Aus Open down, but it’s all about the News.
Seven's 2010 Australian Open has lost more than four million viewers on 2009 -but is Seven News a bigger drawcard?
- Published by David Knox
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Channel Seven’s 2010 Australian Open has lost more than four million viewers nationally compared to 2009, claims media analyst Steve Allen.
Fusion Strategy says the audience has plummetted by about 40 per cent year-on-year.
The drop comes at a time when the network is already under fire from viewers in radio talkback, online and print.
Seven however maintains it is smashing the competition. “We won last week, we’re winning this week. And our clients are happy with our audience delivery,” said spokesperson Simon Francis.
Meanwhile, Rebecca Wilson writes that the audience for Seven News yields a far greater delivery than the Australian Open.
“Seven has compared the results of pulling a tennis match midstream or postponing its popular news service. Showing the News wins hands down,” she notes.
“While 300 callers to a television station is cause for concern, it is a drop in the ocean compared with the thousands of former tennis lovers who have turned their back on the sport in recent years.
She adds, “If Seven had stuck with Stosur, arch rival Nine would have cleaned up in the ratings with its own News bulletin.”
Source: Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun
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- Tagged with Australian Open, Seven News
21 Responses
Yet again those of us in WA are treated like dummies. None of the night matches have been shown live in WA, day matches were usually cut off at 2-3pm (in the middle of a match), and the finals will also be on delay. By the time the womens final is shown here it will be well and truly over, and we will know the result already. On Saturday we really need to see at 3.30pm TBA (for 2 hours mind you), then at 5pm the Skyworks (if I wanted to see that I would have gone to Perth and watched it), then at 5.30pm a repeat of Deal or No Deal. By news time at 6pm, the match would most likely be finished (or heaven forbid the news might have to be on a bit late). Then on Sunday we have at 3.30pm Marty – whatever that is, and at 5.30pm Merurio’s Menu. Surely we can do without these programs and have the tennis on live. If 7 can’t show these sporting events live around the country (I notice the Eastern states get live coverage), they need to give up their rights.
sensible anti-siphoning reform should fix the problem. What really worries me is that millions of people feel the need to watch 7 news (or 9).
Well, the only reason why they decided to put stosur’s match last was for ratings and they thought that the match before would end earlier than it did, but didnt, so they didnt get the lead in they wanted, and im glad they didnt. Well it is obvious they seven would do that but why would you do it in the non-ratings seasons, who cares! it’s not official yet!!
Good it should lose a lot more viewers. Then Seven can axe it and put something decent on.
The organisers obviously never know beforehand how good or bad a match is going to be, but unfortunately the Australian tennis players in both the mens and womens draws just aren’t good enough at the moment to justify their continual top billing on Rod Laver Arena, unless they are playing a top seeded player themselves. Channel 7 talking them up endlessly doesn’t make them play any better either.
The scheduling of matches to be shown on TV has been embarrassing given the form and rank of players like Dokic, Dellacqua etc. Even Tomic shouldn’t have been on RLA in my opinion, he’s a 17yr old wildcard who has hardly played at tour level. Of course, that match went to 5 sets, but the continual problem of the 2nd night match ending in the early hours the next day was the problem here, the organisers never seem to learn from one year to the next.
Further evidence was the scheduling yesterday with Djokovic and Tsonga starting an hour late, meaning most of Federer v Davydenko was not shown live on TV as the women’s qtr finals had gone to 3 sets. Why can’t the schedulers assume matches will go the distance and plan accordingly? Of course, one of the few times an Aussie deserved to be on RLA (Stosur v Williams), Channel 7 deemed the news and Today Tonight (!) more important.
You just can’t do justice to showing a Grand Slam event on one channel, Fox has been badly missed this year. Giving it to the ABC wouldn’t help either, they cut away from the Hopman Cup final to the news earlier this month, totally screwing up the viewing pleasure of that as well.
@msd
Richrad Hinds wrote a good article the other day comparing ESPN to 7. Perhaps if 7 covered it like them then it would also attract more viewers.
Not sure how this link can be posted smh.com.au/sport/tennis/sevens-desertion-betrays-uncomfortable-truth-about-games-standing-20100126-mwcy.html
I’m still watching it (hey, I like tennis) but I understand why overall viewing figures are down. My two cents…
To get non-tennis fans to watch, which is what’s required for massive ratings, a particular player needs to catch people’s imagination and generate excitement. This then needs to be exploited (shamelessly, if need be) by ch 7. If you think back to Marcos Baghdatis a few years back, or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s run in 2008 or Jelena Dokic last year… these players grabbed people’s attention, they were “stories” that drew in non-tennis fans.
We haven’t really had anything like that this year. The AO has been short, for lack of a better word, on charisma. Some of that is the fault of the coverage (C’mon guys, don’t just go straight to the match, shoot more profiles, more stories, capture the atmosphere at Melbourne Park. The AO is considered the “fun” Grand Slam, where’s that festival/party vibe in your coverage?) and some of it has been due to the draw itself and how it has panned out.
7 Two is supposed to be an alternative to what’s on 7, not more of the same. It would be counter to the whole point of 7 Two, not to mention unfair to people who would like to watch something other than sport, to screen the Australian Open on 7 Two. And yet ungrateful people are whinging about 7 not abandoning their regular schedule for a mere hour and a half for something that gets shown 12 hours a day already. There are people who don’t like sport and it’s only fair that we get considered too.
Hey the Daily Telegraph stole your poll results David.
The ratings are well down, and it’s not just because of the Jelena factor. Every night last year rated above 1 mil, even the nights Aussie’s weren’t playing. Hasn’t been doing as well this year.
I love tennis and would love to watch as much of the Australian Open as i can, but i’ve foudn myself not even watching soem matches. I knew Seven would cut the Federer v Davydenko match so hardly watched, and refuse to even listen when Roger Rasheed is on. the coverage is terrible. Give it to ABC.
Jed the Tele had permission to use the poll. All good.
How about in the future they suck it up an reach a deal with Fox Sports, stop cutting out at 3:30 in Perth to switch to According to Jim, stop plugging all of their own shows mercilessly throughout (does anyone actually want to watch Cougar Town now?) and forcing their commentators to laugh awkwardly about how good this show they’ve never seen is, and also stop treating their viewers with disdain.
They keep forcing these “Keep Sport Free” ads down our throats, but their coverage over the past fortnight has shown exactly why they haven’t got a leg to stand on.
Not only did Rebecca Wilson fail to mention in her article that she works for Seven, she also neglected to mention this fact: her brother, with whom she appears on Sunrise, is dating the anchorwoman. Full disclosure would be nice.
Why did Rebecca Wilson fail to mention in her article that she works for 7?
I thought you had to disclose that kind of thing.
David, I think you just summed up my feelings on the tennis debacle. How many viewers think 7 don’t care as much about the Open, when they supposedly are #1 compared to when they always were recurring second.
If there were any Australians of note left in the comp, the Open would be doing much better in the ratings, though I don’t think it is performing that badly – it is still in the nightly Top Ten. Remember back in 07 when Molik and Hewitt got to the quarter finals – it was rating its head off. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t one of Hewitt’s finals matches that year rate over 2M? Lack of competitive Australian tennis players is badly hurting the Open. Also, the predictability of the Williams sisters – Federer-Nadal running rampant over everybody else makes potential viewers complacent, though Nadal wound up retiring hurt this year.
Yet again, the viewers get screwed by the networks in petty ratings wars. I agree that they should show the news at 6pm, but Today Tonight then Home and Away?
Networks should have to agree to show matches in full before they buy the rights, much like the World Cup.
We have 7 Two now, so they should be no excuse!
At least Tennis Australia will be happy with the crowd figures. The Age said this week that attendances in five of the first seven days of Australian Open had already exceeded those in 2009.
Seven may improve on it’s news viewership, but it is alienating it’s tennis viewers. Whilst it is a great idea to put the marquee match up first on Centrecourt, they have stuffed up in some fundamental areas. Not playing out a five set match and going to the news is a joke. Give the tennis to another network that will give it respect. If not, change the anti siphoning rules which forbid 7 from televising tennis on the 7two channel. Something needs to change…………
I agree, Craig H. Its actions like this by the blinkered Seven and Nine that will only make pay TV audiences stronger. I hardly watch Seven and Nine now as they take their audiences for granted. Seven has 3 channels, come-on…
Oh come off it. Those 4 million viewers are because of a certain person called Jelena Dokic. Her matches both got over 2m viewers. She didnt make it past the 1st round and the ratings havent been there this year.
As for Fox Sports they should have paid for what ever Seven were asking. They got a cheap deal with the AFL so i say let them pay. The anti siphoning list is to blame for not letting the tennis on 7two. Its in the clause in that agreement. However i do think Seven cutting matches for the News is not the best thing to do.
I cannot believe that in 2010 a major event like this is on only one channel, whether this is sevens fault for not reaching a deal with FOX sports like previous years, or whether the anti-siphoning list is to blame for not letting seven continue airing games on 7 Two when it goes to the news, im not sure..either way, viewers deserve much, much better!