Initiative Media Week in Review: May 23-29

TELEVISION

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes – People 18-39

1. Wednesday  1930-2100  Masterchef Australia    NEW-10    17.8

2. Sunday    2030-2130    Underbelly: The Golden Mile    STW-9    17.6

3  Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia – Challenge    NEW-10    15.5

4. Monday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia    NEW-10    15.2

5. Tuesday    2000-2030    Modern Family    NEW-10    13.7

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-39

1. Sunday    2030-2130    Underbelly: The Golden Mile    STW-9    20.9

2. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia – Challenge    NEW-10    19.5

3. Wednesday    1930-2100    Masterchef Australia     NEW-10    19.0

4  Monday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia    NEW-10    18.0

5. Tuesday    2000-2030    Modern Family    NEW-10    18.0

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-54

1. Wednesday    1930-2100    Masterchef Australia    NEW-10    19.4

2. Monday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia     NEW-10    16.9

3. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia – Challenge    NEW-10    16.1

4  Sunday    2030-2130    Underbelly – The Golden Mile    STW-9    15.5

5  Tuesday    2000-2030    Modern Family    NEW-10    15.5

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 35-54

1. Wednesday    1930-2100    Masterchef Australia    NEW-10    19.6

2. Thursday    1930-2000    Masterchef Australia     NEW-10    16.2

3. Monday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia    NEW-10    15.8

4  Tuesday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia    NEW-10    15.1

5  Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    14.7

TVW-7 won the week overall (0600-2400) for Total People with acommercial share of 38.9%, followed by NEW-10 with 33.1% and STW-9 with27.9%. The top performing programme this week for Total People wasSeven’s Sunday News reaching an average 261,000 viewers followed byWednesday’s Masterchef on NEW-10 which generated 256,000 viewers.

Other programmes to make the top twenty on TVW-7 were Today Tonight,The Force – Behind the Line, Australia’s Got Talent, Sunday Night andBorder Security – Australia’s Front Line. Channel 7’s move to bring thefinal ever “Lost” 2.5 hour episode to the primary channel from 7TWOseemed to fail miserably reaching only 615,000 viewers nationally andnot even making it into the top fifty programmes in Perth. DesperateHousewives continues to rate well, making the top ten with all ourdemographics except People 35-54.

Underbelly: The Golden Mile on STW-9 took first spot against People25-39, beating NEW’10’s Masterchef by 6,000 viewers. Underbellyincreased viewership by 23,000 against People 18-39, 13,000 with People25-39, 11,000 with People 25-54 and 8,000 with People 35-54 week onweek. Nine’s telecast of the NRL State of Origin, game one (NSW vs QLD)on Wednesday plastered the ratings nationally with an average audienceof 2.4 million viewers, a massive 786,000 more viewers than Masterchef.Unfortunately, locally, it did not rate so well, not even making thetop fifty for Total People.

Nationally, Masterchef Australia on NEW-10 cracked the 1.7 million markThursday night after consistently hitting 1.6 million all week.Thursday’s half hour episode, which saw an audience increase of 5% weekon week, outperformed all other programmes running at the same time. InPerth, Thursday’s Masterchef reached 185,000 viewers, coming secondafter Glee which was the most watched programme in that time segment.Into its second week, Modern Family dropped 2,000 viewers week on weekfor Total People, but managed to make the top five for all ourdemographics except People 35-54 where it came sixth. Glee had yetanother stellar performance this week averaging 1.333 million viewersnationally, its second highest result this season.

Interestingly, Nine is still the network to beat on Thursday’s nationally, although in Perth TVW-7 are 2% ahead of STW-9.

Seven’s AFL: Round 9: West Coast vs St Kilda was the top programme inthe daytime segment reaching an average 165,000 viewers. The next fourpositions were dominated by Ten News at Five.

YAHOO!7 FIRST FOR NEILSEN VIDEO MEASUREMENT

Yahoo!7 has become the first company in Australia to sign up forindependent third-party video measurement services with global researchfirm Nielsen. There has been solid growth in downloading and streamingof online video and this is the first step towards establishingstandardized, independent metrics for online video downloading andstreaming in the Australian marketplace. According to Nielsen’s 2010Internet & Technology Report, 41% of Australian internet usersdownload or stream videos and a further 44% intend to increase theironline video streaming and 33% plan to download more online videocontent in the year ahead.

GLOBAL CHILDRENS’ WEBSITE

A new global website was launched last week for children. It’sbased on the children’s programme KidsCo which runs on Foxtel andAustar and the website is www.kidscotv.tv. The site has live streaming,interactive features, competitions, activities, 3D imaging, animatedicons, carousel scrolling as well as games and downloads. The site willcarry advertising.

iPAD SALES

This past weekend, Apple began selling iPads in Australia, Canada,France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UnitedKingdom. Sales have topped two million since its launch almost twomonths ago.

VAL MORGAN 2D TO 3D

Val Morgan has developed an in-house facility to create 3Denhancements to elements of existing 2D commercials. Using theirin-house production facility, existing commercials can be adapted tofeature elements such as 3D logos, pack shots, still imagery and3D-enhanced computer-generated content. The cost to convert justelements of a tvc instead of converting the entire commercial issubstantially lower and will enable advertisers to capitalize on the 3Dboom that is sweeping Australia.

3D movies due for release June 2010 to January 2011:

• Shrek Forever

• Toy Story 3

• Despicable Me

• Step Up 3D

• The Last Airbender

• Megamind

• Cats & Dogs 2

• Tron Legacy

• Harry Potter 7: Part One

• Yogi Bear

INITIATIVE’S MAGNAGLOBAL FORECAST

With the Digital, TV and Outdoor sectors leading a stronger thanexpected rebound in the Australian media market, MAGNAGlobal (adivision of Initiative’s Mediabrands) is revising their forecast fromlate last year. They now expect 2010 advertising revenues to grow by6.2% in 2010, compared to prior expectations of 5.1% growth. This comeson the back of significant improvements in the macro-economicenvironment (the IMF recently revised Australia’s 2010 real GDPforecast to 5.7% vs. 1.3% previously). A further 5.5% growth in GDP isexpected in 2011, placing it ahead of all developed economies. Withoptimism fed by Asian demand for Australia’s commodities, the ReserveBank of Australia is still keen to apply increased pressure on interestrates to keep inflation within a 2%-3% target band. This raises somelong-term concerns at the same time (especially for retailers
) asfurther interest rate hikes place pressure on household purchasingpower, consumer confidence and total spending. The followingexpectations by medium are forecast:

• The TV market will continue to grow by an average rate of 5.7%through 2015, including a 7.1% increase in 2010. Growth is in partsupported by a significant increase in inventory with the introductionof nine new FTA channels and 30 subscription channels.
• Digital will increase 17.1% compared to 2009. Within digital,search is increasing momentum as more clients are realizing theimportance of Search within a media mix to promote proprietary websites.
• Magazines continue to lag compared to other media, falling 2.5% vs 2009.
• Newspapers should grow by 2.5% – still below the market average, but well above 2009’s 15.7% decline.
• Outdoor should fare well in 2010 before settling into a modestpace of improvement in subsequent years with an expected growth of 8.1%in 2010. The introduction of MOVE has improved accountability.