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TV Industry looks to launch trade marketing body for both commercial and pay-TV

Australia about to get an industry body along the lines of Thinkbox.

Australia about to get an industry body along the lines of Thinkbox.

The major Australian television networks are looking to launch a new trade marketing body that would promote the power of the television medium.

The move would see the free-to-air and pay-TV networks put aside their traditional rivalries in an effort to create an organisation similar to Thinkbox in the UK.

“We are always looking at better ways to market television as we have a great story to tell,” Julie Flynn CEO of FreeTV told Mumbrella this morning.

“These matters are still under consideration and we have nothing further to say at present.”

It understood that negotiations are still ongoing about the precise nature of the new body but it is thought that free-to-air bodies FreeTV and Freeview along with pay-TV group ASTRA will continue to exist as well.

The Australian reports that the organisation would be given a $5m budget and that the search for a CEO has begun. 

In the UK Thinkbox brings together all the major TV networks in an effort to promote the overall industry and the power of the medium.

The move comes at a time of increasing competition for the TV sector from streaming players and also declining audiences – particularly in prime time.

Fusion Strategy last year looked at the falls in prime-time viewing and showed that peak night live television audiences for 2015 were down 9.15% for the year.

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