‘I hope the others fail’ – Competition between free-to-air networks heats up
The official ratings season is well underway, and every network is claiming a few victories – but how did the battle really play out? Vivienne Kelly spoke with the free-to-air commercial networks to find out what happened in Q1 and their plans for Q2.
The first quarter of 2017 kicked off with a three-way reality ratings battle in which viewers could tune into the jungle (Ten’s I’m a Celebrity), the kitchen (Seven’s My Kitchen Rules) or the altar (Nine’s Married At First Sight).
At the start of 2017, the networks weren’t underestimating the scale of the battle they were facing. The first quarter can determine a network’s success for the year ahead and make or break a slate of upcoming programs.
So it’s no surprise that as Nine’s Married at First Sight, Ten’s I’m a Celebrity and Seven’s My Kitchen Rules fought for viewers, they were all claiming various victories on different nights, with key advertising demographics and pointing out how strong their performance was.
Never was so little given to so many by so few.
The reality ratings battle (if it can be called a battle) between the apparent top three is rather like a competition for best cabin on the Titanic. Television can only flourish, as opposed to swallowing a dwindling survival, if it works harder to change, and accepts fewer dumplings.
Radio will survive the electronic media age, print may not, and neither will television if it continues down the gravy train tracks. The true strength of executive leadership, is in the ability to take a real risk, and to change not only the direction, but the modus operandi.
It has been said that a pair of binoculars in the right hands could have saved the Titanic, a little fore site might also save television.
I suspect you could pitch ten the colusseum complete with lions and dead people and they’d probably take a few minutes to decline. Yea… Nah get endemol to package it and come back to us? But pasolini would look tame for anything after the watershed. I predict the future is soft porn: it’s cheaper than the alternatives and ubiquitous.