Network Seven
The one to really watch?
After a disastrous couple of seasons on the ratings front, Seven bounced back this year with the help of a bunch of randy Desperate Housewives and some Lost castaways. Desperate Housewives attracted a top rating of 2.132 million viewers while Lost managed to find 1.933 million viewers. Simon Francis, director of corporate development at Seven, says the network's performance over the past 12 months will help reinforce its position for next year. "We are pleased with our audience delivery this year. We set out to re-establish Seven as a competitive force and we've delivered," Francis says. "Desperate Housewives and Lost are clearly the standouts, but as the season has evolved, we have continued to see our audience delivery accelerating and that confirms that we have a depth of programming that puts us in a strong position for 2006." Aside from the US giants, local programming also proved a winner for Seven, which aired the top three rating local programs. The ballroom antics of Dancing With The Stars attracted 1.859 million and 1.949 million viewers for seasons two and three respectively. In the hotly contested news space, Seven managed to notch up its performance a few places, but was still beaten to the top spot by Nine, which was bolstered by strong ratings for its Sunday news bulletin. However, Today Tonight and Seven News made up for lost ground by triumphing over both Nine's A Current Affair and National Nine News. Francis believes 2005 has been a year of big challenges and even bigger wins for Seven, despite aggressive competition. "It's seen us move to leadership in breakfast television, overtake Nine in nightly news and public affairs, and deliver extraordinary growth in primetime, with a schedule built on strong Australian programming and new US franchises."
Network Nine
Despite aggressive competition, Nine is still the one, as it managed to retain its rating supremacy in 2005.
Describing itself as the home of network drama, the Nine Network still proved it was the one with its imported programs, including Without a Trace and CSI, delivering consistently strong audience returns. In local programming, a year of program milestones helped to deliver ratings to the network. Reality medical show RPA proved it has a loyal audience with recurring positive results but, according to MindShare, the broadcast of a Caesarean birth on the show delivered one of its best performances with 1.722 million viewers tuning in. In one of the most publicised television events of the year, Nine's Eddie McGuire finally gave away the $1 million bounty on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? with 1.812 million people tuning in to see Rob Fulton take home the money. A new program, 20 To 1, an early celebration marking 50 years of television in Australia, continues to pull in an impressive share of people with an average of 1.6 million people tuning in to watch each week. A major reshuffle of Nine's on-air news team in 2005 saw nightly newsreader Jim Waley replaced by Mark Ferguson and Nightline newsreader Helen Kapalos give up the chair for veteran nine journalist Ellen Fanning. With the exception of Nine's News Sunday, all of the network's other news programs suffered losses in ratings over the past 12 months.
Ten Network
In with the demographics. Seriously.
2005 has been a year of new programming and banking on old formulas for the youth-chasing Ten Network. The return of reality ratings winner Big Brother saw the network hit the one million mark with its Sunday eviction shows and generate a lot of controversy - and publicity - with its Big Brother Uncut program. Australian Idol took to the stage for the third time, securing audience averages of one million (and in some cases less) but the program hasn't managed to echo the overwhelming success of previous years. In overseas programming, the biggest winner for Ten was a medical drama with a difference - House secured the top-rating spot most Wednesdays with the network's dedicated 16 to 39 demographic. According to OzTAM, on Wednesday 26 October, House beat out stellar ratings performers Kath & Kim, CSI: Miami and soapie programs Home & Away and Neighbours. "Ten has a specific demographic focus on people aged 16 to 39," says Margaret Fearn, director of publicity for Ten. "We've followed this strategy for 10 years or more, the rationale being the other commercial networks cater for a very broad audience, and try to be all things to all people. "With Australia's small population, it doesn't make sense for three networks to chase the same audience. We've created a very successful business - Ten is Australia's most profitable TV network."
Subscription TV
The only way is up.
The past 12 months have been an exciting one for subscription television platforms Foxtel and Austar. Foxtel claims its introduction of digital in early 2004 has boosted subscriber numbers and ratings, currently boasting almost 1.2 million subscribers. While the nature of the platform doesn't allow for ratings to be recorded for specific programs, statistics from OzTAM show that in the year-to-date subscription television has snared a 16.4% audience share of total people, beating out ABC and SBS, while staying a shade under the major commercial networks. Compared to the same period last year, STV has grown its audience share by just under 3%, the highest growth experienced by all networks in the past 12 months. "While the others [FTA networks] swap audiences, we actually grow our share," says Kim Williams, CEO of Foxtel. In addition, in homes with subscription TV viewers devote over half of their viewing (54.9%) to STV. Anthony Fitzgerald, CEO of Multi Channel Network, says the implementation of digital television and increased competition has "forever changed the ratings landscape." He also believes the past year has been successful not only for STV but for the medium in general. "Television has been in terrific shape this past year. The actual audience compared year-on-year is up, and channels have found themselves in the face of enormous competition. It's still the third thing consumers do regularly, behind eating and sleeping."
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