Nine moves to digital strategy with major changes to brand, channels, HD and streaming
Nine Entertainment Co has set its sights on improving its digital assets announcing a slew of new services, channels and a programmatic play as well as an overhaul of its corporate brand.
Among the new announcements at Nine’s 2016 upfront event today were: the move to simulcast its main channel in definition; a new lifestyle multichannel NineLife; a live streaming strategy named NineNow; a focus on more Australian content; moves towards a data strategy lading to automated TV buying.
The company is heralding these changes with a new unifying brand identity with chief revenue officer Peter Wiltshire saying: “We are bringing our family together under a common anchor with a heritage with the Nine dots and that means consumers have a better chance to understand when they are consuming content from Nine Entertainment.”
The high definition strategy
Nine has acknowledged consumer frustration over its lack of premium content in high definition, announcing it will now simulcast its primary channel shows on a new channel 9HD, with Gem rebranded as 9Gem and moving to standard definition.
CEO David Gyngell acknowledged there had been “barriers” previously to this move, adding in a statement: “This is all about using the available technology to give viewers what they want. We’ve been listening to feedback from our audience and consistently they tell us they want their programs in HD.”
Nine has drawn a lot fire from consumers over its previous high definition strategy, particularly in relation to major sports events such as cricket and NRL.
Viewers without an HD television will still be able to watch Channel Nine in standard definition, but to accommodate the HD upgrade there will be a realignment of Nine Network channel numbers on Freeview.
9HD will be on Channel 90, 9Gem will move to Channel 92 and 9GO! will now be seen on Channel 93 and 99.
Changes take effect from November 26.
NineLife: a new lifestyle multichannel
On November 26 the company will also launch a lifestyle and reality TV channel called 9Life on Channel 94.
Content will be sourced from around the world and include: The Bachelor USA, House Hunters, Fixer Upper, Top Chef and Millionaire Matchmaker.
Gyngell said: “NineLife is Australia’s first free-to-air lifestyle channel. It is a fresh and exciting new channel designed to inspire and entertain. We’ve worked hard to source the very best lifestyle programs in the world right now, each with big, strong characters that will resonate with fans of the genre.”
The new channel is aimed at challenging the likes of Foxtel in the reality and lifestyle programs placing an emphasis on conflict, drama and excitement.
NineNow: 9Jumpin to disappear with live streaming service’s launch
Nine has confirmed previous reports it will move live streaming but today added that it would dump its existing catchup service 9Jumpin in 2016.
Sales boss Peter Wilthshire said: “9Now is the replacement as we retire the 9Jumpin brand. In the early part of 2016 9Jumpin will disappear and NineNow will replace it.
“9Jumpin was built to be a second screen companion app that also housed our on demand catch up content. It was never designed to be a streaming product and it isn’t.
“We have recut our entire platform, sourced a new tech supplier which has the global best practice in this sort of technology and as of early 2016 NineNow will take the place of 9Jumpin.”
Gyngell said the change was about meeting audiences wherever they are.
“9Now gives audiences the choices they want and takes the Nine brand, with all its heritage and great content, into the future. It delivers Nine’s premium programs, from sport and news to drama and big event shows, to audiences when they want it and where they want it.
“This is a transformational time for Nine. Our investment and plans for 9Now will enable viewers to see the best of the network live, on demand and free – anywhere and on any device.”
The announcements around live streaming follows rival Seven’s “newfronts” which saw the network acknowledge falling linear TV audiences and champion its streaming strategy.
Asked if Nine’s moved into the space was driven by similar concerns Wiltshire said: “There is no doubt that technology is changing behaviour. Yes there has to be some audience change – and we have seen some falls in free-to-air this year – but without being able to capture where those audiences are through lack of measurement it has been hard to articulate the change.”
Programmatic data play
9Now will lay the data foundation for a programmatic play, as Nine looks to ensure it can eventually provide targeted advertising by requiring users of 9Now to have logins, originally flagged by Wiltshire earlier this month.
“All of Nine’s channels will eventually sit in one destination and online environment… and it is very important as a broadcaster that we have the ability in order to build a first party database,” said Wiltshire.
“As we move to 9Now and have a single ID across our properties we can start to track their behaviour and move into a world where we can provide addressable audience targeting for advertisers – not only on online devices but eventually our aspiration is to be on the main screen of the home.”
That signals Nine sees its long-term goal as moving away from broadcast to deliver its TV services online.
Wiltshire claimed both the branding move and broader strategy would benefit both consumers and advertisers.
“9Now will become the vehicle for us to build a first party database that is connected with our consumers and gives a benefit because they get more of what they want in terms of both content and customised advertising,” he said.
“That database will allow us to build out a programmatic strategy to engage with advertisers and provide more addressable and targeted advertising along with an integrated sales team.”
Nine is not alone in making addressable advertising a key priority with Seven also announcing it would move to more targeted programmatic forms of advertising last week.
Australia’s top media buyers have welcomed the move with Dentsu Aegis CEO Luke Littlefield telling Mumbrella he was pleased to see both networks move on the issue.
“From my perspective, single customer view, cross channel attribution and addressable media are critical parts in delivering the right message, at the right time to the right customer,” said Littlefield who runs the advertising group which claims some $2.3bn in media billings.
Omnicom Group head Leigh Terry was also positive.
“Content, channel strategy and rebrand aside (although that all looks very strong and strategically sound), the increased use of always on streaming and subsequent data capture – whether that be at a gender, age or in the case of mobile device – will increase the efficacy of targeting options for advertisers,” said Terry, who heads the Australian division of the holding group which has $1.6bn in billings.
“Taken in context with the ambitions of the digital players video ambitions, this is indeed exciting times and moves us all towards truly integrated screen strategies that we’ve been pushing for the last few years.”
TV: Local focus for 2016 lineup
The axing of the Warner Brothers distribution deal has given Nine $100m more to spend on Australian content.
Among the new programs slated for 2016 include a crime thriller Hide and Seek; a miniseries in the vein of House of Hancock on the life of (briefly Nine owner) Alan Bond called House of Bond; a Darryl Somers hosted game show using hypnotism called You’re Back in the Room; a comedy called Here Come The Habibs; transformation show called This Time Next Year where people change their lives over 12 months;and a prison documentary called Prison: First and Last 24 Hours.
Nine also confirmed the return of Love Child, House Husbands, The Voice, Australia’s Got Talent, The Block, Renovation Rumble, Married at First Sight and Farmer Wants a Wife. Karl Stefanovic’s panel show The Verdict has also been recommissioned for 2016.
It said no decision had been made on the return of cooking show The Hot Plate.
Michael Healy, director of television for the Nine Network, said: “Our 2016 slate is brimming with a raft of new Australian productions and a swag of returning homegrown favourites. Never before has local content been as important as it is right now.
“We have diverted funds normally spent on international programming to investing in stories shot right here in our own backyard. Our viewers tell us that local production is what they want to see and next year they will see that in spades on Nine.”
Peter Wiltshire also confirmed there were big changes ahead for TV measurement service OzTam, which has been working on a way to measure audiences for live TV and online catch-up services.
Wiltshire confirmed that announcements would be made on the new metric in the coming weeks: “In the next few weeks you will start to see regular reporting coming from OzTam where you will see linear broadcast ratings and online and long form ratings being published as one.
“It is the grossed up number of the audience and not deduplicated yet but as the iteration of that measurement comes through we will start to see a total audience figure and be able to capture where the audience has moved to.”
What about nineMSN?
Australia’s largest digital brand is now solely own by Nine Ent – But, Microsoft have long since flown the coop, we have 9NOW…
So, is the msn in ninemsn really staying put??
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Still don’t understand why all four channels can’t be broadcast in HD, is it because of a lack of spectrum? one can only hope the live streaming option will be in HD.
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Any chance you can upload high Def versions of the NineGo! and NineGEM logos?
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Any indication as to whether WIN Television will get the new Lifestyle Channel 9Life or changing their channel numbers Gem & GO!?
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David, there’s never been enough spectrum per broadcaster for that. The digital networks have only ever had 23.1Mbps to play with. HD was originally designed for around 20Mbps, and over time in the last 20 years as this has been cut in half with better MPEG-2, the leftover space has been filled with SD simulcasts and multichannels.
They can’t switch to MPEG-4 without losing a lot of viewers.
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Leaps and bounds forward for Aussie television! Also great to see Nine leading the charge!
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Once 9 loses its MSN data offering, its bye bye. It already lost 30% of its home page traffic after IE changed its homepage to msn.com.au
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Branding could still do with some work. Something old mate Eddi tried doing by removing the dots but some bright spark was stuck in the past and had to bring them back.
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sounds like they are following sbs with the main ch being broadcast in sd and hd.
ditch those shopping channels and there should be enough bandwidth to go around
or better yet, set an end date for SD stb compatibility
most sd only boxes are getting on to 10 – 15 years old and a hd box can be purchased for under $25
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Good on ya channel 9 you are going ahead in leaps and bounds
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Hang on isn’t 9HD back to the future for channel 9, because before the days of multichannelling by commercial TV channel 9’s main channel was 9HD & you also had the SD version.. 9HD lasted 18 months from March 17, 2008 to 26th of September, 2010 with breakaway programming from 2nd Ausgust 2009 unnnntil it ceased broadcasting & Gem tookover. http://webarchive.linc.tas.gov.....ki/Nine_HD
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Apparently a journo from Mediaweek has confirmed with Nine that NineHD will be using MPEG4.
Good move.
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I guess they are still simulcasting in MPEG-2 standard def so that keeps all the viewers with old decoders.
Martin, in fact 9HD existed from 2001, it was just an MPEG-2 simulcast as mandated by law. They were also mandated to show 30 hours per week of native HD programming. NineHD was the first network to show a native HD broadcast in Australia (that wasn’t a test demonstration), with the series “Judging Amy”.
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(the mandate kicked off in 2003 but they started native HD in 2002; there was a lot of upscaling, remember)
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Perhaps investing in spellcheck? Some blatant errors…
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Good to see Channel 9 overhauling their channel. HD + a good streaming channel is needed. 9Jumpin was great to catch up on shows, but dint have proper functionality to be accessed via Apple TV etc. Plus, it didn’t retain ALL episodes – something they should keep in mind
It’s great to see free to air channels overhauling and updating their broadcasting.
Hopefully NineLife will offer high quality programming
I think they need to re-think Go and Gem. What do they offer? What differentiates them? They haven’t been branded properly/ Why not combine it into one channel or even combine it with NineLife. It is a tad confusing having all these different channels with no clear difference between them.
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Will the channel changes be carried over to WIN?
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New channel 9HD and 9 Life on channel 94 on November 26.
SBS channel 30HD .
SBS channel 33 Food Network Launch Novemnber 17.
Channel 2, 7 and 10 should be broadcast in HD.
We would like to see all channel HD.
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Tony, you won’t see *all* channels in HD because there simply isn’t enough spectrum bandwidth to give enough bitrate to all of them. Each network was given enough space to do one channel since 2001, which was designed to be for their main channel. However a combination of Alex Encel, Foxtel and the ABC scared the public into believing HDTVs would cost too much ($20,000 was the quoted figure) so they forced the main channels into transmitting SD even though a simple decoder could covert HD into SD, at a price of $700 in 2001 and built into every TV by 2010.
Encel had a lot of European SDTVs to sell, ABC had an agenda of multichannels, and Foxtel wanted a slice of the bandwidth given to them. In the end they all got what they wanted (Encel has since retired) and for the past 6 years we’ve had the main channels in SD only.
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Soooo, how hard will it be to get programs to start and finish as per EPG times? they should be timed to at least a tenth of a second….why drift past nominated finish by 10-15 mins – pain in the tail. esp with ill family members who cannot stay up late and want to record and playback next opportunity when they are able to enjoy fully?
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Gem isn’t currently carried by Foxtel so when the NineHD comes in anyone know whether or not foxtel will carry it?
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@ Geoff: It’s not impossible; it’s done on purpose you know. The 6pm news can start bang on 6pm or 5:59:50pm every day reliably.
Re: Foxtel: Leasing that satellite bandwidth is expensive, since you need a separate feed for every capital city (inserting custom ads isn’t as efficient as on the internet). The only streams on there right now are lower-bitrate SDTV streams that are also MPEG-2 to allow IQ1 and older boxes to view them.
The good news is that there’s no technical reason stopping the following Foxtel boxes from receiving Nine HD:
– IQ2 with cable not satellite
– MyStar HD
– IQ3 with cable or with satellite
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Will we have to do anything (eg re-tune) our TV’s or will the change just take place on Nov 26.
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Yvonne: Yes, you will need to rescan your TV to get the new channels.
Seven and SBS have launched new channels recently (Racing.com (C78) and The Food Network (C33 formerly SBS3) respectively so a full rescan seems timely.
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Any word from OzTAM on timing for catch up numbers? This seems to have been promised for a long time now.
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Will 9HD be brought across to WIN??
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Retuned and no HD or new channel. Am I missing something?
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Can’t get new channels after rescanning. Is it not available in regional towns I am in Bingara. Where do I find it on Foxtel
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I retuned twice, but 9hd (channel 90) appear to be having technical dificulties that no TV picture only sound.
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I’ve got the same thing as tony above only getting sound no picture?
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Too many ads in catch up – low incremental reach on TV – This isn’t the future 9.
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Can’t get Life in Newcastle! but agree with too many ads – eg how much actual program was there for the Block auction last night? seemed to be never ending ads.
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Cant get new channel northern nsw how come
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What a let down – regional Australia left out again – doesn’t Ch9 own NBN – why the delay? Don’t even need HD – let’s just get the channels?
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Many tv’s in particular older models will require a software update before sound and picture on 9 hd will work. Contact your tv manufacturer and ask them for help (manufacturer phone numbers can usually be found on a sticker on the back of your tv.
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is channel one HD the same HD for channel 90 after retune? If so channel 9HD shows audio only..
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Don’t really care if 9/NBN in SD or HD – cant be too hard to throw the switch to feed LIFE channel – bit different to sport, cooking contests and talent shows.
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So many new channels now but the content is poor. Mainly reruns of The Block, Big Bang Theory, and American dime-a-dozen B-lister programs. Nothing listed on the tv guide that would make me watch. Disappointing.
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Regional viewers left out again. Already don’t watch nrl because of poor quality. Looks like the crickets out as well.
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THIS MAY BE OF INTEREST>>>>>>EXCLUSIVE: A number of viewers have been asking about WIN’s plans for the primary channel to switch to High Definition.
TV Tonight can reveal WIN TV CEO Andrew Lancaster has issued a memo to staff earlier this week:
As you will be aware Nine are planning to air their main channel in HD and to launch a new channel by the end of this week.
Due to the short notice given, WIN Network will not be launching these channels at the same time as Nine.
From a broadcast engineering perspective, WIN is a more complex business with a great deal more markets across a larger geographic area and as such the addition of any new channels will take time and substantial capital investment. We are moving to have the capacity to run new channels across our network with our main channel being aired in High Definition our priority.
As we get closer to a launch date for WIN’s HD channel we will update you
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To Andrew Lancaster, How about an approximate date to change win to digital with new channels. 2016, 2020, 2030??
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