Reinventing Seven: Has the network got what it takes to return to number one?
Last year didn’t go exactly to plan for Seven, but have they done enough to turn it around? In order to sort fact from fiction, Mumbrella’s Zoe Samios sat down with the Seven West Media executive team to discuss the year just gone, and the year ahead.
On page 98 of ‘What Killed Channel 9’ by Gerald Stone lies a quote from former Seven CEO David Leckie.
“We thought Seven should become like Nine, but we’re not Nine. We’re heartland Australia. The key to our success is being comfortable with what we are,” he says.
Leckie, who resigned as CEO of Seven West Media in 2012, was credited with turning around the fortunes of Seven in the mid-2000s, helping the network move away from its nickname ‘Channel Second’ and shifting towards more consistent ratings successes.
The facts are there, but the obvious is always that last thing to taken into consideration.
Who is top is nothing to be worried about. vastly more important is who is on air when all the others have fallen over; it is an unlikely scenario, but if it were so, it would not necessarily be the top rating channel that was left in play.
The so called experts thought that a bunch of mindless game shows and so called “reality” shows would save the day, most of them fell down and grazed their knees. Why? Because the banality of supposed 75 IQ programing will not attract the vast numbers any more; there are other platforms doing this and there are too many choices out there. The only answer to the dropping value of free to air, is good programming.
Back to basic television, with a wide coverage of informative and encouraging programs. Spoon feeding is over, ratings hunting is a waste of time, better to nurture a smaller audience and grow it with nutritional programming.
Trust me, I am an old white man with a long and varied history in radio, TV, film , video, and professional legitimate theatre.
Oh go back to the large hole you must have had to crawl out of and stop trolling, try rebuild a life for yourself.. try.
I don’t understand, why do you say this?