Rants

I used to absolutely love one tree hill, I mean the type of love where every time you meet someone called Lucas, Nathan, Brooke, Haley, Peyton (ok, maybe not so much), you can’t help but think of the characters. And every time you hear a song from the show you are brought back to the exact scene it played. The whole drama was real, the characters interesting, yet relateable, but somehow its all gone down since there.

Seasons 1-4 are classic, and in my mind it will be very hard for another teen drama to beat that. Season 5 was when all the teenagers were all grown up, 4 years later and something about it just wasn’t the same. I still love season 5 but it did slowly start to get worse from here. Now, in its seventh season, and without Lucas and Peyton- the destined-to-be-together highschool sweethearts, the show just isn’t the same. All the drama has gone down hill, resorting to cliched story lines and the original spunk of the show has pretty much gone out the window.

We all know that each of the networks like to spin ratings and figures to their favour, but an article brought to my attention on ninemsn yesterday (April 20) takes the cake!

The article is headed “Carl Williams holds Masterchef back” – suggesting, that somehow, the death of Carl Williams affected Masterchef ratings.

The article goes on to say that “only” 1.7 million watched the premiere episodes of season two of Masterchef on Monday night and that figure is a far cry from the shows’ season one finale where 3.2 million tuned in.

It then compares this to the second episode of Underbelly: The Golden Mile which was watched by 2.25 million on Sunday night. Well, actually it was 1.92 million, as the 2.25 million was the previous Sunday night April 11.

The article says that 1.06 million watched Nine’s rushed special Carl Williams: Baby Faced Killer at 8.30pm thereby stealing some of Masterchef’s audience. It also says that Underbelly was ahead of ten’s finale of The Biggest Loser on Sunday night – which it was – but, what’s that got to do with Masterchef?

Now – let’s look at all these points to show how twisted the article really is!

Firstly, the death of Carl Williams was big news – yes. All news bulletins including the 7PM Project enjoyed higher than usual ratings as a result. In fact, the 7PM Project secured nearly a million viewers on Monday night – it’s highest figures this year – so for those who believe in lead ins (which I don’t) would say that the higher than usual number of viewers would have stuck around for the launch of Masterchef following at 7.30pm thereby helping the shows’ ratings.

Next point – comparing the figures of the finale of a reality competition show to its first episode is not really a valid argument at all. We all know that finales of these shows attract up to double of their regular audience as both the regular viewers and those affected by the hype watch to find out who wins.

1.7 million for the first episode of the second series of Masterchef is up on the 1.4 million the first series debuted to in 2009. If we compare that to Underbelly – as Nine are attempting to do here – then we note that the premiere of the third series of Underbelly is in fact down on the 2.5 million that tuned into the premiere of the second in 2009.

Then – that Carl Williams special – watched by 1.06 million – rated much lower than a new episode of the Mentalist would have – even repeats of the Mentalist achieved higher ratings. So if anything – Masterchef would have been helped out here by less than usual viewers tuning into Nine. Then there would have been the effect of people being “Carl Williams”-ed out that is – heard enough for one day – which would have kept its ratings lower. Not to mention the fact that people who do not watch channel Nine would not have known about the special unless they found out online.

In any case, the death of Carl Williams has nothing to do with how Masterchef rated on Monday night.

Furthermore, how can you possibly compare Mastercehf to Underbelly? They are two completely different shows, that air at completely different times, that appeal to completely different audiences!

See the article for yourself here!

Ratings figures OzTam Five City Metro.

Wow! According to the latest FreeView ad campaign we get 16 digital free to air TV channels!

Let’s count them up.

ABC has ABC1, ABC2, ABC3 and ABC HD
SBS has SBS ONE, SBS TWO and SBS ONE HD
Seven has Seven, 7TWO and 7HD
Nine has Nine, GO! and 9HD (or Nine Hi Def)
Ten has Ten, ONE HD and ONE Digital.

So yes, it is true – there are16 channels.

But – if we take into account the following:

ABC HD is a full time simulcast of ABC1 (other than the odd special event occasionally in some markets)
SBS ONE HD is a full time simulcast of SBS ONE
7HD is a full time simulcast of Seven (other than one hour on Sunday mornings in Sydney and Brisbane for an AFL show)
9HD is a full time simulcast of Nine
ONE Digital is a full time simulcast of ONE HD

That is five channels that are simulcast, and therefore the same.

That means, there really is only 11 channels.

Why are FreeView still trying to mislead the public like this?

I wonder what a retailer says to someone who has never seen digital TV before when they ask – “hey – tell me about those 16 channels we get?”. I can see it now “Umm… well, there are the five main channels – Seven, Nine, Ten, ABC and SBS. Then there is GO, ONE and 7TWO, then SBS TWO and ABC2 and ABC3… Oh yes – there are HD channels as well – here let me show you…”

The retailer then flicks through the channels – and they may show even more channels if they count the fact that Seven also has digital channels 73 and 74 which are nothing more than a simulcast of Seven itself (why they still do this, I don’t understand, SBS still has extra digital channels 33, 34 as well that are all SBS ONE). The customer, if observant, would then ask “but half these channels are the same?? – Aren’t there meant to be 16 channels??”

The answer is no – there are not 16 unique channels – there are 11.

Perhaps FreeView should have held off this ad until later in the year.

This year will see ABC launch its 24 hour news service on ABC HD, Ten will launch a third channel which will be a general entertainment channel, and both Nine and Seven should launch a third channel this year which will utilise their HD services. There is even a rumour that SBS are considering a third channel as well. Once these channels launch, then we have 16 channels.  Some areas will have 17 if you include community TV.

Please FreeView – stop confusing the public. It’s bad enough to see “get ready for digital” and FreeView ads on actual digital channels like GO and 7TWO! Let alone being told there are more channels than there really are. Thought they would have learnt from their original campaign when they spruiked 15 digital channels back in the days when there were only HD break aways and no secondary digital channels.

Nine can’t help themselves. So many of their promotions are based on self praise or thanking the viewers for making them number one.

They do it in ads for Today even though Sunrise continues to outrate Today in overall numbers. In Sydney, the promotions for Nine’s 6pm News quote “Thank you Sydney, for making us number one” while Hot Seat will use the line “Australia’s number one game show” even if it beats rival Deal or No Deal for just one day.

Nine News continues to use lines like “See it first” and “Leading the way” – a line borrowed from Seven’s news which also subtitles “Leading the way”. Back to Hot Seat again – and you regularly see ads for the show bragging about how much money they give away.

To me, it does not matter what the prize money is on a game show, it is all about the quality of the show and whether or not the meaningless chatter exceeds actual game show content. Hot Seat only has 15 questions per episode, and sometimes, you’ll see contestant after contestant get questions wrong and endless meaningless chatter between Eddy and the contestants.

All that aside, Nine – with a great deal of help from GO – is so far for 2010 the number one network in the three major demographics – the 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54 age groups. Younger demographics are seen as more important to advertisers as younger audiences tend to be more influential, more likely to try new products, and generally have more disposable income.

Nine, of course, have wasted no time telling us this fact with this banner ad I saw in Media Week.

Seven are still the number one network in overall viewers and just behind Nine in the demographics. Ten used to be top in 16-39’s but Nine’s GO have taken a slice of that share. Ten will be the first to launch their third channel later this year, which should see their overall shares as a network increase.

I cannot believe it.

A channel I had always praised for being free from home shopping overnight and for giving viewers the opportunity to actually watch something between 1am and 4am.

I am talking about GO!

According to the advanced TV guide for GO for the week commencing April 11, GO will see Home Shopping introduced five nights a week between 2am and 4am (Mon-Fri – at least the weekend nights will not have infomercials at this stage).

The move spells the end of the three hour prime time repeat block from 1am – 4am – a time which was incredibly useful for recording shows when there were too many clashes from their original air times of 8.30 – 11.30pm. Now, only one of the shows out of the three hours will be repeated.

Now – I know ratings are low in those hours – barely few thousand for most shows – but surely having a show on would be preferable to Home Shopping? There are still ads to fill, advertisers will still pay some money then.

Ratings for GO’s shows overnight are higher than any other channel, and some shows attract many times their live view figures in 7 day PVR recorded figures – I would imagine for the very reason I outlined above – too many clashes during prime time. I for example record ER off the 2am repeat (thankfully ER will be the 1am repeat for Thursdays) because it clashes at 9.30pm with other shows I am watching or recording.

Surely – if GO’s mandate is still to be a youth channel (and I think they are getting more and more away from the youth channel idea as time goes on in favour for more classics) they should have programming overnight, and not home shopping infomercials as it is the youth demographic more likely to be up at that time at night, working part time, studying, or simply going out late any night of the week who are home or up at odd hours.

Now they will have one less free to air option after 2am. Disappointing, to say the least.

What do you think of the TV ads Victoria Roads are currently running?

It is only seven weeks into the ratings season as of this week, yet for the next two weeks (March 28 – April 10) we will be in non ratings mode again. The Easter non ratings period covers the two weeks that surround Easter, with the Easter weekend itself in the middle of the break.

With the exception of Victoria, these two weeks do not even coincide with school holidays. Most people over Easter are actually lucky to have any more than a four day long weekend at the time. Therefore it seems ridiculous for TV to have a non ratings period over two weeks. In fact, there should not be a need for non ratings at all.

During Easter non ratings, networks tend to swap normal programming for repeats or poor alternatives. Some new shows remain, but anything that rates well will be off. As always, the viewers lose out while DVD rentals and Pay TV usually benefit.

So next week and the week after, you won’t see new episodes of NCIS, House, Sunday Night and Good News Week to name a few. Expect to see a few extra movies that have already been repeated a few times too many such as The Devil Wears Prada on Ten on Easter Sunday.

In 2011, Easter Sunday falls on April 24 (giving the very unique situation of ANZAC day falling on Easter Monday – which may result in a 5 day long weekend in some states – the last 5 day long weekend was in 2000 when Easter fell on Sunday April 23, with Easter Monday the 24^th and ANZAC Day on the Tuesday April 25). This means there should be 11 weeks of ratings before the Easter non ratings in 2011.

If you look at the 7TWO program of late, you’ll notice there are more and more infomercials creeping in. Until recently, 7TWO had infomercials only one night per week, now they can be seen daily at 5am as well as a number of other times overnight.

While past AFL games are more filler programming for over night, at least it is something to watch as opposed to infomercials which are not watchable at all. Fortunately, both GO and ONE do not air infomercials (better clarify here – the infomercials I refer to in this article are those 30 minute blocks of programming dedicated to a single product. There are shorter ads of a similar nature that run for 1,2 or even 3 minutes that you see at varying times on just about every commercial channel).

The main commercial channels – Seven, Nine and Ten generally have around three hours of infomercials over night. That leaves very little free to air viewing options after 1 or 2am.

With both SBS channels on weather watch over night, ABC2 closed from 2am – 5.30am, ABC3 closed all night, and infomercials on the main commercial channels, those of us who are up late or get home from work during the night are left with very few options.

Only ABC1, GO and ONE provide programming throughout the night. 7TWO you can include most nights if you don’t mind watching AFL matches from the past.

Sadly, infomercials remain a good option for networks because they get paid to show them, and they rate well enough to justify being on air. Yes, unbelievably, most half hour infomercials rate around 20,000 nationally which is better than the few thousand that watch regular programming overnight.

Yesterday (Thursday March 11, 2010), the first news story on Seven News was about Lara Bingle and how Michael Clarke was moving his possessions out of her apartment. Seven had cameras following her and dedicated the first five minutes of the 6pm News to the whole saga.

Not only was there the “only on Seven” footage of her car leaving her car park, there were the live crosses to the reported in front of her apartment block in Bondi. The story seemed to focus on the fact that she seems to have “lost the plot” telling the media to f**k off and using other similarly colourful language.

Seven News, after spending five minutes on this story then said there would be more footage in Today Tonight. They then finally got onto the other news of the day. Come 6.30, Today Tonight opened with the Lara story, again showing Seven’s exclusive footage of her in her car in the car park as well as more dialogue about the whole situation.

Over on Nine, A Current Affair also opened with the Lara Bingle story, using Seven’s footage – you could see the Seven News logo behind Nine’s logo and the letters ACA that sit below that.

So what the bloody hell is the big deal with Lara Bingle? All I can think she has done is the “So where the bloody hell are you?” campaign promoting (or not) Australian Tourism. Plus a bit of modelling work. Sure – she is going out with Australian cricketer Michael Clarke, and her ex just sold a rather compromising photo of her to a women’s mag, but otherwise, I cannot understand what all the fuss is about nor why it has to be the first story on the news and run for 5 minutes.

Certainly, people are interested in celebrity news, but when it takes the first 5 minutes of the highest rating news bulletin of the day, then even more time on the following current affairs show, one has to ask, is there not anything more important going on? Or does the general population now prefer to see these sorts of stories over actual real news.

Has anyone noticed how many competitions and give aways channel Seven have been running lately? There is an SMS competition attached to My Kitchen Rules, various give aways on Sunrise and the latest – the Million Dollar March promoting Deal or No Deal.

Recently, Deal or No Deal has suffered a ratings decline thanks to its channel Nine rival Hot Seat. Generally, however, the difference between the two shows is not actually that much and can easily swing one way or another. Many viewers who come to Deal or no Deal during its half hour will stick around if the game is exciting enough, and leave otherwise.

Viewers are lured by the classic temptation of whether the contestant should take the deal or play on to see if their case has the highest amount of money possible. Viewers are more likely to stick around if say the $200,000 is still in play during the final cases and more likely to turn away if the contestant has already lost all of the high value cases. There is nothing more boring on Deal if the contestant has a number of cases left all below $10,000 – the bank offer hardly moves, and each case being chosen and eliminated hardly changes the game.

Generally, the ratings seem to reflect this phenomenon. Day 1 of the million dollar March provided a very exciting episodes of Deal or No Deal where the contestant pushed almost as far as he could taking home $66,000. The next day, Tuesday, the deal taken was $44,000. On Monday, Deal easily beat Hot Seat in the ratings. On Tuesday, Hot Seat won by a narrow margin.

Perhaps the increase on Monday might have been some people coming back to try the show. Seven did promote it extremely heavily with pop ups and ads dominating viewing on Seven for the past few nights.

But with the ratings returning to normal on Tuesday, and Deal even losing out to Hot Seat, it would suggest that the competition is not helping.

Radio do cash give away competitions all the time – which usually are designed to make you listen longer to the same station. TV, however, cash give aways just don’t seem to work as well as radio and appear as a blatant attempt just to buy ratings. So far from what I have seen, there has not been any significant increase to any shows where give aways have been offered.

For the record, its not just Seven. Nine often do it as well – most frequent give aways on Nine are on Today while Hot Seat also have had similar ratings drives.