With the TV ratings survey coming to a close for the year and summer fast approaching, traditionally this is the time of the year that free to air broadcasters took their foot off the gas or focused on sports programming. In recent years though, broadcasters have adopted a 52 week TV schedule. Network 10 was an early adopter of this approach by combatting their broadcasters sports heavy programming with family entertainment during primetime in the form of I am a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!. The broadcaster has also now added its own top tier sport franchise in the A-League to help flesh out its summer programming.
Mediaweek caught up with 10 ViacomCBS’s chief sales officer Rod Prosser about why he thinks this is 10’s best summer lineup ever.
“We have got some known performers in there with IAC (I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!) which kicks off Jan 3 and is shot here in Australia, which is unbelievable because it’s allowed us to monetize it and commercialise it like never before,” said Prosser. “The show has a raft of really interesting and fun celebrities and then of course Chris (Brown) and Julia (Morris) hosting. It will be on five nights a week. For us it’s a property that just drives the rest of the schedule and creates that launchpad for us into February and beyond.”
I am a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! has become synomonous with 10’s summer lineup in recent years, with it once again confirmed to kick off the broadcasters clean slate in the new year. Prosser said that the show redefined the summer of TV.
“We had a shiny big format running across January and it gave viewers an alternative to what was being played elsewhere, which has been a great benefit to us in terms of commercialising, but indeed, to the audience as well. You just got to look at the audience share and the audience compared to what else has been broadcast on our competitors to see that it really dominates. So that then creates a great conversation in markets for advertisers around something that’s really noisy, and something that’s really different.”
The other big tentpole that will be holding up 10’s programming schedule in the warmer months is the A-League which kicked off its season and the first year of its new TV rights deal with 10 and Paramount+ this past weekend. Prosser said that this pairs well with both I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and 10’s other entertainment brands that will come out during the Summer.
“This year is our first year of being the home of football. So we have quite a populated schedule with with loads of football, and NBL over the summer too. We have also got a really noisy entertainment program (IAC) and we’ve got a really noisy summer sport schedule happening as well. You’ll see with some of the early ratings that it’s performing really well.
“Then we go straight off the back of IAC to Survivor which is a shift from its placement this year. It’s back into where we used to run it, and we know it performs really well off the back of IAC. Then there are other shows that accompany that, Dog House is coming back and we’ve got another season of Gogglebox, and then underpinning all of that is our always on, which is The Project which for us is really critical. We’re really pleased in terms of how it performs particularly across that last half an hour. We have put a lot of emphasis around The Project in terms of marketing spend and push which is exciting.”
Speaking of The Project, Prosser acknowledged that there has been some conjecture about the future of the program considering some sagging ratings this year. Last week 10 even put out a statement confirming that the show wasn’t going anywhere, and Prosser said he can’t see why they want to move on from the show.
“When we say its not going anywhere then its not going anywhere. We’re really proud of the social and cultural impact it’s had. 7:00pm really owns most of the key demos, so for us it’s a really critical part of our schedule.”
Hamish Macdonald and Lisa Wilkinson
10’s Total TV Ratings
Prosser also said that the universial adoption of total TV ratings has benefited 10 with programs like The Bachelorette which are aimed at audiences under 50 seeing boosts of over 50% on its overnight rating.
“We know that the younger demos consume off multiple platforms and their content consumption is quite different. From a total television point of view we’ve seen a really strong uplift in our viewership. Now we’re just working with buyers and agencies on how they can capitalise”
Brooke Blurton
The Mediaweek 100 is being released over the course of this week. See where Rod Prosser ranked here.