The TV ratings survey has begun for 2022. Mediaweek caught up with Nine‘s chief sales officer, Michael Stephenson, to talk about the broadcaster’s results over the Summer, and its expectations for the TV ratings survey for this year.
In regards to the Summer, Stephenson said that he could not be happier with the results.
“We have got off to an absolute flyer. We invested in content in the early part of summer which saw Lego Masters and Snack Masters come into the schedule. Then into the Australian summer of tennis, culminating in the Australian Open. The Aussies did particularly well and the cream on the cake, obviously was Ash (Barty) winning the women’s final. All of that contributed to the highest primetime share ever delivered by any network over the Summer. It was the first time ever, that a network has delivered a 40+ share of all of the demos over the Summer, and Nine’s done that. That gives us an amazing promotional platform to launch our schedule.”
Last year saw a spirited battle between Seven and Nine for the total audience TV ratings crown, with Seven eventually edging out Nine. While Stephenson said that he expects Nine to be #1 this year, he also spruiked Nine’s success in key demographics.
“Five out of the last six years, we’ve been the absolute undisputed leader in the thing that matters to advertisers, and that’s demographics. So to me, there was no conjecture about that, we just won again, and I have no doubt that we’ll win again this year. We’ve got off to a flyer of a start, and we’ve got this consistency of schedule. From a linear TV point of view, from the Australian Open, through to MAFS, Ninja Warrior, Lego Masters, Celebrity Apprentice, Beauty and the Geek, The Block, and Love Island, we’ve got such a depth of content. And it’s all demographically pure. We don’t target as a business total people audiences and therefore we don’t deliver them.
“We’re proudly number two in 65+ and it’s exactly where we’ll be. Advertisers don’t buy it so we don’t focus on it.”
Michael Stephenson on the future of content at Nine
Stephenson said that another thing that excited him about this year is the embracement of total TV by the industry.
“That’s the future. Audiences are consuming across multiple platforms and now we’re measuring it. What we are seeing is growth year-on-year in the pure 1000s. Of course, that’s what’s interesting to advertisers, and the 9Now numbers are just going crazy.
“The tennis this year, we reached about 13.5 million Australians nationally from a broadcast TV point of view. But increasingly, there were another million people that we reached exclusively on BVOD, they only consumed the Australian Open by 9Now, they didn’t watch the linear signal at all.”
However, Stephenson said that Nine’s strategy doesn’t stop at total TV, with the Fairfax merger in 2018 allowing the media company to move into other areas as well.
“What is interesting about all of this is, is the notion of total audio. The same thing is happening in radio, as it did in television. Audiences are consuming through a live signal via a smart speaker or connected device, and increasingly via podcasts. And the same thing is happening in publishing. So total publishing is now a thing whereby people are consuming our news media content, either via print, or digitally. The merger with Fairfax has allowed us to do all of those things. It’s allowed us to create total TV, total audio, and total publishing and we wouldn’t have been able to do that if we were a stand-alone silo business.”
2GB’s Ben Fordham
Overall, Stephenson said these elements serve as pillars in Nine’s overall strategy which will move it forward into the future.
“We have a very clear strategy. At Nine, we create great content, we distribute it broadly to engage audiences and advertisers. That’s what we do. The pillars of our business are clear, its total television, total audio, total publishing, and marketplaces through Domain and Drive. Whilst we’re proud of what we’ve achieved, there’s still a long way to go. I think this combination of amazing content supported and powered by first-party data in an increasingly more addressable world, and delivered with our technology is where we will spend the rest of our time.”