Media Hunter

One million Aussies embrace broadband

Source: The Australian

A MILLION Australians signed up to broadband internet in the past year, new statistics show.

New connections were up 50 per cent over the previous year, an Australian Bureau of Statistics survey found.

While 70 per cent of Australian households are connected to the internet only 3.5 million - 43 per cent of those - have access to broadband.

The Australian Capital Territory has the highest proportion of broadband connections (58 per cent of all households) while Tasmania (32 per cent) and South Australia (33 per cent) have the lowest.
The survey showed that about three-quarters of Australian households have access to a computer and five million had internet access.

In less than 10 years that represents a five-fold increase in the number of household internet connections.

The survey also found that half of all Australians over the age of 15 said they used the internet daily and more than 90 per cent used it weekly.

People with lower levels of education, older people, indigenous Australians and the unemployed had considerably lower internet usage.

Leckie's 10-year plan for Seven

Jane Schulze, The Australian

SEVEN Network chief executive David Leckie has been named The Australian's Media Person of the Year after leading the network to its first win in the television ratings in a non-Olympics year since 1978.

Channel Seven boss David Leckie, who has been named The Australian's Media Person of the Year. Picture: Lindsay Moller

Now Mr Leckie, who joined Seven in 2003 after a long career at Nine, has set his sights on Seven winning the ratings 10 years in a row.

Mr Leckie was named Media Person of the Year by Media's panel of judges after winning our award for the Radio and TV Person of the Year.

The accolade follows a stunning year for Seven, in which it won the ratings with 37.5 per cent of the overall audience. It also won the ratings in each capital city market and strengthened its lead in news and current affairs.

Speaking to Media (The Australian) yesterday, Mr Leckie attributed Seven's success to consistency.

"We decided our major demographic was 25-to-54s and four to five years ago we started to charge towards that. It took a long time and it took a lot of luck," he said. "And everyone knew momentum and relentless pressure was the way to get there, and they have done it."

He also said his key lieutenants - programming chief Tim Worner, news and current affairs chief Peter Meakin and sales chief James Warburton - were critical to the success.

"They are better than the opposition by a mile," he said.

Seven seals exclusive content deals

Source: Michael Bodey, The Australian

THE Seven Network has finished its winning year by inking two new international production contracts

A licensing production deal with US studio and distribution group NBC Universal will make its present and future television content, including Heroes, 30 Rock, Las Vegas and Lipstick Jungle exclusive to Seven.

Films including The Bourne Ultimatum and the upcoming American Gangster, Mamma Mia! and Atonement will also go to Seven, as will news programming, including Dateline and The Today Show.

NBC Universal previously split the Australian rights with Ten, which did well out of the agreement with House and the Law & Order franchise becoming two of the network's mainstays.

Seven has also signed a long-term exclusive deal with British production and distribution company Granada-ITV.

Granada produces Prime Suspect and A Touch of Frost and will deliver a new series of the drama starring Caroline Quentin, Life Begins, William and Mary and the new Inspector Morse spin-off, Lewis, among others.

The deal will be particularly galling for Nine executive director David Gyngell, who moved back to Australia after a stint heading Granada USA. It gives Seven exclusive access to a major US network and the UK's leading commercial network.

Seven chief David Leckie said in a statement: "Our agreements with The Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal and now Granada are important: all three production companies are part of broader media businesses which include ownership of television networks."

Ten prepares for Hollywood emergency

Source: Miriam Steffens, Sydney Morning Herald
                        

TV VIEWERS may be in for even more reality shows and local programs next year as the local networks prepare to fill holes caused by the screenplay writers' strike in Hollywood which is crippling production of US blockbusters like House and Desperate Housewives.

"It's a cloud on the horizon," Ten Network's executive chairman, Nick Falloon, told shareholders at the broadcaster's annual meeting yesterday.

If the strike keeps going, "it has the potential to limit - not only for us, but for all networks - the supply of new US product into the new year."

Ten got a full briefing on the situation from its US studio partners, 20th Century Fox and CBS Paramount, last week, TV boss Grant Blackley said after the meeting.

"They're looking at a speedy resolution but unfortunately we can't see that at this point," he said.

                    

Sport the bright spot in a second-rate summer

Source: Amanda Meade, The Australian

WITH many regular television programs signing off last month, viewers are already being served up second-rate fare.

But come January, things will only get worse. The reason the networks abandon viewers for two months over Christmas is because their revenue drops.

Advertising agencies pay about half the rates they pay for spots during the 40-week ratings season, which ended last Saturday, so the networks alter their schedules accordingly.

Conversely, sponsorship of sporting events is big business and some networks have used the summer season to promote their schedule for the new year.

Seven, of course, did this to great effect when launching Lost and Desperate Housewives during the Australian Open in January 2005.

Seven's best offering this summer is the Emmy award-winning comedy series 30 Rock, which stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, who won a Golden Globe for his role as a brash network TV executive.

The title 30 Rock comes from a nickname for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, also known as the GE Building, home of NBC's New York City studios.

NBN takes Newcastle crown but Prime grows

Source: Newcastle Herald

Prime Television has had its best year in its 15-year history in Newcastle, closing the gap on NBN.

Prime benefited from the success of Kath & Kim, City Homicide and Dancing With the Stars.

Its news performed well, as did current affairs show Today Tonight.

Ratings figures show Prime increased its audience share for prime-time viewing from 6pm to midnight by 3.07 percentage points this year.

The ratings season began in February and ended last Saturday.

The figures, which were released yesterday, showed Prime had 25.36 per cent of Newcastle’s audience, compared with 22.29 per cent last year.

A Prime spokeswoman said the increase “definitely came at the expense of NBN”.

“It’s been the best year in our history,” she said.

NBN has fallen from 36.95 per cent of the audience last year to 33.75 per cent.
Network Ten went from 19.09 per cent last year to 18.6 per cent.

Prime made gains in the Newcastle news hour, which runs from 6pm weekdays.

Prime gained 6.24 percentage points to secure 28.89 per cent of the average audience share.

NBN lost 6.7 points, dropping to 45.54 per cent of audience share.

Newcastle’s top show of the year was the NBN news Newcastle flood special, attracting 192,330 viewers, followed by the second State of Origin rugby league match with an audience of 182,254.

Rugby league programs secured 16 of the top 20 programs.
The spring specials of Burke’s Backyard, the finales of The Biggest Loser, Big Brother and Dancing With the Stars and Kath & Kim and Sea Patrol polled strongly.

Other programs to do well included Summer Heights High, The Chaser’s War on Everything, Thank God You’re Here, Australian Idol’s first semi-final and Backyard Blitz.

On the national scene, Seven defeated Nine in all major timeslots.

In September, The Chaser’s War On Everything APEC motorcade stunt drew 2.24 million viewers, one of the best results for an ABC show.

SBS retained its audience share of 5.5 per cent, on the back of repeat successes such as Top Gear and Inspector Rex.

Newcastle TV ratings week 48

Most watched programs:

1    The Chaser Decides 2007    ABC    99000
2    Farmer Wants A Wife    NBN    99000
3    NBN Evening News Sunday    NBN    87000
4    Dancing With The Stars 7 Grand Final    PRIME    84000
5    A Current Affair    NBN    83000
6    NBN Evening News Monday to Friday    NBN    79000
7    Missing Persons Unit    NBN    79000
8    CSI: Crime Scene Investigation    NBN    77000
9    La Galaxy v Sydney FC    TEN    76000
10    Cold Case    NBN    76000

Station ratings:

                Week 48 2007    Week 48 2006    Prog 2007    Prog 2006
NBN                31.0                    38.4                33.8            36.6
PRIME            27.2                    23.3                25.4            22.4
TEN                21.0                    17.8                18.6            19.1
ABC                15.6                    14.7                16.4            16.1
SBS                5.3                        5.9                5.9                5.7