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Nine’s new channel by September

Nine's new youth channel will launch by September, with David Gyngell vowing to resign if it can't double ONE HD's share by the end of year.

nine network 09Nine will launch its new youth-driven channel by September.

In an interview with The Australian, CEO David Gyngell has thrown down the gauntlet to TEN’s sports-channel, ONE HD, offering to resign if his new channel doesn’t double the audience share of ONE by the end of the year.

That means it needs to rate close to a 3 per cent share to keep him in his job.

The channel, rumoured to be named Go! is being created with a swag of programs Nine acquired through its new $500 million output deal with Warner Bros.

“I’ll give this job away if it doesn’t do double the job of ONE,” Mr Gyngell said.

“ONE is the red-haired stepchild of sports rights,” he said. “It’s the stuff that no one wants.”

(Apologies to all red heads and step-children everywhere obviously….)

The article notes that Gyngell also flagged massive changes in the free-to-air landscape over the next year because of multi-channelling, online streaming and downloading, time-shifted viewing on digital video recorders and even mobile. It follows a reluctance to move toward a secondary channel, which he described as a ‘tax’ on the industry during a time of global recession.

Ninemsn will launch a streaming video website that will make more than 1700 hours of video clips and TV shows available on demand on July 14th.

“Within a year you won’t be able to look at ratings and judge a program in the same way,” he said. “One show will have to be monetised four times.”

“You don’t have to protect the free-to-air space,” he said. “We have to extend it and grow it.”

He even admitted Nine would lose some audience from its main channel because of cannibalisation from its new digital channel. But, he said, free-to-air rivals Seven and TEN would also be affected, and the two Nine channels combined would gain audience share and therefore advertising share.

Some of the titles previously touted for the new channel include Gossip Girl, Entourage and Sex and the City.

Despite reports it would indicate its future back in March, Seven has still not declared its hand on its new channel except to confirm it has settled on a model. We wait with bated breath…

Source: The Australian.

61 Responses

  1. If there is a review of the anti-siphoning list, removing the ban on broadcasting on the normal channel before the multi-channels would be the best thing that could happen. I believe that if that were to happen, TEN should just gamble and go for the AFL right in full or if that doesn’t happen the NRL keeping the same Seven/TEN partnership for the AFL. That would help boost Ones profile by a long shot.

  2. Yes what about WIN viewers? ONE HD was delayed for regional areas and has only just launched in some while some still wait, what about the rest of us? Will Sept turn in to early 2010 for us?

    We all know this channel will be a dumping ground for shows taken off the main channel or ones not getting a time slot and sitting on the shelf for years and endless re-runs of shows past their used by date. Not that this is a bad thing but as others have said many of the ‘new’ shows people will have downloaded them (or know someone who has a copy) months before they air for the simple fact that they don’t trust Nine any more!

    So what will CEO David Gyngell do when he leaves Nine in a few months 😛

  3. Thats all great and everything to start in september, the networks have been able to start a 2nd sd channel since 1.1.2009 why has this taken so long?
    As for 7 they know what direction for their new channel, why dont the public know yet? And when will they launch?
    Pathetic 7 pathetic

  4. I wonder what model Ch7’s new channel will be.
    With Ten and its ONE ->sports themed channel
    Ch 9 GO -> youth centric
    Ch7 ?? ->

    IMO Ch7 should tie-up with National Geographic / Discovery Channel / History Channel. These channel have some great educational / informative programs.

    Some of my favourites: Mega Builders, Air crash investigation, Dogs with Jobs, Man vs Wild & Deadliest Catch.

  5. Paul says : Who in there right mind would watch mlb over entourage or something of similar quality.

    Me!!!!!

    Why would you watch crap like Entourage over MLB! Go Yankees!!!! 🙂

  6. oh, gyngel has been wrong about so many things and has made some huge misjudgments. and he has misjudged this:

    “I’ll give this job away if it doesn’t do double the job of ONE,”

    ok then.

    anyway $100mil a year is way too much, even if this is a success they will not be better off financially.

  7. i have heard from people that sometimes during sport on 9hd that there is no sound, or there is only sound from the crowd but no commentary, even though it is simulcast on nine sd where there is commentary, also i have heard of sport on 9hd being abruptly interrupted halfway to show breakaway programming are you aware of this david?

  8. correct me if im wrong david but i don’t think i have ever heard ten make these sort of childish comments that nine and seven constantly do, as i have said before they dont seem to understand that we arnt going to watch their network just because we don’t like the other networks, just because the other networks are crap(according to gynell) that donsn’t automatically make nine good. also what was he thinking with the stepchild comment! one thing though at least gynell is dedicated, putting his job on the line like this, i wonder if he will stick to he’s word if go! does not double ONE by the end of the year.

  9. LOL good luck. Channel 9 is the red head granny that nobody wants to visit. Their new channel doesn’t appear to be changing their old fogey image anyway.

    I think I’ll stick to One which has awesome sports like DRM, FIA GT, Le Mans, IPL, F1, Moto GP and the stunning Isle of Mann. No contest.

  10. It seems that Gyngell is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Nine will have to start screening a lot of new, fast tracked content to entice younger viewers to the new channel. A lot of the proposed programming has been seen by other means.

  11. Paul:
    Entourage is great, but are you going to get 5 new eps a week for 30 weeks – no. Sport deliver hours, maybe not the quality that you and I want or like but Entourage has 15 ep season at best with two seasons a year (at best). 30 hours of programming that costs a slice of the $50 million pa compared to MLB which fills close to a 1000 hours (inc replays) for bugger all cost.

    Gyngell is just self promoting diverting the fact that CVC/9 are late in the digital world. 9 are doing exactly what ONE is doing – using cheap content to save costs added to staff cuts. Ten have ssen the light and presnt stuff that people watch even in SD. 9 on the hand hang on to NRL footy show and dopes presenting tributes to music stars. 9 is an inbred basket case.

  12. One is an excellent channel – but at the moment, with it’s current sports portfolio, its very much like C7 Sport was in the end… Hopefully though! Ten will get the AFL and some other stuff on there.

  13. Could we please start pushing the regional affiliates (ie WIN) for info on their start dates now? That is if they are going to carry these SD2’s – so we don’t have to grumble for a couple of month’s like we did with One.

  14. Its a shame ONE keeps getting a bad wrap. Indeed it really is just the left over crap, but there are still some interesting sports such as slamball, nba, nfl and i dont mind the occasional omnisport tv. But either way i see Ten launching ONE as doing channel 7 and 9 a benefit while not really helping itself. Don’t get me wrong i like to watch ONE and would very much like to see it develop over the years as it grows its auidence share and obtains more sports that Australians would like to watch, but one could guess all it’s really doing is stopping or atleast slowing down the exodus from free to air to foxtel. This of course because sports seem to be the biggest drawcard for foxtel. Allowing Seven and Nine to retain there auidence or “customers” so to speak. And with these new channel’s from Seven and Nine i would also expect them to out do ONE. Who in there right mind would watch mlb over entourage or something of similar quality. Its just not going to happen.
    But

  15. So the new Nine Channel will basically become like Arena on Foxtel/Optus/Austar by those shows then, why not I guess currently 9HD is pretty much TV1 with the afternoon line up of Just Shoot Me, Seinfeld, Bewitched (x2) and I Dream Of Jeannie.

    Also Sex In The City is now a youth program is it (okay I understand maybe the 18-25’s but younger hmmm), also I wonder how much Nine are paying to buy it back of Ten as well.

    Next thing you know The Young And The Restless will be back on Nine and the Afternoon show and Hot Seat will be replaced with Emmerdale, Eastenders and Coronation Street (may as well take a leaf out of the UK Channel next).

  16. Gyngell: Three months won’t make waves, against the three older competitors, ABC2, One and SBS TWO, unfortunately.

    It needs hard work, over six months at least, to get the ratings ABC2 and One are getting.

    As for starting dates, I’m tipping a soft launch on August 16 (with possibly the QTQ 50th special relayed nationally on GO!), followed by the official launch (in every market, right Win?) on… 9/9/09.

  17. “He even admitted Nine would lose some audience from its main channel because of cannibalisation from its new digital channel.”

    Sure, most of their audience loss will be because of their new channel….perhaps it will continue to be lost to online downloads where people know they can get a consistent programming schedule.

  18. I’d be surprised if it gets even half of ONE’s numbers with their line-up that seems to be almost exclusively made up of years-old reruns. ONE’s target audience wants to watch live sport so it works pretty well, Nine’s new channel targets an audience who download episodes hours after airing in America and have no interest in watching TV.

  19. Oh, Gyngell… shut up already and just launch the damn thing. September? You needed a few more months for your posturing and nyah-nyah-ing? How hard is it to set up a channel with all the stuff you’ve axed prematurely or refused to show at all?

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