2013 – The year in TV
Nine launches its new afternoon news show Nine News Now, which airs between 3pm and 4pm and is hosted by Wendy Kingston.
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ABC follow suit introducing an early evening national news bulletin to preview its state-by-state 7pm editions. The 5.30pm bulletin is based out of Perth and fronted by James McHale.
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Rebekah Horne joins the Ten network as chief digital officer, a role previously held by Nick Spooner who left the company nearly two years ago. Horne – the former CEO of MySpace in Australia – is to report to Ten CEO James Warburton.
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A survey conducted by Encore finds people working in television are the happiest, while those in newspapers are among the least happy on a daily basis. The survey of 1,283 people working in the media, marketing and entertainment industry asks how many days in a typical week industry professionals are happy in their job.
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The opening of the official 2013 TV ratings year is a tight battle, but Seven wins the night. The network claims a 26.8 per cent audience share with Nine on 23.1 per cent and Ten 15.2 per cent. Nine News is the top rating show of the night followed by Seven’s Border Security.
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SBS 2 relaunches. The revamped channel, the work of director of TV and online content Tony Iffland and marketing director Helen Kellie, aims to target “thinking 30somethings”.
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Adam Boland, the man who took Seven’s Sunrise to number one and created The Morning Show, announces his departure from the Seven Network. He is rumoured to be moving across to Ten.
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At the end of February, James Warburton becomes the second Ten Network CEO in a row to be sacked by the company’s board. Warburton is to be replaced by adman Hamish McLennan, while Russel Howcroft is acting CEO until March. Warburton’s final day in charge of Ten sees the network slump to one of the lowest free-to-air audience shares in the broadcaster’s history.
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Incoming Ten boss Hamish McLennan signals plans to ditch Ten’s focus on youth audiences to pursue a wider 40 plus viewership.
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Shares in Ten rise in early trading on the ASX as the market reacts to Warburton’s departure. Ten’s chief marketing officer Tony McMaster then follows Warburton out of the door. McMaster joined the company in March and was appointed by Warburton.
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Adam Boland’s defection 
to Ten is confirmed. The producer joins the network as director of morning television. His remit will be to develop the 6am to noon weekday timeslot.
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Veteran broadcaster Peter Harvey dies after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.
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In March, Fairfax Media reveals a television version of the The Australian Financial Review is being developed with the Nine Network. The show will be broadcast nationally on Sunday mornings.
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American talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres visits Australia sending the local media into a frenzy.
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In April, the Ten Network reports a $243m loss in the first half of its financial year.
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The Australian newspaper breaks an embargo to reveal Asher Keddie is the winner of this year’s Gold Logie before the actress receives the award. TV Week, organisers of the awards, say journalists will no longer be issued with embargoed results.
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The winner announcement for Seven’s My Kitchen Rules, produced by Rikkie Proost, delivers a metro audience of 2.952m.
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A new premiere BBC drama and comedy channel to be launched by BBC Worldwide and Foxtel leaves the ABC “flabbergasted”. Following 50 years of broadcasting BBC content in Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is not consulted about plans to launch the channel, which will be called called BBC First, on Foxtel in mid-2014.
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Jeff Browne the chairman of commercial television lobby and marketing group Free TV resigns following infighting among the major television networks over proposed changes to media ownership rules.
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The Seven Network wins an injunction stopping former X Factor judge Mel B from switching to Nine’s Australia’s Got Talent.
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Ten boss Hamish McLennan hires former colleague Matt McGrath to lead the troubled broadcaster’s marketing. McGrath takes over brand communications, marketing and promotions in the new role of chief brand officer.
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Industry lobby group Free TV issues a proposal to change the guidelines on the broadcast of sporting odds involving bookmakers like Tom Waterhouse during sporting matches.
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The ABC confirms journalist and author Paul Barry is the next host of the public broadcaster’s Media Watch program. Barry replaces Jonathan Holmes when he steps down in July.
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In May 
Shine Australia starts production on an Australian version of the romance reality show The Bachelor. The series is commissioned by Network Ten and follows a similar format to the well known American series which is in its 17th season.
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Reports surface Channel Ten has made a $500m play for the cricket rights over five years. The network’s sport spending spree continues when it picks up the 2014 winter Olympics for $20m.
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In June, Seven announces the launch of a new afternoon news and entertainment show called The Daily Edition to be hosted by Today Tonight’s Sally Obermeder.
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Australian media identity Ita Buttrose signs on to Ten’s yet-to-be named morning show. The program will be produced by Rob McKnight, the producer-presenter who led Nine News’ experiments with live video streaming.
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Today Tonight executive producer John “Choof” Choueifate resigns from the Seven Network just weeks after denying reports he had left.
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Seven reveals presenter Mel Doyle will leave Sunrise breaking up a 12 year on air partnership with David Koch that took the show to number one. She will be replaced by Samantha Armytage.
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Australian TV veteran Maureen Duval passes away. Duval, a long term host of Ten’s Good Morning Sydney, had reportedly been ill for some time.
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News Limited reporter Joe Hildebrand joins the panel of Ten’s new morning show while former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting is announced as the face of network’s Big Bash cricket coverage.
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In July, Ten places a car in an oversized evidence bag to promote its new crime show Wanted. It is spotted on the streets of Sydney’s CBD.
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Nine’s HD channel Gem breaks multichannel records as the second night of The Ashes test pulls in a 15 per cent share of the free-to-air TV audience. The 807,000 metro viewers is the largest ever audience for the channel.
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A report from industry body Free TV reveals that in the final six months of the financial year Ten’s share of the commercial TV market languished at 21.9 per cent compared to Seven’s all time high of 40.5 per cent and Nine’s 37.6 per cent.
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Ten’s chief operating officer Jon Marquard stands down after less than two years with the company. Marquard, who joined Ten in 2011 originally as commercial director, is the latest senior departure as CEO Hamish McLennan works to put his stamp on TV network.
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Ten announces that dance competition reality show So You Think You Can Dance will return in 2014 following a four year break and the ratings disaster of Everybody Dance Now. In October, Ten will reveal The Project’s Carrie Bickmore will host the series with Paula Abdul the first judge appointed to the panel.
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In August, half a million viewers tune in to say goodbye to Sunrise’s Mel Doyle. The event sees Sunrise grab a relatively rare win in every metro market, and one of the program’s biggest ratings numbers of the year so far.
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Former Seven News boss Peter Meakin defects to Channel Ten as executive director of news and current affairs. He will take up the post in 2014, a result of discussions between network bosses Hamish McLennan and Tim Worner, which avoids a repeat of the messy court battle that followed former Ten boss James Warburton’s departure from Seven.
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The Nine Network secures the free-to-air rights for the next two Ashes cricket series. According to reports, Nine pays between $20m to $25m for the media rights for the 2015 and 2016 series.
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TV executive Anita Jacoby lands two big roles, with the appointment as managing director of the Australian arm of production house ITV Studios. Jacoby also joined the Australian Communications and Media Authority in a part time role.
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In September, Ten’s veteran Melbourne presenter Mal Walden announces his retirement. He will be succeeded by sportscaster Stephen Quartermain.
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Ten launches home shopping channel Spree TV. The new channel is run by marketing company Brand Developers.
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Channel Nine’s A Current Affair is forced to make an on-air apology after the Australian Communications and Media Authority finds the show has breached the codes of practice for a story alleging Asian retailers are taking over a local shopping mall in Sydney’s north west.
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Former Network Ten newsreader Jessica Rowe returns to the network as the fourth member of new mid-morning panel show which will be called Studio 10 while the network’s star reporter Hamish MacDonald announces his departure.
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Seven West Media unveils its long mooted management restructure. The announcement sees Kurt Burnette promoted to chief revenue officer while Pacific Magazines boss Nick Chan moves to the role of chief operating officer, replacing Rohan Lund.
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Phil Lloyd and Trent O’Donnell’s A Very Moody Christmas shares comedy honours with Josh Thomas’ Please Like me at the Australian Writers’ Guild Awards. The two shows are joint winners in the category of Comedy: Situation or narrative at the 46th annual AWGIE Awards.
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Screen Australia sets its sights on creating high quality television content in the vein of Game Of Thrones or Breaking Bad with the announcement of a high-end television development program. The program will fund the development of five projects a year to the tune of $40,000 each.
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MTV shifts most of its broadcasting operations out of Australia in a move that sees the iconic brand leave little more than an advertising and marketing presence on the ground locally.
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The extent of Network Ten’s financial woes is revealed in its end of year financial results listed on the ASX with the company declaring a large tax loss and revealing proposals for a new $200m loan over four years.
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Former Seven executive Rohan Lund is appointed chief operating officer of subscription television operator Foxtel.
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The announcement of Dami Im as winner of The X Factor brings Seven an audience of more than 2.4m. OzTam’s preliminary overnight ratings record a metro audience of 2.431m for the announcement of the winner at the end of the show – up by more than 250,000 from last year.
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An early morning 
performance by Katy Perry on Seven’s Sunrise helps the show to its highest ratings for the year with an average of 484,000 metro viewers according to OzTAM.
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Ten sees a jump in catchup video viewing since the relaunch of its tenplay service. According to Ten’s first numbers, 10m videos were viewed during October – up 14 per cent on the previous month.
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In November, Ten’s new morning show Wake Up rates just 52,000 metro viewers on its first day, according to preliminary overnight numbers from OzTAM. The number is only fractionally more than its ill-fated predecessor Breakfast which averaged 49,000 on its first day.
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The head of entertainment for ABC TV, Jennifer Collins, resigns to take a new job with independent production company Screentime.
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Matt Campbell, former managing director at Shine Australia, is appointed CEO of production company Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder. Campbell, who was program director at SBS for seven years before he joined Shine, left the company when Carl Fennessy returned as joint CEO this time last year.
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The Nine Network, and its digital division Mi9, relaunch catch-up TV service Jump-in with a redesign of its website and an expanded offering.
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The final episode of Big Brother brings in more than 1.4m metro viewers to Channel Nine as housemate Tim Dormer is named the winner. The grand final averages 1.31m with audiences growing to 1.98m for the winner announcement and 1.474m for the final celebration. The series has been recommissioned by Nine and will return in 2014.
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After only 16 days on the air, presenter Natasha Exelby is dumped from the lineup of Ten’s breakfast program Wake Up.
This post comes from the Encore & mUmBRELLA Annual available on iPad and iPhone.
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