Here's a turn up for the books. TEN chief Grant Blackley says Seven will lose the 2008 ratings year. Normally such boisterous comments are traded between Seven and Nine. But it does follow a broadside by Seven's David Leckie at TEN back in March.
"As far as we're concerned, Seven's demise is not an aberration and will continue throughout the year," Blackley told The Australian.
Seven's share of total people in 2008 viewing has slumped 6 per cent while TEN's has jumped 4.4 per cent and Nine's 3 per cent.
TEN has now taken the lead in the 18 to 49-year-old demographic after lifting its audience share 2.5 per cent to 34.3 per cent. Nine has boosted viewing in that demographic by 12.5 per cent to 33.9 per cent while Seven, which won this demographic last year, has fallen 12.7 per cent to 31.7 per cent.
Blackley neglects to mention that Nine and TEN had a pretty terrible start to 2007 -the only way was up after all.
The Australian understands Seven executives held a phone hook-up to discuss programming options with David Leckie yesterday as he recovers from hospital.
Speaking ahead of his departure to the US for the annual round of TV previews or "screenings" by the US TV networks, Mr Blackley attributed Seven's decline to its loss of the FOX output deal to TEN and fading local product.
"With TEN picking up the FOX contract this year it hasn't allowed Seven to bring more product to market, and for the last few years they have typically been able to bring five to six new programs from the international sector," he said.
Asked if Nine could again win the year, Mr Blackley said: "Yes they could. Certainly the trend line for Seven is not strong. They now have to wait until September to see what new product there is from the US and then adopt a 'day and date' strategy like we did (where they broadcast programs in Australia as soon as they appear in the US)."
But MediaCom chief executive Anne Parsons believed Seven would "undoubtedly" strongly improve from here. It also has the Olympics to push new product.
"I think they will undoubtedly have a strong improvement and I would still back them (Seven) to be the ones that win at year end," she said.
Blackley noted Mr Leckie had recently forecast a post-Easter improvement in Seven's ratings. "Seven made some comments that they shouldn't be judged until after Easter, which we find fascinating given that advertisers have invested since the start of the survey with the network. I'm sure they didn't pitch that in their upfronts," he said.
But questioned on the ratings for TEN's major franchise Big Brother, Mr Blackley said it was "doing equal to what it did last year". "The launch episode was down by 20,000 people, but if you look at all the episodes that have gone to air we are doing the same as last year," he said.
I don't think so on that score, either.
UPDATE: Seven also hit back at claims by Ten boss Grant Blackley that Seven couldn't win the ratings crown this year.
“The only way he (Blackley) appears to be able to generate any interest in his network is to talk about Seven,” Seven spokesman Simon Francis told AAP. “We're honoured.”
Source: The Australian
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Wednesday night's Big Brother special with Carson Kressley did so well for TEN it appears to be doing the idea again.
