1; ABC2 1.4; 7TWO 1.7; GO 2.7; SBS1 5.1; ABC1 16.2; Ten 19.0; Nine 23.5; Seven 29.1.

You might expect that all this extra choice in free to air would be having some impact on Pay TV, but it’s hard to spot any shrinkage in Pay’s account of itself for the week: “On Tuesday night, New Zealand’s Next Top Model had a series high audience of 113,000 people while The Contender Australia [Charlotte Dawson's boxing show -- anybody want to tell us what it's like?] premiered on Monday night with 98,000 viewers (both on FOX8). Midsomer Murders on UKTV was watched by 128,000 people, Relocation Relocation on Lifestyle had its biggest audience of the year so far with 100,000 people and Law & Order: SVU on TV1 was seen by 89,000 people.

“The thrilling fifth One Day International between India and Australia gave FOX Sports the best result of the series so far with 232,000 people watching Live: Cricket: ODI Ind v Aus 5th ODI S1. Live: Football: A-League Perth v Melb was watched by 85,000 people and Rugby League: Four Nations on Sunday morning was watched by 84,000 people (all on FOX Sports).

“In week 45, STV channels represented 21.3% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 21.7% of all regional viewing and 57.9% of all viewing in subscription TV homes.” This may change once Foxtel and Austar begin delivering GO and 7TWO to their subscribers via cable and satellite.

What Australia Watched:
(including the top digitals)

1 MELBOURNE CUP-THE RACE Seven 2,673,000

2 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 2,072,000

3 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,583,000

4 THE FORCE – BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,528,000

5 LAST CHANCE SURGERY Seven 1,514,000

6 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,433,000

7 MIDSOMER MURDERS ABC1 1,426,000

8 TWO AND A HALF MEN -MON Nine 1,387,000

9 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,370,000

10 BONES Seven 1,356,000 33

11 BORDER SECURITY -WED (R) Seven 1,345,000

12 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Seven 1,327,000

13 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,297,000

14 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,274,000

15 NCIS RPT Ten 1,268,000

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending October 31

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

This week sees NBN fall nearly 3% in it’s viewing audience. Prime increased by 1.7% and SC TEN by 0.7%.

Last week the Hunter enjoyed ABC’s ‘Midsomer Murders’ more than the weekly NBN News.

Prime & SC TEN also managed to get two programs each, up on the ‘Most Watched’ leader board.

Read on for the full results…

What Newcastle Watched:

1 NBN Evening News Sunday NBN 116000

2 Midsomer Murders ABC 87000

3 NBN Evening News Monday to Friday NBN 84000

4 RSPCA Animal Rescue PRIME 83000

5 Packed To The Rafters PRIME 81000

6 NCIS TEN 79000

7 60 Minutes NBN 79000

8 A Current Affair NBN 77000

9 The Simpsons Tues TEN 74000

10 The Big Bang Theory NBN 71000

Stations Ratings:

       Week 44-2009 Week 44-2008 Prog-2009 Prog-2008
NBN              31.9              30.8              33.0          33.1
PRIME           23.0              26.4              20.4          24.5
TEN              20.9              19.1              20.3          18.7
ABC             18.4              17.5              18.1          17.1
SBS              5.6                6.3               6.8             6.4

The National TV Ratings
Week ending October 31
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

The prime time audience shares for the week were: Seven&7TWO 28.8 per cent, Nine&GO 26.4, Ten&ONE 20.8, ABC1&2 18.4, SBS1&2 5.7.

This was Pay TV’s account of itself: “The Saturday night broadcast of the third one day international cricket test between Australia and India, Live: Cricket: ODI Ind v Aus 3rd ODI S1, topped the week for STV with 214,000 viewers. The FOX Sports’ coverage of Live: Rugby Union: Bledisloe Cup was watched by 144,000 people, 66,000 watched Live: Cricket: Ford Ranger Cup and 65,000 watched Live: Football: A-League Bris v Newc (all on FOX Sports).

“Midsomer Murders on UKTV had its best result of the year with 133,000 viewers, The Simpsons on FOX8 was watched by 114,000, Law & Order: SVU on TV1 was watched by 111,000 and Location, Location, Location on Lifestyle had a year-to-date high of 104,000 people. Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel was watched by 85,000 people, Go, Diego, Go! on Nick Jr. was watched by 78,000 and Ultimate Gamer on FOX8 had its best audience of the year so far with 70,000 people.

“In week 44, STV channels represented 21.6% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 20.7% of all regional viewing and 58% of all viewing in subscription TV homes.”

What Australia Watched:

1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,960,000

2 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,515,000

3 ALL SAINTS-THE FINALE Seven 1,505,000

4 LAST CHANCE SURGERY Seven 1,477,000

5 THE FORCE – BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,449,000

6 TWO AND A HALF MEN -MON Nine 1,438,000

7 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,397,000

8 MIDSOMER MURDERS ABC1 1,385,000

9 NCIS Ten 1,377,000

10 BORDER SECURITY – WED (R) Seven 1,359,000

11 BORDER SECURITY – AUSTRALIA’S FRONT LINE Seven 1,358,000

12 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,334,000

13 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,327,000 355,000

14 DESTROYED IN SECONDS Seven 1,300,000

15 HIGHWAY PATROL Seven 1,294,000