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Leckie quits Free TV board

A plan to hit back against Pay TV has produced some very interesting outcomes...

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Do commercial television networks actually have a conscience? That’s a question worth asking today after news that the networks rejected a proposed ad campaign to kick Pay TV to the curb.

The answer (surprisingly) would appear to be yes.

Why? Because Seven sought the approval of fellow commercial networks in the Free TV Australia body for two $25,000 newspaper advertisements that would “compare Pay TV’s audience figures and share of television viewing with Free TV”.

Nine and Prime in voted in favour of the move while TEN, Prime, WIN and Imparja opposed it. The dissenters are believed to have argued Free TV did not need to put down Pay TV, and should have instead been playing up its own positives.

It’s a rare day indeed, folks.

But that is reported to have seen Seven television boss David Leckie suddenly quit the board of the peak free-to-air TV body.

The Australian reports Mr Leckie’s resignation was announced by Free TV Australia chairman Wayne Goss at an internal annual board meeting, attended by Australia’s top TV bosses at the Park Hyatt in Sydney on Wednesday.

Seven’s proposed ads were designed to coincide with a function held by Foxtel and Austar sales group Multi-Channel Network on Wednesday night to impress advertisers.

At that event, MCN chief executive Anthony Fitzgerald said, “Subscription TV is now Australia’s highest rating network. And in the most important television market in the country, Sydney, subscription TV’s lead is significantly more pronounced. In Sydney, overall STV out-rates the three free-to-air networks by a significant margin.”

A brash claim enough to make any CEO quit Free TV?

Source: The Australian

16 Responses

  2. I guess voting would be based on how the shareholdings of the company is set up.

    If Prime have 2 shares (and consequently contribute twice as much financially) then they will get 2 votes.

    If Nine or SC only bought 1 share (regardless of the areas they represent) then they would only get 1 vote.

    Evan :->

  3. He’s a hard man to like, that’s for sure, but the 9 and Ten boys can’t help but admire his winning ways. If you listen carefully you can hear them signing in the shower.
    “I should be so Leckie, Leckie, Leckie, Leckie….”

  5. at least on pay tv you don’t have to put up with limited number of crappy shows all night you get to flick through heaps of crappy shows all night then give up and hit the sports channel all 6 of em!

    Leckie, he sure is!

  6. Southern Cross and NBN didn’t get a vote? Surely they would. NBN is a part of Nine though but assuming if Prime got 2 vote for itself and GWN, Nine should vote for NBN and Southern Cross should also have 2 for both Ten and Seven affiliates.

    Then again it probably doesn’t matter.

    Free Tv doesn’t need David Leckie, they need someone better and so does channel 7.

  11. MCN chief executive Anthony Fitzgerald said:

    “Subscription TV is now Australia’s highest rating network. And in the most important television market in the country, Sydney, subscription TV’s lead is significantly more pronounced. In Sydney, overall STV out-rates the three free-to-air networks by a significant margin”

    Look, no doubt pay is growing and impacting free TV – but this guy is not being honest here.

    Subscription TV is not a network. It’s a collection of about 100 channels. “Subscription TV” is no more a network than “Free TV” is (a collection of the 5 free to air networks)

    Yes, subscription TV’s 100 channels out-rate Free TV’s 3 networks. But you are comparing 100 channels to 3. And that is in Pay TV homes only (where about 60% of viewing is of the 100 or so pay channels and 40% of viewing is of the 5 free channels)

    In total homes – Pay TV / Subscription TV gets about a 20% share – inline with Ten but below Nine and Seven (most nights) Still it is taking 100 pay tv channels to equal that of one free network (Ten)

  12. “Nine and Prime in voted in favour of the move while TEN, Prime, WIN and Imparja opposed it. ”

    Is that a typo or does Prime get 2 votes and just wanted to sit on the fence ?

  14. Nah, just an ego big enough to throw a tanty and walk out when he doesn’t get what he wants.

    I’d love to see some evidence of those subscription TV figures so we can figure out how they fudged them, though.

    Oh, and Fitzgerald, just FYI: pay TV is not a “network”.

    Everyone’s got their penis out this week, don’t they…

  15. Have a Cry Leckie, Your still a bit pissed after your attempts to sue Foxtel failed miserably earlier in the year!. Although you did wise up a little bit by signing onto the PayTV Digital Network.. I better not say too much or Leckie will call up Foxtel and Withdraw 7 from the Agreement!

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