The best man differs with the groom
David Gyngell has vowed to prove James Packer wrong for cutting ties with Nine.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
David Gyngell defends that there is still money to be made in free-to-air television, and has vowed to prove James Packer wrong.
Gyngell told advertisers in Sydney yesterday that the billionaire’s decision this week to cut his family’s more than 50 years of ties to the network was not going to spell any change for Nine, which has started a comeback in TV ratings this year.
“I loved Kerry Packer, what he did for me and how much I learned from him,” Mr Gyngell said.
“He was truly extraordinary, so hopefully I picked up his attitude towards Channel Nine, and I do love Channel Nine and what we do with Channel Nine.
“While on my watch, we won’t be cutting our costs to damage our content (DK: Hmmm that’s debatable, where’s Sunday?).
“If anyone understands the structure of the deal as it was originally done, the day that James and his family gave up control of Channel Nine was the day that he made a decision on his position on media.
“He’s got his view, and I’m looking forward to proving him wrong.”
Mr. Gyngell is steeped in Packer history. Kerry was his godfather, while he was best man to James, his former housemate.
Source: The Age
11 Responses
Jamie doesn’t know how to run a TV station like his dad did and everyone expect him too. Be like Kerry
The wheels will come off 7’s run eventually. The first place you will see it is in Queensland. There is only so much disrespect viewers, especially Brisbane viewers can take. Keep this between me and the commenters here (especially David), a friend told me, Seven Brisbane destroyed 35 years of archived footage last year. If this came out in the public domain, 7’s ratings in Brisbane would crash faster than a computer running Windows XP on a Pentium 1.
i doubt you could say that 9 has made a comeback when they are down .2% of total viewers from last year.
Alex, i know ch9 won the first half but that was a tight match with 7, and in the 2nd half 7 has cleaned up. i don’t think you could say it is “solid” yet.
and i think underbelly is at the end of next year which is probably better because 9 needs big winner in the 2nd half.
@ alex,
well you are entitled to your opinion but keep in mind that the first half was
9 weeks won by 7 : 10 weeks won by 9 (one tie) it was close
whereas in the 2nd half ch 7 has won all weeks so far.
this time round 9 is without ramsay and underbelly in the first half ( this years powercards) and 7 has packed to the rafters, find my family, the other factuals and australias got talent in first half.
i am not against ch9 or anything i’m just saying that they’re going to have to pull a lot of big shows out of the bag if they want to come anywhere near winning. They will eventually get back on the horse i believe that the 7 dominance thing is just a passing trend but god 9 is going to have to work for it.
P.S. underbelly IS in the 2nd half next year: http://tvtonight.com.au/2008/09/griffiths-underbelly-set-for-prequel.html
Even when i still watched my shows on commercial tv up to this year, i couldn’t give a toss who won this pathetic ‘war’ between 7 or 9, as long as they didn’t mess with viewers. It seems that every year they keep on irritating what keeps their networks alive – the viewers.
I doubt 09 will be 7’s year – they’ll probably win over 55’s and total people but Nine will take out everyone under 55.
To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if 9 were number one by the end of 2010.
They just need a solid schedule for the whole year – they’ve found a winning one for the first half of the year and just need to build on one for the second half – lets not forget Nine was winning the first half of this year and so they’ll probably win the first half of next year with Underbelly, Sea Patrol, Farmer Wants a Wife, Domestic Blitz, CSI, Two and a Half Men, RPA and so on.
David Gyngell is probably the most honest of the CEOs unlike Leckie who just abuses everyone – at the launch of this years show he said Nine was in a bad state and it was going to be a long journey getting the network out of it, he was frank and honest.
LOL @
“Nine, which has STARTED a comeback in TV ratings this year.”
they didn’t really finish what they started, and next year they won’t have ramsay. and 2.5 man has to drop off soon, doesn’t it?
’09 will probably be 7’s year yet again. their news is flying high, there are a lot of shows that are on atm that are long from running out of steam, they seem to be the only network that makes american stuff work, and they havn’t resorted to playing their only good rating show 10 times a week.
I’m sure there’s a lot of money to be made in free to air, just not so much on ch 9.
I’m assuming james packer is a very smart man and would not give up 50 years of family ties with the flick of an eyelid. It was probably a well calculated decision.
i guess david gyngell has to say this kind of stuff. he’s not going to say, “our networks going down the crapper and we all know it”
and as if: “was not going to spell any change for Nine” is a good thing
yes I think mr gyngell you are going to have to seriously change things around nine to get yourself back in the ratings, it’s not the 80’s or 90’s now, television is a different creature to what Kerry knew, for a start there was no foxtel in the good old days.
Time to take the blinkers off and reinvent 9 mr gyngell before it’s to late.
LOL @ a comeback in the ratings. Thanks Mr Sheen!
James Packer letting go of Nine wasn’t really that much of a surprise; from the day his dad died it was widely written in the press that he had little interest in TV and would prefer to concentrate on the gambling empire.
Nothing will change in the near future. Nine’s still the same old sinking ship that it was last week when Packer was on the masthead but not the slightest bit interested.