Throng

In 2009 we have seen numerous examples of bad programming decisions from channel 9 but what happened last night - Monday Sept 28 - simply takes the cake!

Channel Nine would have known well in advance, that after 3 months of hype, Seven’s FlashForward would win the 8.30 Monday time slot. They have chosen to put the Mentalist on at the same time - which is not a bad decision considering the Mentalist tends to skew a different more female demographic to what FlashForward does. There was not enough promotion of the Mentalist in comparison. In fact, from what I saw, there was more hype around the premiere of the Vampire Diaries on GO at the same time as there was for the Mentalist. And the debut of the Apprentice Australia warranted so much attention that it had water marks during the Mentalist and was to be aired on GO at the same time as it was on Nine.

Channel 9 have endured a make over with their new look and idents saying “Welcome Home”. They use the same channel 9 logo as always with the 9 dots made up into a blue 3D image of the logo which they then super impose into selected scenes from certain channel 9 shows.

This is the 4th make over in as many years, with the dots disappearing in 2006 and re-appearing in 2008. WIN owned stations including channel 9 Adelaide and Perth do not use the dots but have adopted a similar appearance with a make over of their WIN logo. Similarly, NBN - who do keep the nine dots - have also been part of the new look.

As part of the new look, all major shows on Nine seem to be advertised in big 3D blue letters, and a big white horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen showing the name of the show and what time it is on. If the white bar was at an angle, they’d be getting pretty close to channel 7’s program announcement white bar.

Are 9 about to drop the dots from their logo once again?

A FreeView ad I saw last night around 7.30 whilst watching Masterchef on ch 10 used a different logo than usual for ch 9 reminiscent of the logo 9 used back in 2006 where the traditional 9 dots were dropped. At the time, the logo caused some outrage and the dots were put back from 2007 on.

This particular FreeView ad used the 9 logo with no dots rather than the usual logo with the 9 dots. The 9HD logo was also changed, the HD part still in a round shape, but the nine the big blue 9 in the same style as usual, but without the dots.

{Updated} It seems this 9 logo without the dots is used in Adelaide and Perth - but the question remains - why did we see it in Sydney then? A mistake, or a change coming?

What can we expect to see on Channel 9 for the rest of the year?

Here are some of the shows line has lined up for the second half of 2009.

There is the “all new” (a phrase that 9 uses to avoid confusion with repeats) Australian Drama: Rescue: Special Ops.

Ladette to Lady Australia will be back again, despite the fact it rated poorly earlier this year. Also the Farmer Wants a Wife is set to return later as well.

Trouble in Paradise starts tonight, while a new series of the Apprentice is set to air on 9, as well as the Australian version. Also Money for Jam and Australia’s Perfect Couple are includes in the reality and factual series line up.

Other shows include: Secret Millionaire, Celebrity Singing Bee and Lets Dance for Comic Relief (sounds like Dancing with the Stars for comedians!).
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Channel 9 have today sent out a press release boasting of their success over key demographics and how many programs have increased their share in 2009 so far. While the report is no doubt aimed at their advertisers to show how well the channel is doing, the overall ratings results do not seem to commensurate with the details in the press release, with shows like Two And a Half Men now regularly coming forth in their time slot.

Nine boasts that they have enjoyed record breaking performances with shows like Underbelly, and the State of Origin series so far.

Shows like Underbelly, Sea Patrol, Hot Seat and Today they claim have built audience shares for most of their key demographics. Aussie Ladette to Lady is reported to have improved over the results of the UK version aired on 9 in 2008.
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