Seven, Nine, Ten fight numbers war
Oz webs begin battle for viewership early
Ratings season officially began Feb. 10 but programming and publicity arms have been cranking since January after Seven caught Nine napping last year and translated strong summer programming into a ratings season head start.
This year all three commercial webs tried to gain the upper hand by rolling out new skeins of primetime shows outside of ratings slots.
After a decade as ratings leader, 2001 saw Kerry Packer's Nine web lose ground to Kerry Stokes' Seven. Nine lost 2% of the TV aud, Seven gained 1%, and CanWest's third-ranked Ten gained 2%.
Those changes almost leveled aud shares for Seven and Nine and forced Nine to freeze its advertising rates into 2002, while Seven and Ten hiked their rates by 5% and 8% respectively.
Execs at Nine were busy in January: Most significantly, chief exec David Leckie was replaced by ex-Nine Melbourne chief Ian Johnson. Nine's summer cricket one-day series returned bumper auds, but the Australian team's failure to make the final series has robbed the web of extra momentum.
The 2002 slate features a raft of new primetime programming, notably AFL football, which Ten and Nine picked up at considerable expense from Seven, local fare includes gameshows "Shafted," "Marry Me," "Australian Survivor," "Pass the Buck" and drama "The Young Lions."
'Coast' is toast
Nine incurred substantial losses with the 11th-hour cancellation of new five-days-a-week soap "The Coast," weekly drama "Halifax" and a football chatfest. New overseas programming includes "Single Girls U.K.," the next chapter in the Star Trek saga "Enterprise" and HBO's "Six Feet Under," starring local thesp Rachel Griffiths. Previously renowned for consistent scheduling, it remains to be seen if Nine's audience takes to this new product.
Seven is hoping to make up for the absence of AFL football, which could mean a 1% aud share loss, with the return of strong performers including "Popstars" and "The Weakest Link."
Of the three commercial webs, Ten achieved the strongest growth in 2001 and will return with hits "Everybody Love Raymond" and "Big Brother" as well as that all-important AFL football.
