By James Manning
“smoothfm Sydney has been the station of the entire summer,” said Nova Entertainment’s group PD Paul Jackson about the brand that ended #1 FM in the market and has started 2019 even stronger.
“We used to say our best time was coming into the winter months, but to have done that across the summer, wow. To have a cume audience of nearly a million is absolutely astonishing. When you break it down we are #1 25-54 cume and share so we are right in the centre ground where we want to be…and it beats all comers.”
Although smoothfm lost top FM spot in Melbourne, Jackson noted how well it continues to perform – #2 overall and breakfast with Mike and Jen also close to 8%.
When it comes to ARN’s new KIIS 101.1 ad suggesting Nova listeners might be pretentious, Jackson said: “I’ve never been a believer in criticising rival radio stations, although I can see the angle they are coming at it from. It can be very dangerous. I’m not sure many people watch an ad and think that’s what a Nova listener is. These things can either work very well for you or very much against you. It’s high risk.”
Jackson said Nova Entertainment didn’t ask listeners to change their station when they launched smoothfm. “We had a TV ad with Michael Bublé to explain the sound and feel of the radio station. Our strategy was always very clear – we build from the weekends with big stars. Then people might start listening at night and ultimately we’d get people to listen to the workday. We built all those timeslots and we always said breakfast came last – we used to get lots of questions about when are we going to get a breakfast show on smooth. That was a long journey – a five-year build and the best way to do it is having the audience telling each other. We needed to have a unique position in the marketplace and smoothfm did that.”
He added: “What is KIIS’s USP?”
Nova Brisbane could not have had a better survey start to 2019 and Jackson attributed the rebound to the quality of the content.
“Jay Walkerden [Brisbane GM and PD] and the breakfast team had a lot of good, well thought out and constructive planning sessions for the new year. We also have some tough competition up there doing some very good radio. The standards are high and we just hope ours manages to cut through a bit more. We have terrific cumes and a great heritage as well.”
Sydney Nova is facing a challenge, admitted Jackson. “It is a surprise to me that Kate, Tim and Marty loose four share points in Sydney and then are either flat, or up, around the rest of the country. Similarly that Smallzy would lose about three share points and then hold his own everywhere else.
“The only demo we seem to be affected in is 24-34 where we have taken a bath literally. As our cumes have not gone down it is fair enough to say we are not going to sweat that one.
“We are happy to celebrate the brilliant results so we will take the odd not-so-good ones on the chin.”
As to Mix breaking Nova’s breakfast winning streak in Perth (five #1 surveys last year), Jackson said, “Outrageous. I can’t believe it…very disappointed! We have been doing brilliantly and we are still doing very well in Perth.”
Jacskon was happy about Adelaide too with share and cume heading in the right direction, with cume closing in on Mix. “Dylan and Hayley sound fantastic and Ben Latimer [PD Sydney and Adelaide] has done a great job with that. Again it is a tough market with lots of people talking about radio. There is plenty of talk about Bec and Cosi [at Hit 107] and people will be sampling that. We need to always be putting our best foot forward with a very compelling offering.”
By James Manning
National content director Duncan Campbell told Mediaweek: “It is a consistent result and shows the resilience of the network. We had our challenges obviously, but we know these markets and understand factors that impact them like market forces or talent movement.
“We have seen some good growth in audience numbers this survey.”
He noted the cume audience improvement, not necessarily share lifts, and added it’s a good place to start the year.
Campbell detailed the challenges in Melbourne and Brisbane.
“Melbourne is the big one obviously. There is disappoint and an element of surprise that Christian O’Connell didn’t move forward and took such a hit. Survey one does have anomalies and Nova had theirs with Kate, Tim and Marty.
“We look at the numbers for shows that have dropped and ask is it real or just an anomaly. Gold 104.3 remains a very strong station and we are confident Christian will move forward. There is too much anecdotal feedback coming through to suggest otherwise.”
When discussion turned to the challenges at KIIS in Melbourne, Campbell started: “We are the third CHR station in the market and that doesn’t help and we are trying to unlock entrenched habitual listening at Fox and Nova. They are two very strong brands and our marketing campaign launched this week is designed to do that. We are trying to get people thinking about an alternative. Jase and PJ on KIIS have a good breakfast show with strong content on a good radio station. The easiest thing to say is we will make some changes there, but the fact is we are going to give the show the time it needs for the audience to get to know them. We will be marketing that show some more during survey two.
“Our confidence around that show remains high at all levels throughout the business. We will persist.”
Campbell didn’t think it was risky mentioning other stations with bigger audiences in their marketing. [Unlike Nova Entertainment’s Paul Jackson who thinks it a dangerous strategy. See separate item published today.]
“I don’t think it is risky because you are trying to get people who are habitual listeners of other stations to think about an alternative. We could have been even more aggressive, but we decided not to. But we have been cheeky and if it generates talk around KIIS that is a positive for us.”
See also: ARN’s marketing plan to get Melbourne audiences changing stations
It wouldn’t be surprising if both Melbourne breakfast show teams were a little despondent after the results. “Christian is disappointed, but he remains very confident in the show as are we,” said Campbell.
“Jason Hawkins meanwhile has incredible confidence and he went through all of last year not seeing a lot of growth and he also knows the support of the company for the show. It will be a long game for that show.”
At KIIS 1065 in Sydney The Kyle and Jackie O Show maintains FM leadership, but the numbers drop after that. As to the challenge there, Campbell said: “I’d rather have a strong breakfast show and then some challenges across the workday. There is a CHR battle going on in Sydney and Melbourne and we continue to monitor the music battle. Our workday numbers aren’t that bad up against director competitors like 2Day and Nova. We are competitive in mornings and then 2Day just pips us in afternoons. Compared to the Hit Network and Nova, KIIS performs well across the day. Nova has some challenges after this survey and 2Day doesn’t have a breakfast show.”
In Brisbane the sequence of lower shares for 97.3 is continuing. “The challenge for the station is breakfast,” said Campbell. “You look at the numbers and it jumps out at you. We want to improve those breakfast numbers and that is where the focus is.”
By Andrew Mercado
10 is also challenged on Wednesdays with the last remaining Law & Order series. Now in Season 20, SVU can’t beat SBS, which has been on a winner with Australia In Colour. It’s about making archival images more palatable for younger viewers turned off by black and white. And that’s a good thing, but the history woven around the footage is much more inclusive thanks to SBS’ unique multicultural charter. Australia In Colour is a must-see and it should be shown in every school in the country.
Leaving Neverland (TenPlay) and The Cult of the Family (ABC iView) both investigate children being abused because their parents were brainwashed by celebrity and religion. Michael Jackson’s legacy is forever tarnished, and as radio stopped playing Gary Glitter and Rolf Harris after their dirty past was uncovered, the same has to apply to Jacko.
It is not enough anymore for dramas to say “based on a true story” because Manhunt adds in that “some names have been changed and some characters and scenes have been created for dramatic purposes.” How are you supposed to believe anything after that introduction? Martin Clunes leaves behind his Doc Martin persona to play a fastidious Inspector investigating a serial killer. And proving they can be just as obsessive, Seven will also soon screen Martin Clunes’ Islands of America.
What a joy it was to binge watch After Life on Netflix, although some people seem upset that Ricky Gervais has described it at the best thing he has ever done. It’s nice that The Office still has its fans, but After Life says much more about the human condition. Gervais has never been more savage and this goes straight into any Top 10 list for the year. The only thing that will make you laugh or cry harder is if Olympia Valance gets another camel toe on Dancing With The Stars.
By James Manning
• Seven News 925,000/863,000
• Nine News 844,000/872,000
• A Current Affair 611,000 (No Brisbane)
• ABC News 634,000
• 7.30 583,000
• The Project 211,000/394,000
• 10 News First 347,000
• SBS World News 106,000
• Sunrise 261,000
• Today 197,000
• ABC News Breakfast 159,000
With the return of NRL elsewhere last night, Seven’s winning Thursday share of 18.4% last week turned into a second place 18.3% last night.
Seven still managed a winning combined channel share of 29.6% with 7mate the #1 multi with 4.1%.
Home And Away dipped to 524,000 for its three episodes, after three nights over 600,000 earlier this week.
The final of Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries did 346,000 after 304,000 last week. The series launched on 463,000 in week 8.
A Current Affair only screened in four markets with 611,000. There was no Brisbane screening because of the NRL coverage.
The NRL returned for 2019 and was a winner for Nine and the Melbourne Storm. The match did 524,000 with 246,000 in Sydney and 212,000 in Brisbane. There was 48,000 watching in Melbourne as the Melbourne team won.
No Footy Show any more after the game, but instead Nine’s new Thursday Night Golden Point with James Bracey hosting. The first episode did 337,000.
Gogglebox was again the champion performer for the channel with 645,000 making it the most-watched program after the three main early evening news bulletins. It also did 645,000 a week ago.
Earlier in the night The Project was on 394,000 at 7pm and then Show Me The Movie! did 326,000 after 343,000 last week.
Later in the night 10 had an encore screening of Hughesy, We Have A Problem with 272,000 watching, which is up on the 222,000 watching the original last Sunday.
Escape From The City was snooping around Lake Macquarie last night with 450,000 after 434,000 seven days ago.
The second week of Informer did 163,000 after launching with 205,000.
Secrets Of The Tudors was just over 200,000 at 7.30pm.
The first of the two-part celebration Jumbo Jet: 50 Years In The Sky did 187,000.
The brilliant and penultimate episode of the four-part Trust Me with Jodie Whittaker didn’t make the top 100 with around 70,000, but it is well worth tracking down on SBS On Demand before it disappears.
THURSDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | 10 | SBS | |||||
ABC | 10.9% | 7 | 18.3% | 9 | 20.6% | 10 | 13.4% | SBS One | 4.4% |
ABC KIDS/ ABC COMEDY | 3.0% | 7TWO | 3.2% | GO! | 3.0% | 10 Bold | 3.6% | VICELAND | 1.0% |
ABC ME | 0.7% | 7mate | 4.1% | GEM | 2.3% | 10 Peach | 2.0% | Food Net | 1.3% |
ABC NEWS | 1.6% | 7flix | 2.7% | 9Life | 2.3% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
7Food | 1.4% | ||||||||
TOTAL | 16.2% | 29.6% | 28.2% | 19.0% | 6.9% |
THURSDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | 10 Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 9.9% | 7 | 18.9% | 9 | 20.0% | WIN | 11.7% | SBS One | 3.7% |
ABC KIDS/ ABC COMEDY | 3.5% | 7TWO | 4.5% | GO! | 2.4% | WIN Bold | 2.9% | VICELAND | 1.1% |
ABC ME | 1.0% | 7mate | 6.1% | GEM | 3.2% | WIN Peach | 2.1% | Food Net | 1.2% |
ABC NEWS | 1.9% | 7flix | 2.8% | 9Life | 2.0% | Sky News on WIN | 0.9% | NITV | 0.3% |
TOTAL | 16.3% | 32.3% | 27.6% | 17.6% | 6.3% |
THURSDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
83.1% | 16.9% |
16-39 Top Five
18-49 Top Five
25-54 Top Five
Shares all people, 6pm-midnight, Overnight (Live and AsLive), Audience numbers FTA metro, Sub TV national
Source: OzTAM and Regional TAM 2018. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM
The online advertising sector grew 11.6 per cent to $8.8 billion in calendar 2018, accounting for a record 54 per cent of the total Australian advertising sector, the latest Online Advertising Expenditure report from the IAB and PwC shows.
But ad spend data from Standard Media Index (SMI), which tracks $7.2 billion in annual advertising investment from media agencies, tells a different story. Media agencies control most of the media budgets for large brand owners.
According to SMI, blue chip advertisers increased their online spending through media agencies at half the growth rate (5.8 per cent) of the 11.6 per cent increase in the IAB-PwC report. Large advertisers spent $2.07 billion in online channels in 2018 but their 5.8 per cent increase last year is a near halving of their online spending through media agencies in 2017 (up 10.1 per cent).
According to SMI, blue chip advertisers are allocating 28.5 per cent of their total advertising budgets to online channels, compared to online’s 54 per cent marketshare in the IAB-PwC figures.
Rowland, who addressed the Sydney Institute last night, described Australia’s current media regulatory framework as “siloed” in an “analogue era of last century” and backed calls for digital platforms and their algorithms to be examined to manage anti-competitive behaviour.
She criticised the Coalition government’s approach to the media sector as being “piecemeal” and lacking coherence.
“The communications portfolio is feeling the weight of six years of stop-start policymaking, of no coherent reform agenda, in everything from spectrum reform that has been under way for over four years with no end in sight; the stalled report of the Australian and Children’s Screen Content Review; lack of implementation into recommendations on Australia’s video game development industry; and leaving the recommendations of the Senate inquiry into the future of public interest journalism unaddressed.”
While a number of local and international parties have been in the data room set up by Nine, another player is considering a run.
AUA Private Equity Partners, which has about $US275 million of assets under management, is understood to have shown some late interest in Nine’s events business.
The outage knocked out its service entirely for some users, and severely limited them for others, meaning there was no news feed to scroll through and no Instagram to show everyone how fabulous the morning cup of coffee looked on the table in front of them.
Facebook’s Australian media relations team were left clutching on to a brief statement written by their US office, essentially saying that it wasn’t due to a co-ordinated hacker attack and that they were still working on getting things back up online.
The company blamed a change it had made to its system for the outage. Facebook (FB) said the issue had been resolved and that it’s systems were recovering.
“Yesterday, we made a server configuration change that triggered a cascading series of issues. As a result, many people had difficulty accessing our apps and services,” a Facebook spokesperson said Thursday.
A Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business that despite some online rumours, the issue was not caused by a hack or an attack, adding that the company was focused on resolving the issue and hoped to eventually share details about what caused the problem.
The interruption, which also extended to Facebook-owned services like Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, is believed to be the biggest ever suffered by the social media giant.
BIG4 said the collaboration will allow The Wiggles to share the BIG4 experience with a new generation of families where they can enjoy a fun, safe, and memorable break connecting with loved ones.
The Wiggles’ Anthony Field said that BIG4 Holiday Parks was the perfect fit for the popular entertainment group owing to its emphasis on promoting active, fun, family- focused breaks.
“We really love the type of experiences BIG4 are able to offer young familes.”
BIG4 Holiday Parks general manager sales & marketing, Mo Bhargava, said the relationship with The Wiggles offers huge opportunities for its business.
“While BIG4 remains strong, and we continue to welcome hundreds and thousands of families each year, we recognise that the market is always changing. And so is the composition of this segment, with a lot of young parents in Australia not having grown up visiting holiday parks,” Bhargava said.
“The Wiggles is the perfect platform to reach and inspire young families to visit BIG4 holiday parks.”
As part of the agreement, The Wiggles and BIG4 will be offering The Wiggles audience a range of benefits and opportunities that will be rolled out in the coming months.
Sound Relief, which took place at the MCG 10 years ago this week, raised more than $8 million for the victims of Black Saturday.
“The music industry is renowned for getting behind charity and helping out. And it’s really the greatest thing for me, to be able to give back and pull something like that together,” music promoter Gudinski said.
“If you think that I’m not thinking about doing it again, doing something for all the farmers in Victoria, well watch this space.
“I’m not going to try and repeat Sound Relief, but there’s something I’m working on at the moment with a few people.”
Online trolls exacted their revenge by flooding the website with thousands of audience reviews trashing the superhero pic once it opened March 8.
But the play didn’t work. Captain Marvel is a blockbuster, opening to US$154.3 million domestically and more than $455 million globally over the March 8-10 weekend, the sixth-biggest launch of all time. And by Tuesday, it was zooming past the $500 million mark worldwide.
A rep for the website now tells The Hollywood Reporter that additional measures are being considered in terms of audience reviews. Namely, a user may be asked to verify that he or she has seen the film in question before being allowed to post a critique. (It is unclear what that prompt would look like in practice.)
“We are disappointed that there was a group of people who were obviously very passionate and who had a negative opinion of the movie, whether they saw it or not,” says Dana Benson, VP communications for Fandango, parent of Rotten Tomatoes.
The claim, which a Voice spokesperson dismissed as “ridiculous”, suggests the celebrity coaches are told who to turn their chairs for in the blind auditions.
Singer Thom Phillips, who works as a producer on the Mix 102.3 breakfast show in Adelaide, told radio hosts Jodie (Oddy) and Soda (Mark Soderstrom) that he was approached to appear on last year’s season of The Voice.
“Early last year they found my online profiles and my music and then they reached out to me via email to ask if I wanted go on the show,” he said.
Phillips told the radio hosts that after turning down the offer, he was contacted by a senior producer who told him he’d definitely make it through to the second round of the talent show.
After the non-stop saga of ousted co-host Karl Stefanovic, Today hoped to regain some of its lost audience in 2019 with a new look and refresh panel but it all seems to have been to no avail.
Not only has the gap between Today and Channel 7 rival Sunrise widened dramatically, but now Channel 9 has slumped to third place.
On Wednesday, ABC News Breakfast drew in more viewers nationally than Today for the first time ever.
The public broadcaster’s morning show attracted 265,000 pairs of eyeballs from across Australia, just 1000 ahead of the Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight-fronted Today.
But this season, with its verbal and physical abuse, bedhopping contestants and liberal use of the C word, has crossed a line for many viewers.
The non-stop controversy has made for sky-high ratings – each episode pulls in more than 1.2 million viewers – but MAFS executive producer John Walsh is not happy with how things played out and hopes he doesn’t see a repeat of this year’s “cheating and drama” when the show’s seventh season airs next year.
“I wouldn’t like things to play out the same, I wouldn’t like people to see a repeat of what they saw this year,” Walsh tells news.com.au.
“It would just be absolute chaos if it was all cheating and all drama. While it’s fun to watch and it’s great to promo, I don’t think people will watch if that’s all it is.”
Agency sales manager Angela Mackenzie has been promoted to the newly created role of head of radio – direct and Brenton Clarke has been promoted to the position of head of radio – agency.
“Ange has been an amazing leader for our agency radio business for the past two years and will lead a large group of sales people into 2019 and beyond,” Iannazzo said.
“The direct market in Adelaide is a buoyant and competitive one and Ange is the perfect person to lead the team.
“With Ange moving across to direct sales, I’m equally as pleased to announce that Brenton will be moving to head up our agency radio business. He has done an incredible job working with agencies and clients with our sport and sponsorship products. Having worked in the Adelaide agency landscape for a long time as both an account manager and sales manager; he is the perfect fit to keep driving the team forward.”
Mackenzie and Clarke will commence their new roles with immediate effect.
Toyota’s new deal beats the $16m the car manufacturer has been paying the league since 2015, and once again takes the AFL past Tennis Australia in terms of having the biggest sporting sponsorship in the country.
Korean carmaker Kia’s latest deal for the naming rights to the Australian Open is for slightly more than $16m per year, as part of a contact signed last year, while Tennis Australia clinched an associate sponsorship deal with Chinese premium liquor company Luzhou Laojiao in January at a similar level.
AFL general manager commercial, Kylie Rogers, told The Australian the deal was “pleasing considering the environment we are operating in” and that “it is getting harder and harder to retain partners”.
Rogers said the AFL had 43 commercial partners, with several deals up for renewal later this year.
The AFL’s revenue from commercial operations, including sponsorship deals and corporate hospitality and ticket sales, topped the $200m mark for the first time in 2018, according to the league’s latest financial report.
An inevitable change to a historic twilight match finishing under lights was rejected by the AFL Commission for a third straight year. The grand final will start at the same time as last year – 2.30pm.
The grand final remains one of the very few major world team sporting championship events still played during daylight hours.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire made no secret of his preference. “If you want to be the No 1 rating show in Australia, you’ve got to be on in prime time,” he said. “It’s a no-brainer to me, the sooner we do it the better.”
Fox Footy’s Neroli Meadows has signed on to co-host the much-talked about revamped version of the once iconic AFL show.
After weeks of boardroom back-and-forth the two networks have finally agreed Meadows can “do an Eddie” by appearing on both stations.
Several years ago Eddie McGuire pulled off the shared arrangement by hosting Nine’s popular game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and calling games on Fox Footy.
Ironically, McGuire’s production company, Jam TV, is the team behind the reworking of The Footy Show.
The delay in getting Meadows, who has been holidaying overseas, across the line has caused a lot of angst for the new Footy Show team given it’s scheduled to debut on Wednesday and the hosts have yet to even be in the same room.