Initiative Media Week in Review: May 3 – 9

TELEVISION

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes – People 18-39

1. Monday    2030-2130    Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities    STW-9    14.7

2. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    14.4

3. Sunday    1830-1930    Merlin    NEW-10    13.3

4. Wednesday    2000-2030    The All New Simpsons    NEW-10    13.1

5. Wednesday    2030-2130    House    NEW-10    12.7

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-39

1. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    16.9

2. Monday    2030-2130    Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities    STW-9    15.9

3. Wednesday    2000-2030    The All New Simpsons    NEW-10    15.8

4. Wednesday    1900-2000    Masterchef Australia    NEW-10    15.4

5. Sunday    1930-2100    Masterchef Australia – Top 20 Revealed    NEW-10    13.9

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-54

1. Monday    2030-2130    Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities    STW-9    16.8

2. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    16.2

3. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    16.0

4. Sunday    1830-1930    Merlin    NEW-10    15.6

5. Tuesday    1930-2030    A Lion Called Christian    TVW-7    14.1

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 35-54

1. Monday    2030-2130    Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities    STW-9    17.4

2. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    16.8

3. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    16.3

4. Sunday    1830-1930    Merlin    NEW-10    16.3

5. Tuesday    1930-2030    A Lion Called Christian    TVW-7    16.2

TVW-7 won the week overall (0600-2400) for Total People with acommercial share of 38.9%, followed by NEW-10 with 33.0% and STW-9 with28.1%.

This week TVW-7 took out ten of the top fifteen programmes withA Lion Called Christian, News, Thank God You’re Here, Today Tonight,The Force – Behind The Line and Better Homes And Gardens. The TVspecial, A Lion Called Christian, took out the top position with anaverage audience of 238,000 viewers. The second episode of Thank GodYou’re Here on TVW-7 had an average audience of 213,000; an increase of13.6% from the previous weeks premiere.

STW-9 had two programmes in thetop fifteen, the finale of Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities and the TVWeek Logie Awards Arrivals, which delivered average audiences of232,000 and 179,000 respectively. Unfortunately the Logies broadcastfailed to emulate the success of the arrivals with an average audienceof only 158,000 viewers.

NEW-10 had the remaining three programmes inthe top fifteen, with the highest rating being NCIS which averaged anaudience of 224,000 viewers. Their other top shows were the premieresof Merlin (219,000 viewers) and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (204,000viewers).

The highest rating sports programme for the week was theRound 7 of the Saturday night AFL Match between Carlton and Fremantlewith an average audience of 167,000.

The special Media Watch – 20 Years: Stuff Ups, Beat Ups and Barneys -did well for the ABC with an audience of 911,077 nationally whichhelped push the network to a higher than average share for them for aThursday evening.

Nationally, Seven won the week with a commercial share of 36.0%,followed by Nine with 33.7% and Ten with 30.3%.

Nine had the top threeprogrammes with the final of Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, theLogie Awards Arrivals and the 2009 Logie Awards. Ten and Seven roundedout the top five for the week with Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation and ALion Called Christian.

RADIO

Survey #3, 2009 results were released on Tuesday 12th May and the following is a snap shot of the Perth market.

Commercial Radio Station Shares (including JJJ)

                            94.5FM    92.9FM    96FM    NOVA    6PR    6IX       JJJ

People 18-39    14.0%    27.4%    18.0%    20.5%    5.0%    1.3%    13.8%

People 25-39    17.2%    23.8%    18.5%    18.8%    7.3%    1.6%    12.7%

People 25-54    24.7%    17.1%    20.0%    13.4%    9.9%    5.9%    9.0%

People 35-54    29.4%    13.9%    21.4%    9.6%    11.3%    7.8%    6.6%

Commercial Radio Station Shares (including JJJ)

                             94.5FM    92.9FM    96FM    NOVA    6PR    6IX       JJJ

People 18-39    17.2%    20.8%    17.2%    20.3%    3.4%    0.9%    20.2%

People 25-39    19.7%    20.0%    17.5%    17.8%    5.5%    1.3%    18.2%

People 25-54    24.9%    16.0%    19.7%    13.9%    7.4%    5.5%    12.6%

People 35-54    28.9%    14.3%    20.3%    11.7%    8.3%    7.6%    8.9%

• 94.5FM has retained the number one position for People 10+ albeitwith only a 0.7% lead on 92.9FM. This makes 76 consecutive survey wins.The breakfast team held onto their #1 position and they also remainnumber one for People 25-54 and 35-54.

•92.9FM had a good survey with increases for People 18-39, 25-39 and35-54. The greatest increase was 6.6% for People 18-39 which saw themregain their significant lead for this demographic. The station enjoyedtheir largest cumed audience -497,000- since their inception. Hamishand Andy’s drive show continued to dominate the segment.

• 96FM gained share across all demographics, including a 1.1% increasefor People 35-54 and 1.0% increase for People 25-39. The station wasdelighted with their results in the 25-44 demographic across allsessions.

• Nova 93.7 enjoyed increases across People 10-17, 18-24, 18-39 and25-39; along with improvement in Morning, Afternoon and Drive sessions.

•  6PR gained audience share with all demographics except 55+ (only a.3% drop and they’re still #1), with an increase of 3.0% and 2.5% forPeople 35-54 and 25-54 respectively. They were the only station toenjoy increases in all sessions.

• 6IX remained relatively steady with minor increases across all demographics except People 25-54, which had a decrease of 0.2%.

• 6JJJ saw significant losses against all demographics in particular a6.4% decrease for People 18-39 and 5.5% decrease for People 25-39.

HOW NINTENDO KILLED HARDCORE GAMING

Hardcore gaming in this article refers to all types of gaming otherthan the ‘casual/party’ genre… which just so happens to be the causeof hardcore gaming’s demise. The rise of the Nintendo Wii and NintendoDS has irreversibly changed the video game landscape, with Sony andMicrosoft clamouring to follow suit. We’re entering a new, casual erathat people have coined ‘Nu N-Gaming’. The resurgence of casual gamingis indelibly tied to the new wave of game peripherals. Fromchick-friendly sing-alongs to the genre-crossing Guitar Hero, every hitfranchise in the casual genre has an extraneous gadget to thank.Nintendo has decided to take this concept to a whole new level — itsWii and DS consoles have all the hallmarks of a game peripheral, builtdirectly into the hardware. Call it a fad or a gimmick if you will, butthis is exactly what the masses want — and they’re gate crashing theparty in their millions. The sales figures speak for themselves.According to GFK Australia, nine of the 10 best-selling games in 2008were Nintendo exclusives. Almost all of these were party/casual games,with the top slot held by Wii Fit. The same data reveals that the’family genre’ was the biggest mover-and-shaker, with a whopping 157per cent sales increase over the previous year. The only non-Nintendotitle to break into the top 10 was GTA IV — which only m
anaged to placefifth. Given the hysterical press coverage that game’s sales figuresreceived, you’d expect it to be ranked much higher. Such is the cloutof the Nu N-Gamer.

It’s not just Aussies jumping on the casual bandwagon: the samestatistics are repeated all over the world, with sales charts dominatedby scores of novice-friendly Wii and DS titles. Not only has Nintendowon the console war, it’s successfully committing genocide on itsenemies. Is it any wonder that Sony and Microsoft have decided to jointhe winning side? While they still pay lip-service to the hardcorecontingent, both companies are gagging to emulate Nintendo’s runawaysuccess. They want in on the Nintendo gravy train, and hardcore gamingis about to take a backseat as a consequence. Over the past few months,Sony has said that their future focus would be on casual gaming withtheir PS3 and Xbox has said they want to improve the Wii formula. Withthe exception of Final Fantasy XIII and the usual brigade of sequels,there are few Triple A titles planned this year. By contrast, thecasual genre is packed with hotly anticipated games, including TheBeatles: Rock Band, Wii NintenDogs, Punch Out!!, Wii Sports Resort andThe Sims 3 — not to mention a raft of new games for the Apple iPhone,which is swiftly becoming the new king of casual gaming.

We now live in a world where Wii Sports is the best-selling game of alltime. By the end of the next console generation, the kind of games weenjoy and play today may well have gone the way of the NintendoPowerGlove. Hardcore games will still exist of course, but they will besomething of a niche market, much like the PC gaming scene of today.

2009 PACIFIC MAGAZINES HOMEMAKER SURVEY

The result of this survey, Australia’s largest survey of homemakertrends, opinions and spending habits has been released. Top linefindings were as follows:

• 61 per cent of respondents intend to cut back on their personal spending in the next six months

• 52 per cent of respondents state they entertain at home once a month or more

ABS STATISTICS

According to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics(ABS), retail trade increased by 2.2% in March following decreases of2.0% and 0.5% in February and January respectively. All retail sectorsshowed positive growth, with department stores posting the bestresults, up 13.2% in March. All states recorded an increase in retailtrade of at least 1%, with the ACT the only state or territory not torecord an increase.