INITIATIVE MEDIA WEEK IN REVIEW: FEB 8-14

TELEVISION

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes – People 18-39

1. Monday    2040-2140    Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities    STW-9    15.9

2. Wednesday    2100-2200    House    NEW-10    15.4

3. Monday    2140-2240    Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities    STW-9    15.3

4. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    11.6

5. Thursday    2130-2230    Life on Mars    NEW-10    11.4

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-39

1. Monday    2040-2140    Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities    STW-9    19.2

2. Monday    2140-2240    Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities    STW-9    19.2

3. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    14.3

4. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    14.0

5. Monday    1930-2030    So You Think You Can Dance    NEW-10    13.7

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-54

1. Monday    2040-2140    Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities    STW-9    18.3

2. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    18.1

3. Monday    2140-2240    Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities    STW-9    17.7

4. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    15.2

5. Sunday    2000-2030    Triple Zero Heroes    TVW-7    15.0

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 35-54

1. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    21.0

2. Monday    2040-2140    Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities    STW-9    18.4

3. Sunday    2000-2030    Triple Zero Heroes    TVW-7    17.3

4. Monday    2140-2240    Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities    STW-9    17.1

5. Sunday    1700-1800    News    STW-9    16.3

This was the much anticipated first week of the official 2009 surveyyear.  TVW-7 won the week overall (0600-2400) for Total People with acommercial share of 41.0%, followed by STW-9 with 30.2% and NEW-10 with28.8%.

Nationally it was a different story though with the Nine Networkwinning Total People with a commercial share of 38%, followed by SevenNetwork with 36% and Ten Network with 26%. The Nine Network,nationally, also won the week for People 25-54 with a share of 38%,followed by Seven with 35% and Ten with 27%.

This week saw the returnseries on TVW-7 of Border Security, City Homicide, Private Practice andtwo new series – Sunday Night and Triple Zero Heroes. The latterreached an average audience of 228,000 viewers locally and Sunday Nightreached 218,000 viewers with both making the top fifteen programmes forTotal People. TVW-7 dominated the top fifteen for Total People with theNews, Border Security – Australia’s Front Line, Triple Zero Heroes andToday Tonight.  Their Sunday News was the most watched programme forTotal People, delivering an average of 283,000 viewers. The Seven NewsExtended Bushfire Disaster Editions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdayall made the top fifteen programmes for Total People with the Thursdayedition reaching an average of 239,000 viewers.

Nine also ran a NewsSpecial – Victorian Bushfires Day 2 in place of A Current Affair onMonday night. The much-anticipated series of Underbelly: A Tale of TwoCities premiered on Monday at 8:30pm on STW-9. Its high ratings hasmade it one of Australia’s most successful TV programme launchespulling in over 2.5 million viewers nationally, peaking at 2.8 millionand giving the network a 39.5% share for the evening.  Against 18 to49-year-olds, Underbelly attracted 1.7 million metro viewers andmanaged to grab top position in every market across Total People,People 25 to 54 and 16 to 39.  This result surpassed the originalUnderbelly’s premiere in 2008 where the first episode reached anational audience of 1.32 million.

Monday night saw the return seriesof Good News Week and Dexter on NEW-10 and Medium on Friday night.Unfortunately these programmes didn’t make the top 30 for Total People.NCIS was NEW-10’s top rating show making the top five for People 18-39,25-39 and 25-54. Nine News Sunday – RPT was the highest rankingprogramme in the daytime segment reaching an average 192,000 viewers inPerth followed by Ten News at Five taking out four of the top fivedaytime programmes. 

REGIONAL TV SURVEYS

AGB Nielsen Media Research, who handles the regional TV surveys, haswon the contract for the next six years. Part of this deal includesmeasuring time-shift viewing – which  is viewing from  personal video recorders as well as live viewing –  from 2010.

SWEENEY SPORTS REPORT

A survey conducted by Sweeney Sports has highlighted troubled timesahead for sponsorships. The main findings of the survey were:

• almost one third of corporate sponsors (27%) have quit existing sponsorships as a result of the crisis

• 31% of corporate sponsors have cut funding for current sponsorship

• Almost half (48%) have put on hold signing new sponsorships

• only 23% say the crisis has had no impact on their sponsorship activities

• 27% of corporate sponsors say they will exit existing deals in 2009

• 47% saying they will cut funding for existing deals

• 62% will put a hold on new sponsorship

• hardest hit in the sponsorship sector will be sports sponsorship with 78% planning cutbacks

EARTH HOUR

Saturday March 29 is Earth Hour this year. Earth Hour 2009 aims toreach 1 billion people in more than 1,000 cities, encouraging them toturn off their lights as a message to the world’s leaders that strongaction needs to be taken to combat climate change. A key component ofthe mass marketing strategy this year will be the installation of EarthHour signage at prominent sites within the Central Business Districtareas of Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The CBD signage willoccur in the weeks leading up to Earth Hour and take the form of streetpole flags, street pole banners and across-the-street banners (wherepossible). In addition to the signage, you will be able to link theEarth Hour and WWF logo to your company’s collateral until December2009 and be recognized as an event supporter on a global level throughthe Earth Hour official website. There are three Perth sponsors whowill receive 177 flags and 1 banner for $40,000 +GST.

JULY – DECEMBER 2008 ABC REPORTS

ACP Magazines performed poorly in this audit with seven out of their 10magazines suffering the largest declines in circulations and 14 out ofthe bottom 20. Titles like Cleo (-16.88%), NW (-16.39), OK! (-14.41%), Australian Women’s Weekly(-13.81%), Woman’s Day (-12.98%) and Harper’s Bazaar (-10.91%) alldropped double digits. Even Grazia lost 5000 readers from itsimpressive September quarter debut of 70,000. Others like FMH (-24.20%)and Ralph (-22.04%) suffered the second and third biggest dropsrespectively, closely followed by Burke’s Backyard (-21.68) and UniqueCars (-15.97%).

Health magazines proved the only category winnerwith Healthy Life Media’s Healthy Food Guide (24.18%) and Reader’sDigest’s Health Smart (19.04%) the top two magazine increases andWomen’s Health (15.33%) and Men’s Health (10.71%) the fourth and fifthbiggest gainers.

The ABC report on newspapers was also released for this same period.Although daily metropolitan and national newspapers did show a declinein circulation, it was not dramatic.

The dailies had a range of anincrease of 1.01% for the Brisbane Courier Mail to a decrease of 4.36%for the Adelaide Advertiser – the biggest loser in the category. Withthe metro Saturday papers the best performer was the Sydney DailyTelegraph with an increase of 1.88% and the worst performer was theCanberra Times with a decrease of 5.23%. The Sunday metro papers werethe most afflicted – an average 3.87%. Sunday Times WA circulationincreased by 1,500 copies and Saturday West Australian decreased by 245and by 1898 copies in The West Australian Monday to Friday.