Guest post: Time for Nine to start winning back viewers’ trust
In the week that Nine broadcast the ratings turkeys of Dance Your Ass Off and Australia’s Perfect Couple, former staffer Adam Paull says in this guest posting that it is time for the network to start apologising to viewers.
For decades, Channel Nine enjoyed a relationship with the Australian people that the Seven and 0/10 networks could only dream about. 
When capital city dwelling members of the Australian public turned their televisions on, practically all of them automatically tuned it to Nine – not because they had the best shows (although more often than not, they did) but because of the trust and the affection for the brand that had built up since they first flicked the switch in 1956. Nine’s logo was one of the most recognised and trusted brands in the land.
In the mid-nineties things began to change. A pay-television platform was introduced, and although it struggled for a decade, it changed the landscape dramatically. The “ethnic” channel, SBS, changed focus and became a serious threat for eye-balls, Channel Seven and even the ABC started to get their act together, and we saw the rise of other distractions like DVDs, game consoles and of course, the Internet.
Nine’s reaction to these threats was to laugh it off. They were after all a ratings juggernaut and the feeling around management circles was that nothing could touch them. There were even “Maintain the Arrogance” stickers produced as a joke for the news division.
But the beginning of the end for Nine was when they started to get too clever for their own good. They pulled sneaky little tricks to try and manipulate ratings – tricks like running shows past their scheduled finish time, running repeats in the middle of program story arcs to pad out the season, and even advertising a brand new season of a popular show, only to swap it out with repeats at the last minute.
At the time I’m sure executives were busy congratulating themselves for running these scams, but they didn’t realise that these short term blips in ratings were causing long term damage to their brand. For the past 15 years or so, Nine has been pissing away the one big advantage that it held over its competitors – audience trust.
Unfortunately for Nine, the tricks just don’t work any more. After years of blatant lies, the audience can easily see through a Nine promo and judge new shows for what they are – turds. There are only so many times you can use phrases like “Smash Hit!” and “All New!” when you don’t mean it, and get away with it. The Nine Promo department once famously labelled one of Hollywood’s biggest ever stinkers “Ishtar” a “box office smash!” with a straight face – to this day one of voice-over stalwart Ken Sparke’s greatest performances.
The end result of two decades of shenanigans is that today, Nine has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. Maligned staff have fled to greener pastures, it is publicly ridiculed from pillar to post on a practically daily basis and the brand affection sits somewhere between that of used car salesmen and estate agents. I challenge anyone from Nine’s management to pick up a phone book, start phoning people at random and ask them what they think of Channel Nine – you’d be well into your day before you heard anything positive.
Programming has been reduced to throwing anything, and as this week has shown, I mean anything, up against the wall to see what sticks. The problem is that practically nothing is sticking, and their increasingly desperate attempts are just doing more and more damage to the brand.
In short, Nine is in a tailspin.
Can things be turned around? Anything is possible, but I’m not sure current management would be willing or even able to make just some of the decisions required. A big broom is needed, and it needs to start at the top.
With the “Under New Management” sign firmly in place, the next step is a public apology. Here is an excellent opportunity for the once mighty 60 Minutes to turn the focus in on itself and do a one hour exposé on how a broadcaster can get things so wrong. It should finish with the head of the network, whoever the unlucky sod that lands the gig is, on their knees practically grovelling an apology and promising that they will behave in future.
Just image how high that would rate!
A line is then drawn in the sand with all past transgressions consigned to history, and the network can start afresh. Only then can the trust that Nine once enjoyed begin to be rebuilt.
None of this, of course, will ever happen. Nine will continue to float rudderless floating from disaster to disaster and launching crappy show after crappy show. While they might get lucky with the odd minor success here and there, they will never be the powerhouse they once were.
And that is just sad.
Adam Paull worked for Nine in Sydney in the late 80s and early 90s. He is the manager of Pinacle Productions and has just launched the website Next Seven Days
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Channel 9 deserves everything they get. For years they screwed with us. Now they can sit at the bottom of the tree and explain to advertisers how their shit station no longer has the clout it once had. Kerry Packer must be rolling in his grave. Over and over again.
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Having spent plenty of time in the Nine newsroom in Sydney this is no surprise to me at all.
The arrogance of the network back then is only matched by the amount of crap they peddle as TV content now – although sadly 20 to 1 repeats still somehow pull over 1 million viewers now.
They’ve lost potential huge and loyal audiences from cult shows like The West Wing and The Sopranos but lost them after failing to give them a steady timeslot (11pm? Midnight? What a joke) and on-air promos. These shows have become huge via DVD sales and even bigger via download. At least 7 & 10 fast-tracked some of these shows to take the sting out of the download community.
In their defence being owned by an equity group is the worst possible outcome – after all, if you can turn a profit by making cheap shows and importing even cheaper crap, who cares?
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Finally the shit is starting to stick to channel 9 for its abhorrent programming schedule. About fu*king time!
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I really did used to watch channel nine more than nay other station. Now, it’s hard to remember when I last stopped there in my channel surf. Nothing keeps me there….
It’s just so odd, because it was a reliable giant… now it’s a big yawn. There was a time when a show the nature of dance your ass off might have been pulled mid show and someone would have some explaining to do… now, good taste is replaced by poor ratings.
Find some good taste and you’ll fin your viewers…
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I really did used to watch channel nine more than any other station. Now, it’s hard to remember when I last stopped there in my channel surf. Nothing keeps me there….
It’s just so odd, because it was a reliable giant… now it’s a big yawn. There was a time when a show the nature of ‘dance your ass off’ might have been pulled mid show by KP and someone would have some explaining to do… now, the ‘good taste’ reason is replaced by ‘poor ratings’ excuses.
Find some good taste and you’ll find your viewers…
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I used to think of Nine as the “flagship” of the Aussie TV stations, but I haven’t felt that way for quite some time. I don’t need grovelling, to me, that kind of thing is what caused my current feelings about the station. Just put something good on and be done with it.
Wolfie!
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As a West Wing fan who finally cracked it with channel Nine and bought the DVDs I totally agree with your post.
Nine was once the leader in television entertainment now it looks at what works on Channels Seven and Ten and presents poor imitations. When it does have a success, like Gordon Ramsay or Two and a Half Men, it milks it dry.
At least the Foxtel channels see value in hit drama series and sitcoms – why Nine never bought 30 Rock and settled for that stinking Dance Your Ass Off is anyone’s guess. The programmers should be sacked.
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The TV viewer has been treated with great contempt by Channel 9, over the past decade. And, dare I say it is happening with the other free to airs, but they did not have as much to loose.
I must congratulate Adam Paul on such an accurate summary.
May we all now collectively hold our breath, and wait for Channel 9 to enact on some of Adam’s suggestions.
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Ch 9 news is a complete joke. That supposed re-enactment last night with the old lady was the most idiotic I have ever seen, in fact the whole bulletin was pathetic.
What is going on, how could anyone watch that and then be expected to accept the Sport with Tony Jones (another joke)
Bye Ch9 your in BIG trouble
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They’d win viewers if they went back to starting their advertised programs at the ADVERTISED TIME!
Ciao
Alan
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I think it was the West Wing that tipped us over the edge of trying to watch TV shows on TV. If you really like a show, just buy it on DVD. Saves all that chasing around random timeslots and missing episodes, or getting dudded with a repeat when you expected a new episode.
Not that nine’s the only offender. Bloody channel ten is probably worse on the “run past timeslot” stakes; not to mention their “promote a plot twist that doesn’t exist in the show but we fabricated with clever editing” promos. Or their “thrash a promo to death and back until you never want to watch the show or hear the song again” promos.
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We used to watch CH9 more than any other …..not any more apart from CSI ( Vegas & it is hardly worth it now without Grissom ) there is nothing on 9 we watch
Just when you think their programs can’t get any worse they do
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To quote the late Kerry Packer “Get that shit off the air…”
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And how about the British Open golf? On day two, at 11.30pm, Nine shows 1 hour of highlights from DAY ONE. For the first time ever it was not live – and denying other free-to-airs the rights at the same time. They have no shame at all. I cannot imagine Kerry Packer putting up with what they pass for programming nowadays, Underbelly’s magnificent breasts notwithstanding.
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