Initiative Media Week in Review: May 24 – 30

TELEVISION

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes – People 18-39

1. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    15.2

2. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia – Challenge    NEW-10    14.4

3. Sunday    2030-2140    Rove    NEW-10    12.9

4. Tuesday    1930-2030    NCIS    NEW-10    12.3

5. Monday    2000-2030    Recruits    NEW-10    11.7

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-39

1. Sunday    2030-1240    Rove    NEW-10    18.0

2. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    17.5

3. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia – Challenge    NEW-10    17.3

4. Monday    2000-2030    Recruits    NEW-10    14.7

5. Thursday    1930-2000    Rules Of Engagement    NEW-10    14.4

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-54

1. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia – Challenge    NEW-10    17.4

2. Sunday    1830-1930    Merlin    NEW-10    16.1

3. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    15.8

4. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    15.1

5. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    14.3

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 35-54

1. Sunday    1830-1930    Merlin    NEW-10    18.3

2. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia – Challenge    NEW-10    16.8

3. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    16.5

4. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    16.2

5. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    15.7

TVW-7 once again won the week overall (0600-2400) for Total People witha commercial share of 38.8%, followed by NEW-10 with 34.1% and STW-9with 27.1%.

TVW-7 had eight programmes in the top fifteen includingNews, Today Tonight, The Zoo, Friday Night AFL: Carlton vs West Coastand Better Homes and Gardens. For the second week in a row the topprogramme was Sunday’s News on TVW-7 with an average audience of251,000.  Better Homes and Gardens returned to the weekly top fifteeenwith an average audience of 171,000.

STW-9 had one programme in the topfifteen – Sea Patrol – which averaged 175,000 viewers. NEW-10 had theremaining six programmes in the top fifteen, with the highest ratingbeing Merlin, which averaged 239,000 viewers. Their other top showswere Masterchef Australia – Challenge (230,000), NCIS (214,000),Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (209,000), Monday’s Masterchef Australia(176,000) and Saturday Night AFL: Fremantle vs Richmond. Lie To Mefinished up on Tuesday Night with an average audience of 143,000 whichwas 5,000 less than the previous week.

Nationally the week went to Seven with the network having an averagepeak commercial share of 36.5% with Nine in second place with 31.9% andTen following with 31.6%. Seven also had the top programme of the weekwith their Sunday News which had a 1,828 million average audience. Itwas a week of highest audiences of the year for Ten and the ABC withMasterchef Australia – Challenge and Spicks And Specks, The Chasers WarOn Everything all performing better than ever before.

SBS LAUNCHES NUMBER TWO

SBS has launched its new digital channel SBS Two, and will focus on itsAshes, Tour de France and FIFA World Cup content. During July, SBS Oneand SBS Two will broadcast a number of the most anticipated events onthe sporting calendar – the Ashes in England (on SBS One) and the Tourde Frances (on SBS One, SBS Two and SBS Online). To coincide with thelaunch, SBS has rebranded its main channel SBS One, with both channelslaunched with new branding and logo.

ACP AXES SLIMMING & HEALTH MAGAZINE

ACP magazines have announced they will be axing their monthly women’slifestyle magazine Slimming & Health. June 17 will be the last timethe magazine is out on newsstands with the closure believed to beblamed on “market conditions” and “financial pressures”. The news comesas ACP magazines re-launch their Good Health & Medicine magazine inJune.

GOOGLE WAVE

A new project by Google, called Google Wave, is billed as being “theemail of the future.” The experimental project is the result of amultiyear initiative to reinvent digital communication by blendinge-mail, instant messaging, and content sharing into somethingresembling a cross between Twitter, Facebook, and your standard emailplatform. It is expected to be released later this year and will”combine conversation-type communication and collaboration-typecommunication,” Lars Rasmussen, a software engineering manager atGoogle and the project’s co-founder, said. “A ‘wave’ is equal partsconversation and document, where people can communicate and worktogether with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more,”Rasmussen said.

In Google Wave, users create a wave and add people to it. Everyone ontheir wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and evenfeeds from other sources on the Web. Users can then insert a reply oredit the wave directly. Google is hoping that consumers use Wave as agateway for the myriad conversations they might be carrying at anygiven moment across various platforms from Facebook to Twitter to anynumber of blogs. As with Apple’s iPhone application community andFacebook, Google also wants a developer community to flourish aroundWave. Collaborative games, for one, are expected to be among the firstapplications to populate the environment. In addition, Google isencouraging developers to think of Wave as a possible enhancement toexisting workflow within enterprises.

CONSUMER RESEARCH

Results from a new consumer study called “Frugal Fever” from a companycalled Directional Insights have been released. Top line insights areas follows:

• 49% of Australians have changed the way they shop as a result of the financial crisis.

• Consumers are cutting back on shopping, reining in spending ondiscretionary items and abandoning eating out, turning instead toshopping lists, budgets and home brands.

• Baby Boomers have been hit the hardest, particularly withsuperannuation hit so hard which has resulted in a later period priorto full retirement.

• Generation X is also enforcing cutbacks on clothing, splurging and cinema visitation

• People are looking for what they need, buying it and then leaving the shops.

NEW WEB AUDIT SERVICE

A new web audit service for digital media has been launched by theAudit Bureaux of Australia (ABA). Powered by Nielsen Online’s MarketIntelligence system, it will enable online audience data to be listedalongside audited print circulation figures on the ABA’s eData portal.Its key metrics are unique browsers, page impressions, sessions,frequency and duration. Participating publishers will receive acomprehensive audit upon joining up, with monthly audits thereafter.Publishers that do not already use the Market Intelligence system willneed to tag their sites prior to auditing.

SWEENEY SPORTS REPORT

This report, compiled on a yearly basis, names the most marketablesportspeople. This year Ricky Ponting placed number 1 followed by GrantHackett and Adam Gilchrist. Others in the top 10 included Glen McGarth,Ian Thorpe, Pat Rafter, Stephanie Rice and Cathy Freeman. AndrewSymonds held the dubious honour of the steepest fall in rankingsalthough Lleyton Hewitt and Sonny Bill Williams also dropped inpopularity.