Seven Upfront: A TV company that happens to own a newspaper; an AFL broadcaster that happens to air some cricket
Welcome to a midweek edition of Unmade, the morning after Seven’s Upfront 2023 event.
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Upfront with Seven
The sizzle of upfronts shouldn’t matter. It should be substance that counts. Marketers and media agencies would argue that their spending decisions are influenced by rational factors like reach and price, not the quality of the canapes.
Which was what Seven West Media CEO James Warburton wanted us to bear in mind when he briefly stepped to the front of Screen 1 at the Hoyts Entertainment Quarter yesterday afternoon.
Glancing at the notes in his hand (unlike Nine, Ten and Foxtel’s events over the last few weeks, he was doing it without an autocue) he told us: “There are no smoke machines and no ferris wheels here.”
That was true. He was about to play us a prerecorded show. Unintentionally, it was a demonstration of the power of the medium of cinema as the darkened theatre shut up and paid attention.
A central part of the format that followed was Warburton sitting at the head of a boardroom table along with his key managers. Shot with roving steadicam, in the style of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, the group ignored the camera and chatted among themselves about what a great job they were doing. Seven’s management meetings appear to be relaxed occasions. The Apprentice it was not.
I suspect, incidentally, the boardroom scenes were shot some time ago. Warburton’s righthand person in the boardroom was chief marketing officer Charlotte Valente, who – as the Australian Financial Review unhelpfully revealed late last week – is leaving.
But let’s get to the substance.
First, it was clear that of the big three free-to-air players, Seven West Media is the only one that still thinks of itself as at the heart – or heartland, as it kept emphasising – a TV broadcaster. Yes it owns the West Australian newspaper, but that’s not the main game.
Nine is a publisher, an audio player and a TV company. Ten’s priorities now lie with its US parent company Paramount, which cares mainly about streaming now.
But Seven is making its stand in television only. It’s a TV company that happens to own a newspaper.
The big announcement was that most old fangled of things – a new broadcast channel. Having locked in a content supply deal with NBC Universal, Seven will launch 7Bravo. There’ll be a lot of Real Housewives content.
Missing was an accompanying announcement of any sort of joint venture to launch NBCU’s subscription streaming platform Peacock in the Australian market. SWM is still without a paid streaming play.
Seven is, however, ahead of the game on ad-supported streaming.
It’s a market leader in the FAST channels space (the acronym stands for free ad-support streaming television – in other words, content that simply plays, rather than individual shows streamed on demand). There will be more FAST channels to add to the 45 that 7plus already offers, although it gave no detail about how many or when.
And, using technology bought in from Amazon’s AWS, 7plus will offer personalised navigation. Think a Netflix-style home page. I suspect that will help grow its lead.
Another downside of the pre-recorded format for Seven was that it would have struggled to make last minute changes of emphasis yesterday. Monday’s news that Nine is close to extending its deal with Tennis Australia would have come as a huge blow, given how badly Seven has fallen out of love with its own summer sport of cricket.
The signal was there last night. AFL featured heavily, cricket hardly.
But there was a big sporting rights announcement around soccer.
Seven has done a deal with Optus to air the Matildas games in the FIFA Women’s World Cup next July and (if Australia gets out of the group stages) August.
For marketers , if there’s one tactical bet to make with discretionary budgets next year, I reckon this is it, particularly as Seven and Optus will offer a joint sponsorship package.
The parallels are with the English experience this year. Just as Australia is hosting the Women’s World Cup, England was the host nation for the UEFA Women’s Euro earlier this year.
The tournament captured the imagination of the entire country in a way that women’s team sports had never done before. The ratings were – for the first time – similar to the men’s game. The huge public support saw the home team go all the way and lift the UK’s first major soccer trophy in more than 50 years. It was a national moment.
I have a hunch that the Matildas, including Sam Kerr, might just do the same thing.
Last night’s event came and went without any sort of announcement about the Olympics though. With 21 months to go until Paris 2024, there’s still no word on the Australian TV rights.
Another point of difference for Seven, particularly from Nine, was that it emphasised the free to air programming grid, gradually building it through the presentation, and posting it on screens in the lobby afterwards. Australian Idol judge Meghan Trainor might be All About the Bass; Seven is still all about the schedule.
Australian Idol, The Voice and Australia’s Got Talent means there won’t be many points in the year when the network doesn’t have a talent show on air.
There weren’t many new big budget tentpole commissions. The only one that stood out was reality contest Million Dollar Island which looks, from the trailer, reminiscent of Survivor.
And if there is one show that seems to have the odds against it, it’s Blow Up – a balloon modelling contest. Hosted by comic actor Stephen Curry and comedian Becky Lucas, it looks like an attempt to grab some of the family friendly, hobbyist territory occupied by Nine’s Lego Masters. However, the trailer failed to elicit the buzz in the room created when Seven teased similarly kitsch mini golf show Holey Moley back in 2019.
Seven can’t be accused of being elitist in its heartland programming. There was a trailer for its update on Kath & Kim, which will air this side of Christmas, as bogan as ever. And there’s a place for the latest work from Pauly Fenech, creator of Housos, on 7Mate with Local Council: “Australia’s most corrupt, lazy and inept council”.
There will also be sketch comedy about television in We Interrupt This Broadcast. There are too few of this type of locally made comedy, so I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen more than yesterday’s clip.
Yesterday summed up Seven for what it is: a heartland TV network.
Unmade Index in the green
There was a big bounce of The Unmade Index of listed media and marketing companies yesterday, with a jump of 3.81%
Ooh Media, which presents its upfronts tomorrow, was up by 7.53%. Nine wasn’t far behind on 5.32%.
Time to leave you to your day. I’ll be back tomorrow with a podcast chat about Leo Burnett’s new study on brand purpose.
If you’re in Melbourne, don’t forget to take a look at out Marketing in 2023 event, which is only three weeks away now. Click on the ad above to secure your ticket.
Have a great day.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
tim@unmade.media
