7News.com.au’s debut on Nielsen’s Current Events and Global News Digital Content Ratings (DCR) chart, shows Seven’s strategy to own and operate its direct to consumer products is delivering significantly better results than when they were housed within Yahoo7, according to Seven West Media.
The broadcasting and publishing group released this statement about its performance:
Just two months after launch 7News.com.au is already engaging bigger audiences than the Daily Mail, The Age, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian.[2]
The Nielsen data shows that in the first seven days of fully audited traffic 7News.com.au engaged an average daily audience of 613,945.[2]
This is 23% higher than 7News achieved when owned and operated by the Yahoo7 joint venture.[3]
Seven’s director of news and public affairs Craig McPherson said: “The success of 7News.com.au marks a monumental moment in our 7News and public affairs offerings. We now have ownership of our mighty product across every platform every hour of every day.
“This digital expansion of the 7News brand follows the successful launch of The Latest which, as Australia’s only commercial TV late news service, is now also supplying premium news content to 7News.com.au.
“Meanwhile, our 6pm broadcast bulletins are increasing share in every market, and when you consider that in the first week of June alone we saw 7.4 million engagements across 7News’ social channels[4], it is clear that 7News is the pre-eminent multi-platform news brand in Australia, bar none.”
The launch of 7News.com.au was the last component of Seven West Media’s (SWM) strategy to own and operate all its direct to consumer products. Since executing the strategy, SWM’s digital audiences have grown across the board:
• SWM achieved its highest ever Unique Audience in April 2019, for a third consecutive month, reaching 5.7m Australians (up 17.2% YOY)[5]
• 7plus BVOD consumption grew by 54% YOY in May, to more than double the consumption recorded by PLUS7 in May 2017[6], and re-gaining the largest share of BVOD minutes streamed across live and video on demand amongst Commercial FTAs[7]
• Pacific achieved its Highest Ever Unique Audience in April 2019, for the second consecutive month, reaching nearly 3m Australians (+43% YOY)[8]. Pacific continues to build on the strong momentum that commenced with the migration of assets from the Yahoo7 JV back in May 2016, a transition that resulted in the tripling of the portfolio’s online performance.[9]
• The West Australian has also benefitted from its own migration from Yahoo7, doubling its monthly unique audience[10]
Seven West Media digital sales director James Bayes (pictured) said: “The immediate success of 7News.com.au is more proof that our strategy is working – having full control of our digital assets has enabled us to quickly become one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing digital publishers.
“We are now better positioned than ever before to support the growth of our clients with scaled data, insight and content led solutions.
“We’re incredibly confident in our ability to create and sustain leadership across key verticals with significant investment in digital content, product, technology and commercial operations.”
Sources:
2 Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, Current Events & Global News brands & Sub-brands ranked by Average Daily Unique Audience, P2+, from 1/6/2019 to 7/6/2019, Text.
3 Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, 6-Month Average Daily Unique Audience, P2+, from 1/10/2018 to 31/3/2019, Text.
4 Shareablee Analytics (June 2019)
5 Nielsen Digital Panel, Monthly Unique Audience, P2+, April 2019.
6 OzTAM VPM, total live and video on demand minutes, May 2019 vs. May 2017.
7 OzTAM VPM, share of total live and video on demand Commercial Free-to-Air minutes, May 2019 – CFTA incl. Seven, Nine and Ten.
8 Nielsen Digital Panel, Monthly Unique Audience, P2+, April 2019. Pacific is reported by Nielsen as “Seven West Media Network (Pacific Digital)”
9 Nielsen Market Intelligence, Average Daily Unique Browsers, Monthly, May 2019 vs. May 2016. The Pacific portfolio is reported by Nielsen as “Seven West Media Network (Pacific Life & Style Network Total)”.
10 Nielsen Market Intelligence, Average Daily Unique Browsers, Monthly, May 2019 vs. May 2016. Whilst part of Yahoo7, The West was reported by Nielsen as “thewest.com.au Network”