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Seven defends Big Bang marathons on 7flix

Up to 39 episodes a week, so has 7flix run out of programming ideas?

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Night after night of Big Bang Theory reruns on 7flix have worked as a programming stunt, according to Seven, but they will soon make way for more movies.

This week and next 7flix has Sunday – Wednesday primetime with up to 8 episodes a night of the US comedy. Added with 7mate, the network has had up to 39 episodes a week. Has 7flix run out of programming ideas?

Seven programmer Angus Ross told TV Tonight the marathons had performed well for the channel.

On Sunday & Monday multichannel share had brought Seven to within a whisker of Nine’s network share.

“In July and August we have seen the biggest Big Bang Theory numbers on 7Flix to date,” he said.

“As a mid-year stunt to maintain Seven’s dominant suite of digital channels I’d have to call the ratings result a success.

“The show is a key pillar in growing 7Flix’s all people numbers and its target female 16-54 demo year on year – along with movies – which you can expect to ramp up again shortly.”

Some of the 39 episodes includes block repeats within a 24 hr cycle.

34 Responses

  1. TBBT is like comfort food. Whenever you flick through everything else and find nothing worth watching, you feel comforted by the knowledge that you can always go back to Sheldon.

  4. “A stunt” well if it was to alienate people who didn’t watch the ‘marathons’ into watching 7flix and 7mate, then they failed spectacularly with me. I’m done with 7flix and 7mate

  6. I watched an episode the other night and flicked through to see what the other episodes were about and couldn’t believe it when they were replaying the episodes again they only had playing an hour earlier.

  7. I’m a big fan, watch it most nights on Foxtel but when a FTA is showing almost 2 seasons worth of eps in a week it might be time to pull back! Even Foxtel only show 3 eps a night M-F excluding the encores of the same eps in the same 24 hours.

  8. Looks like Seven is using the same tactic that FOX Network used in the late 80s early 90s with Married with Children. FOX used to air MWC three times in a row back to back to back. This did improve there ratings. The problem with that nowadays is (in the case of 7 Network) that there are back catalogue deals so unlike the then fledgling FOX network which didn’t have much to show, 7 have heaps of stuff, but refuse to show it, Mistresses for example does not belong in a poor time slot especially when they have 7Flix or 7Two to put it on those channels target the Female demo as does Mistresses. THis shows that anyone with a brain can progame or schedule tv shows, you don’t need industry experience at all.

  9. To me this constitutes something of a sugar-hit of somewhat higher ratings for whichever channel they’re on, that’s not a viable long-term strategy for any channel.

      1. Probably could’ve been a bit clearer with what I said. What I was trying to get across was ScreenPLAY should be on earlier instead of the millionth TBBT repeat.

    1. Perhaps you should try it, unless you don’t like old style comedies that tell jokes and prefer comedies that simply make people look awkward.

  12. 7 sunk $16m into buying TBBT rpts, and having fast tracked a lot of content, they have little else that appeals to younger female viewers at zero marginal cost to screen at this time of year. It is giving 7 Flix a 2.2% share of viewers in primetime, below Go but above Eleven which has even less first run content on.

    There are 17 secondary and datacasting channels. I’m currently watching 2 out of 2,856 hours of programming on them a week. And that halves after Orphan Black finishes up on Sunday.

    2. Yep if it doesn’t rate it wouldn’t be on, it’s like when some people complain about the paparazzi or hackers and how they treat celebrities. If TMZ and the associated magazines didn’t get a spike because of some contoversial photo’s or leaked videos, the paparazzi and hackers wouldn’t be around.

  15. I’ll admit – I’ve been watching the marathons, only when there is nothing else to watch. But I would enjoy them more if they played the episodes in order. The other day, they played a few episodes backwards, and it was really annoying.

    1. That is why I got the dvds, because the bloody FTA channels won’t play BBT repeats in order. I certainly enjoyed watching Friends in order, a year or two ago on FTA.

  17. No room on the spectrum for Community TV that broadcasts 100% Australian content, but there’s room for a 24/7 Big Bang Theory station. Makes sense

  18. The repeats happen in less than a 24 hr cycle. They generally play 9 episodes in a row, with the final four being a repeat of the first four. Rather than stunt programming, how about some decent content on the primary channel, and express from the US content on the digital channels. No network wants to build an audience any more, not even on a digital channel. This is why there are only three shows on FTA commercial that I watch, 7 News at 6, Neighbours, & Shark Tank. Everything else is Foxtel, streaming, and other means.

  19. I so cannot wait till 7Flix comes to Newcastle so I can watch the Big Bang episodes I’ve already watched when they were first released, then when they were on Nine, on Go!, on Foxtel, 7Mate and Seven. And yet new episodes of Family Guy and American Dad are no where to be seen.

  21. My main issue is that they repeat the same episodes the same night!! They’ll play three or four episodes, then repeat them immediately after that.

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