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Passionate Gyngell loves TV

Nine Entertainment boss David Gyngell is frank, full of passion, even respected by his rivals.

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The Australian has an excellent profile on David Gyngell, former boss of Channel Nine and now CEO of Nine Entertainment Co.

Gyngell again proves he is frank and full of passion, even respected by his rivals.

He admits what has been known within industry circles for some time: that he suffers from dyslexia.

In this quote he says he doesn’t spend much time reading print newspapers: “Why would I? You just get shit on your hands. I can read it on my computer. I have an iPad at home. I get up early. I scan the articles I need to. But I’m not a reader anyway. I’m dyslexic. I won’t read the story you do on me. I watch television.”

He admits to watching both Nine and Seven News and current affairs nightly and nominates extreme shows such as The Wire, Jersey Shore, The Paul Hogan Show, the first Underbelly and Lonesome Dove as favourite shows.

But it is also known that despite his promotion from running Channel Nine to Nine Entertainment Co (formerly PBL Media) that he is still actively involved in the detail of Nine, from programming to talking to News boses on a daily basis.

Jeff Browne, who replaced Gyngell as head of the Nine Network, says, “David is often described as someone with a great feel for TV – passionate is an adjective that gets used a lot – but he is actually super intelligent and a furious worker.”

“He gets television,” agrees Seven’s head of news and current affairs, Peter Meakin, says. “David Leckie definitely gets television. But not many others do.”

This year Nine isn’t performing as strongly in its key demos as last year.

“We have clearly had our well-documented challenges, but [CVC] supported us through those challenges. This isn’t a bad year. But if it continues the way it is, I will regard it as a bad year. Seven is doing a better job than us and Ten at the moment. We did a better job than them over the past 12 to 18 months. I don’t have a lot of excuses. If things don’t rate, it’s because we don’t have good enough ideas, not because we don’t have enough money.”

There’s a lot more to read on what makes Gyngell tick at The Australian.

12 Responses

  1. wow that was interesting. here i thought that he could not give a stuff about tv, with the way the network which is the ceo of is performing badly and treating their viewers like crap. If he is passionate about tv, how about getting some people who can actually program shows, and acquire shows which will do well.

  2. Back to the articale…well his wife is A1…well done mate, nice one. I like how the execs in the other networks seem to ‘like’ him. Keep him there and ch9 will continue to stuff things up appears to be a more appropriate agenda. Finally for someone who is so passionate about TV, how come his station puts out so much turgid trash that no one is watching?

    P.S. get somone other than Eddie to host a couple of shows eh !

  3. I think it hilarious that one of his favourite shows was the “First” Underbelly! So he knows the other ones weren’t as good.

    I think some new, undiscovered faces are what’s needed in Nine’s lineup. Almost everything has Eddie all over it like a rash. Stop over exposing tv personalities to compensate for the massive salaries You decide to pay them.

    I bet Nine’s next move is to try and poach Asher Keddie from Offspring and put her in some rip off show with Kerri Anne playing the mother and Karl Stefanovic as the love interest.

  5. arkie, the article is “nine oriented” because it is an article about a nine executive. There is nothing wrong with this – it doesn’t make it bias. Similiarly, if it was about an executive or personality from another network along with their feats it would be oriented towards their network. David – thanks for a refreshing insight into this admirable, passionate and powerful man.

  6. I agree with most of what the profile says and because of that I don’t understand how someone like him, who is so aware of what is working in each genre internationally, allows Nine to produce the lamest drama slate in a decade. I credit him with knowing it’s not good enough but when is he going to change it? This year Nine has met its drama quota requirements with series that are difficult to programme because they’re just so ordinary and samey – ensemble cast endlessly chatting about something other than the drama we’re watching. You don’t need to read scripts to see that.

  8. Good on you David. I am sick of seeing people say you are pro-Channel X.

    You are fair and balanced and whenever I do an essay relating to media I try to put an article of yours as a reference. You couldn’t do that for articles that are biased.

    1. Arkie, can I introduce you to the person who says it’s negative towards Nine? But frankly, before anyone accuses me of being too “7/9/10/ABC/SBS/Pay” they might get an overview of 4+ years and 16,000+ stories, not just one week. Cheers.

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