Continuing the debacle

Well, they've done it Ten has won a week of television, I don't think that's happened since the final week of summer 08 (Jan 2008).

Seven didn't help their case at all with the continuing debacle that is Prime Time Rugby Union, this time the game they play in heaven (and really expensive schools) pushed Seven's news in Sydney and Brisbane back and back, by which time everyone seemed to be tuned to either New Tricks or Harry Potter.

Also I take back my quip about Harry Potter's diminishing returns, although movies 1-3 seem to be played out - the fourth installment "The Goblet of Fire" can still draw a crowd and for a long night running to 10.55pm!

Split up and siphoned off

Every commercial network split their schedule last night – Ten for the obvious reasons (the start times for AFL and the fact that movies rate better for them in Sydney) Nine too was split by start times for it’s international cricket coverage, while Seven split up for the rugby union – which has more of a following in Sydney and Brisbane than the AFL but not much more judging by these figures!

Excluding news programs there were seven shows that beat the Rugby Union in it’s heartland, including such unbeatable favourites as Gardening Australia and a rerun of the kids movie Zathura.

The game is by definition included on the Anti-Siphoning Legislative Instrument which restricts Foxtel from bidding on sports rights where there is a significant national interest in the sport. Ironically with only 372,000 viewers – that’s only slightly better than Foxtel in terms of audience size – and completely pathetic in terms of Free to Air, and especially for Seven, the market leader.

Saturday 13 June 2009
Scoreboard

Going Up
Richard Hammond Engineering Connections up 57.54% week on week
Talk to the Animals (Nine) up 39.67% week on week
Gardening Australia up 23.72% week on week

Going Down
Seven's Rugby Union down 8.82% week on week

The game they don't watch in heaven

Saturday 6 June 2009

Biggest Disappointment
Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections
SBS 7.30pm Down 33.86% week on week

Biggest Improvement
Bruce Almighty
Seven (Southern Markets) after Vicar of Dibley
Up 29.09% over Phenomemon

All 3 commercial nets turned their schedules into swiss cheese last night to accomodate various sporting events.

Seven had the classic North/South split for their coverage of Rugby Union, the Union was a ratings disappointment polling only 219,000 in Sydney and 155,000 in Brisbane - middling figures at best. Worse than this was the decision to rerun Christian the Lion, a wildlife doco they ran only 5 weeks ago on a Tuesday night! And topping that level of bad was the fact that it rated well! More people watched this rerun doco in Melbourne, than tuned in for the Rugby Union in Sydney! If you actually compare it week on week in the three markets with the first run Cheetah Man it comes out on top with a 4% improvement!

Nine and Ten adjusted their schedules for local time differences, with Ten starting their Saturday AFL match at 5 different times and Nine playing around post-7.30 in order to line up with start times for the Twenty/20 Cricket.

Television's Ice Age - Saturday 1 November 2008

Last night we got a real patchwork, Seven and Nine went local last night to accomodate their broadcasts of Rugby (both the union and league varieties) and the face that people south of the Murray couldn't care less.

It's difficult to make sense of and I'm not even going to try except to say that nothing was particularly impressive ratings wise last night - Funniest Home Videos and Ice Age 2 both scored well, but their numbers were depressed in these spring months.

The loss of viewers this year has been even more acute than last year as people find something better to do than sport or repeats on a Saturday. With both Football matches pulling lacklustre figures even in their home markets, what does this mean for the future of sporting rights in Australia.

Surely they can't keep bidding up the price of these spectacles when the result is a diminishing return.