At 6.30pm, Sunday August 9, 2009, Nine’s first digital multi channel GO began transmission with what was called a “soft launch”. Unlike the start of every other digital channels so far, there was no countdown, no fanfare, not even a mention on Nine on the night – as digital channel 99 and 88 in many regional areas came to life moving from the promo loop that had been playing for the previous few days straight into Sunday night programming which featured Wipe Out at 6.30pm.
GO started out as having themed nights which included a Thursday night aimed more at the female demographic, a sci fi based Wednesday night, action nights and more. In early programming, GO featured music over night and the three hour prime time programming block repeated the next day during the day. Prime time repeats expanded into the night – occupying 1am-4am, leaving music to fill hours from 4am till the morning childrens’ shows.
Right from the start, a major part of GO programming included classic TV shows like the Flintstones, Bewitched and I Dream of Jennie – probably the only three shows that have remained consistently in the same time slot over the past year – as well as 90’s classic TV like Seinfeld and Frasier with the former still appearing is large chunks of programming and rating well.
With the current Vampire craze being spurred on by the Twilight series of movies and books and TV shows like True Blood, the Vampire Diaries was promoted as a GO exclusive and enjoyed a constant Monday night timeslot after being fast tracked from the US. GO also allowed for shows dumped from Nine’s line up like Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Eleventh Hour, Moonlight and Gossip Girl while allowing others the network had the rights to but never showed like Bad Lads Army, The Bachelor, and Dog the Bounty Hunter to be given air play.
But over time, more and more channel Nine shows have crept into the schedule making GO appear more like 9TWO than its own stand alone youth channel it was intended to be. Even though the Big Bang Theory had a regular timeslot on GO before it exploded into the channel’s top rating show and took the title of the most watched show on any digital channel, it is essentially a Nine show and is joined by shows like Top Gear, CSI and more recently, Two and a Half Men as regular Nine shows now on GO.
With the number of classic TV now on the channel, GO’s youth appeal has been questioned – but if rumours about Nine’s third channel being a classic TV channel, these shows could soon move off GO, freeing up GO to again focus more on the younger demographics it set out to appeal to.
GO’s biggest insult to its audience has been the inclusion of Home Shopping from 2-4am appearing in the schedule from May – alienating many who chose to watch the channel at those times. Constant schedule changing and last minute amendments has left viewers of many of GO’s shows confused and angry – there are more negative comments on the GO Facebook page than positive.
However, and no matter what people think of the way GO has gone over its first year, GO is undoubtable Australia’s most successful digital channel reaching audience shares as high as over 7% on some nights, and now reaching a weekly average audience share of 4.2%.
GO had a 3 month head start over Seven’s channel that did not launch until November. Unlike Nine and GO, Seven kept 7TWO as a general channel meaning it was easy to cross promote, share titles and be more flexible with programming. 7TWO’s average weekly share is around 3.6%, but it takes the record as the highest nightly share recorded for a digital channel, reaching 8.1% on a Saturday night a few weeks ago.
The launch of 5 new digital channels in 2009 has helped reshape the free to air television landscape, giving viewers more options, fragmenting the audience and redefining what the networks now consider as successful shows. In 2011, we will go through another wave of new channels with both Nine and Ten to launch third channels at some stage throughout the year, with, of course, the possibility of Seven doing the same.
As for the future of GO as it moves into its second year, GO are promising more hot new shows to come including the second season of the Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars amongst others. The launch of Nine’s third channel in 2011 could even see GO end up in HD. Hopefully, however, the programming will become more stable and erratic programming changes will settle down.
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