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Let the spin begin

As the Ratings Year ends, Publicists are tapping away on keyboards to say what a great year they've had.

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typingToday is the last day of the 2009 Ratings Year.

From tomorrow we are staring down the barrel of 10 long weeks of summer viewing before ratings resume on February 7th. But at least this year we have more to choose from. Since the arrival of multichannels our schedules have been filling up with extra titles, some of them first run, some obscure and some classic television reruns.

But with it come  new twists in the interpretation of the 2009 ratings year.

Every year the big 3 commercial networks manage to find ways to say what a great year they’ve had. Publicists tap away on keyboards, ferociously hitting the CTRL-B to highlight their successes in lengthy Press Releases.

Already there are signs that some networks are keen to downplay digital channel figures from network results while others are determined to include them. Another likes to redefine the hours of prime-time.

By the time figures have been published and dissected, all 3 betworks will have deemed 2009 as their best year in a long time.

But 2009 will be the most complex analysis of the ratings year yet.

At least 2010 will see all our channels on a level playing field from January 1st, with timeshifting figures to be added into the mix too.

Everything will be a fair and equal comparison -until TEN decides to add its third channel.

No wonder they call it the silly season.

20 Responses

  3. Seven – Figured out they could start a 2nd channel, didn’t bother telling regional affiliates.
    Nine – Nine’s Unspecific Show Title (Which has been replaced by Two and a Half Men, due to last minute schedule change)
    Ten – I would talk about Ten’s big achievements for the year, but I feel that it is more important to do a cross-promotion for Celebrity Masterchef and Australian Idol.

  4. If 10 adds Another channel .. I will have to decide which one to dump as my EPG is full is one display. Easy it will have to be the endless Brum-brums going round and around and around and all that yank sport on ONE .. their additional channel can’t be worse than ONE.

  5. This is going to be very interesting this year…
    TEN’s Q4 lineup sadly kinda flatlined, but I hope they get their 3rd channel up and going ASAP! I reckon with the launch of MasterChef 2010 they could pair it up with the launch of their 3rd channel, and have like an extra MasterChef show on it, or have extra showings of MasterChef eps to get viewer attention. Plus if they’re going to cross-promote between the channels, they’ll have a massive viewerbase with MasterChef to advertise to.

  9. Well, we all know that Nine won the most important stat for 2009 –
    Most programming shuffles ever.
    Most 2 1/2 men ever seen in the world.
    Most ridiculous 20-1 countdown.
    Ten can claim Masterchef as big winner.
    Seven can just claim to be the most watched channel.
    SBS & ABC can claim to have offered quality viewing – Carla Carmetti & Ashes to Ashes

  10. mikeys – not actually TEN’s worst year… that was last year my friend!
    it’s up in all demos i believe.

    and this year definitely is a messy one in regards to all the networks being on very different playing fields.

  11. I’d say Nine will focus on GO!, Underbelly and Hey Hey!. Today seems to be doing better this year, and the 5.30 slot with Hot Seat. They didn’t win any demographics but they may focus on these.

  12. Winner of the year was Ten with the gamble of Masterchef! Loser in my view is channel 9 and their programming, they had the most duds and continue with muliple hours and days of 20 to 1 and 2.5 men to get them by. Seven is consistent but need to gamble a bit more for 2010.

  13. Lets take a guess –

    TEN will boast about MasterChef and how it has transformed reality TV in the country (but actually has had it’s worst year for many years).

    Seven will talk about winning more ratings weeks than Nine.

    And Nine will boast about the instant success of it’s GO! channel.

  14. it is always very entertaining.

    seven and ten should have a lot to brag about without resorting to super spin. 7 can talk about winning the year and also winning 18-49 and 25-54 and ther news ratings. ten can talk about winning 16-39 and their increases on last year but will only talk in 6-10:30 because it makes them look closer to 2nd in 18-49.

    god knows what 9 have to say. whether it’s ~10:30 or midnight, including mulitchannels or not, they haven’t won much, and they are down on last year in almost every way. but they should be proud of how GO! is doing. ch9’s spin will probably include shaving off Perth, including easter non-ratings and ignoring other networks multichannels.

  18. Looks like Ten won 16-39’s while Seven got the rest including 18-49 just ahead of Nine. So much for all of Nine’s last minute programming changes!

    It will be very interesting to see how Nine spin these figures in their favour. I think if they ignore Tuesday nights (the worst night of the year for them) they could say they have won something for 2009!

  19. I would define “spin” as manipulating the figures to make you look good, and regularly changing the rules. Ten have been reporting primetime as 6pm-10.30pm for over 10 years now as that is where something like 95% of advertising dollars are spent, and the figure that their advertisers want to know. This is not something they’ve just decided to do recently to make them look good. So I don’t think they can be accused of spinning the numbers…unless the consistent reporting of commercial share from 6pm-10.30pm for more than 10 years is what you consider “spin”.

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