Free TV battle begins a week early
There may yet be a week until the offical ratings season begins for 2009, but both networks treated today as the starting gun, launching advertising blitzes in the Sunday newspapers.
Seven, Nine and Ten all spent big in the Sunday tabloids to promote the fact that all networks have big shows coming back earlier than usual
Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph saw Seven open the batting with a DPS across page 12 and 13 pushing Desperate Housewives (Monday), Packed To The Rafters (Tuesday), Australia’s Got Talent (Wednesday) and Grey’s Anatomy (Thursday).
Nine also took a double page spread, on page 18 and 19, pushing Wipeout and Two and a Half Men (Tues), Domestic Blitz and The Mentalist (Wednesday) and Celebrity Singing Bee and 20 to 1 (Thursday).
This was followed by the Telegraph’s own analysis, which predicted a narrow win for Nine over Seven with Ten lagging a long way back.
Seven also took the earliest position in the Sun-Herald, with a DPS on pages 18 and 19.
But Ten focused its spend on the paper, with a half page vertical, followed by a DPS featuring no programme names but a montage of the main show characters. This was then followed by a half page vertical with a day-by-day listing, including The Biggest Loser Couples stripped at 7pm every night, the movie premiere of The Devil Wears Prada on Monday, House on Wednesday and the premiere of Life on Mars on Thursday.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
topics
20 to 1
Advertising
Australia's Got Talent
Desperate Housewives
Domestic Blitz
Grey's Anatomy
House
Life on Mars
Media
Nine
Packed To The Rafters
Seven
Ten
The Biggest Loser
TV
Two and a Half Men
Wipeout
