What success means for the commercial TV programmers in 2018
It’s been a big year in television for the three commercial broadcasters. Zoe Samios chats with Nine’s Hamish Turner, Seven’s Angus Ross and Ten’s Beverley McGarvey about the year just gone, as they reveal why they’re all becoming less focused on the overnight ratings.
Overnight television ratings don’t matter like they used to: the words of almost every television executive at any given point this year.
Ironically, it all changes when a network, or channel, becomes number one. And just like the programmers, the end of the TV ratings year is the time where every programmer, channel, and network, is number one in its own way.
This ratings year, which skips the summer months and Easter holidays, ran from February 11 to March 24, and from April 8 to December 1. It saw Seven lead in all-people, from both a main channel and network perspective. Nine’s strongest performance came from its main channel, in the key 25-54 demographic: its target audience. Ten, with its new under 50s target audience, was naturally focused on growth in that area.
What a load of hot wind.
According to Beverley McGarvey, the third and sometimes fourth rating Network, she doesn’t care about the oldies, or the ratings.
That’s why A cast of reject shows were still on Ten.
As for spending time with CBS executives and investing in quality programming, really!!!!
The only shows you trot out Year after year are Masterchef and Bachelor.
Good luck in 2019, but you won’t need it, as you don’t watch the ratings!
Ratings do not equal advertising money
Some of the shows getting supposedly high numbers are shows that I would not want my brand against as I value it’s current credibility
Crud content means crud money
We are in a market where audiences are going backwards every year, and the networks are still continually pushing for price increases – the cost per reach point in TV is now basically double what it was in 2014/15. But for some reason advertiser demand is at an all-time high, mainly because no CMO ever lost their job for buying more TV, just like they did last year.
At what point is TV no longer worth utilising to such an extent as it has been historically? We’re not far away from that, if we’re not there already, and at the same time viewers’ engagement is lower than ever. Does TV really still deliver for brands like it used to, 5-10+ years ago? I would argue that there are a whole heap of intelligent and informed consumers out there that are no longer being advertised to effectively, outside of OOH and YouTube.
Once the switched-on / brave advertisers start reducing their overall share of spend into TV over the next 1-3 years, that’s when we’ll see the true impact of such poorly produced programming by the networks. And with it, the shift to other mediums such as OOH and more Digital video.
The twenty programs listed give the clue to the sorry state of our television.
The 12 to 20 slot is not surprising, but the top 10, with the exception of Seven News, is actually rather frightening.
What are the higher paid and the so called executive/artistic decision makers doing?
They appear to be, like Wilkins Micawber, waiting for something to turn up.