Advertisers warn against late starts and inaccurate schedules
A key media exec warns networks against inaccurate starting times. "Networks are kidding themselves because they’re forgetting who’s important in all of this – the viewer."
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News, Top Stories
A key media buyer has warned commercial networks against the ongoing habit of starting programmes later than their advertised times.
It follows another new Drama series launching later than its advertised starting time, for the second night in a row.
TEN’s website and promos announced Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms as having an 8:30pm launch last night but it didn’t begin until 8:40pm.
Shine’s MasterChef Australia, due to end at 8pm, ended at 8:10pm -despite the fact it was pre-recorded.
That left Bikie Wars: Here and Now and Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms ten minutes out from their scheduled start. The move followed Nine launching Tricky Business at 9:42pm following Shine’s The Voice on Monday night, despite its advertised starting time of 9:30pm.
Victor Corones, Managing Director of Mediabrands’ research and investment division MagnaGlobal, told TV Tonight that networks were at risk of alienating viewers to new dramas.
“I completely agree that there is a disregard for viewers by some of the TV networks,” he said. “Networks need to be more transparent with their start and end times – particularly as Time Shifted Viewing will only increase over the next 2 to 3 years. There is nothing worse than recording a show only to find you’ve missed the ending of the show. I believe it’s quite damaging for a programme because the viewer is left dissatisfied and may result loyalty waning over time.”
Yesterday Nine sent out a Press Release claiming Tricky Business peaked on 2.4m viewers. But another network claimed the figures were false, and the number actually fell within the overrun time for The Voice.
Corones says there were a number of reasons for late starts by networks.
“I believe they’re designed to get existing audiences to stay tuned in longer and miss the start of other shows on other networks and potentially increase eyeballs for the next show. But on the flip side a late start may allow viewers on a competing network to switch channels if they don’t like the show they’re currently watching.
“Either way the networks are kidding themselves because they’re forgetting who’s important in all of this – the viewer. Content needs to be strong enough to stand on its own and be available for when they’re ready to watch it (i.e. live, PVR or catch up).
“The delaying of shows is something that advertisers and agencies are becoming increasingly frustrated by – particularly if shows run beyond 10:30pm when viewing levels start to fall away at a rapid rate. Beyond 10:30pm is traditionally viewed as late night and is less expensive than programming airing Peak Night – 6pm to 10:30pm. That delay helps a network increase their yield across an evening because the shows start running past 10:30pm with peak advertising rates attached to them.”
29 Responses
I’m confused by “Networks need to be more transparent with their start and end times – particularly as Time Shifted Viewing will only increase over the next 2 to 3 years”.
So, will the days of starting on the half hour be over soon? Maybe they’re trying to push us to the online versions of the shows (which is what I’ve started doing on a regular basis) and then start charging subscription fees to do so.
TV is becoming very lax. For example, here in Hobart the weekly TV guide is in Sunday’s newspaper. I came home from work at 9pm Sunday and started flicking through the 15 FTA channels. Of those, 3 (all multichannels) were showing something different to what that days paper had suggested was on.
Seriously, how do networks expect people to watch TV if they can’t even air what they’re saying they are, let alone without the time then being 3-30 mins out also?
@steve sydney – good point. I think it’s pretty obvious that new shows that have been strongly promoted will attract a lot of viewers at the start who want to check them out. So the peak audience will consist of a lot of casual/just passing thru and undecided viewers. It would be more statistically valid to report on the number of people who are still watching at the end, but of course, they’re not going to do that.
I know it’s to grab a headline but the Networks should really abandon this gushing over ‘peak’ viewership
I mean is someone with a ratings box simply channel surfing consolidated into a ‘peak’ figure? Dodgy as…
Why didn’t TNE just have The Project run long and MC start 10-15 min late tonight? Or here’s an idea have a Bikie’s ‘making off’ special to fill the time?
I just started watching Offspring again the past few weeks….interest spiked by the storyline…but…..the ‘special’ time of 8.15PM has lost me…again!
Better late than never Mr. Corones, but it’s not a case of the networks being “at risk of alienating viewers to new dramas”, they’ve long since done exactly that. It’s old, old news and long since time the networks woke up and realised that playing these childish, irritating games with their viewers is very counter productive.
When I have to set my PVR to run all recordings 15 minutes past the scheduled finishing time, and that’s sometimes not enough, it’s gotten beyond a joke.
Sorry wrong week. It’s next week I might try One. I just looked it up. It seems when I get home I’ll look at a new DVD and maybe catch Castle. Starting at 10.14pm according to the EPG. Although it had a silly advertised time of 10pm. I guess at least something is on.
@ Craig
My EPG says Offspring will start at 8.16pm. Don’t know how accurate that will be. But I’m glad I don’t want to watch Ten tonight. Though I might watch One; that has more sensible start times. Depending when I get home and how I feel.
I agree David times need to be correct to within 5 minutes, you’re not going to have a promo say x show is starting at 8:42, but 8:40 would be acceptable IMO.
Now I’m wondering how late Offspring will start tonight, they have been promoting the special time of 8:15 all week (we know the reason) but will it start at 8:20 or 8:25 instead?
I thought ten showed bikie wars strting @ 8.40, hamish show start @ 8.10
Bikie Wars appeared in my on air EPG as starting at 8:40pm yesterday. Sure that differs from the papers and advertising, but at least it is correct.
So if their EPG is right, why can’t their promotions on the same day also be right? It’s not rocket science. MasterChef was pre-recorded so they knew in advance. Viewers just want accurate information not conflicting info.
It’s nice to hear someone from the advertising side speaking out about this. It’s really become ridiculous the last couple of years. timmydownawell is right – the commercial networks are stacking the ads when they’ve got the most eyeballs and thinning it out later on to maintain their permitted average.
I’d also like ACMA or some other authority (not self-regulation) to pull the networks into line over this. If they want to cram more ads in earlier, just advertise the time the shows will actually start. To do anything else is false advertising.
On a related note, it also sh!ts me when they advertise a drama by showing clips from an ep that is not the upcoming one, sometimes from several weeks in the future. A slightly more insidious case of fraudulent advertising as they are effectively lying about the content of the advertised ep.
I taped “Tricky Business” followed by “Footy Classified” on Monday night. The previous 2 weeks “Footy Classified” had been 25 minutes late. So this week, I actually had the tape set for 3.5 hours just in case. But, they were *only* 15 minutes late.
Every channel is doing it. And, as a viewer, it’s really annoying. We can’t be expected to tape every single show we watch! People will give up & do something else (if they haven’t already).
It’s disrespectful to the viewer & to the programs & all involved with them.
They need to get their acts together!
The most ridiculous part of this is those of us that record shows miss the end. Which kind of matters when it’s something like Masterchef. Did the amateurs or professionals win last night? (easy to guess, but that’s not the point)
Re-reading the article the advertisers have the power to solve the problem. If all of them – as a block – have a written agreement that any advertising that airs after 10.30pm gets after 10.30pm rates no matter what airs at that time. Then the Networks have no financial incentive to have overruns. So theoretically problem solved.
One thing I’ve always wondered is how advertisers are treated with late starts/schedule changes.
For example. If I was a travel company who wanted to advertise during the Amazing Race due to the link and the Race is bumped to a later timeslot (as seems to be th case weekly) does my Ad move with it, or do I lose the audience I wanted to appeal to as my Ad get’s shown during a drama?
Late starts and ends don’t work on me. If anything it makes me stay away from the main channels if I can. I’ve said before I only try something I really want to see a lot. It’s not much anymore. But it’s also why I gave up most Australian shows on main commercial channels. I’ve been waiting for them to be on time for ten years. So far they seem more dysfunctional than ever. So I guess it may be never for me.
That said as I’ve said before what the heck were they thinking with ABC News 24 and those stupid start times during prime time for hour and 45 minute shows? Why do they want people to avoid them between 6.30-10.30pm barring actual breaking news when that doesn’t matter? Why clash with Doctor Who and other Saturday or Sunday shows?
Good, we need the advertisers to start speaking up.If the networks don’t care about the viewers and listen to our complaints, maybe they’ll listen to the people they do care about, the advertisers.
I think the Australian Communications and Media Authority needs more power to ensure ongoing false, misleading and late start times should have consequences attached.
I usually PVR all shows and was allowign 15 minuets over run, where I am not recording another show after it (and I can record two at once) I will often allow 30-60 minutes over run. Last week I missed the end of the double mentalist episode, but fortunately checked before I watched the second, so I deleted it rather than become frustrated at not knowing the ending. I was still annoyed that I missed an episode though!
Tricky Business (apt title) is the classic reason they do it, they knew The Voice would get more viewers and having a (false) press release stating it got 2.4m viewers helps promote the show even though in reality the numbers where about half that and they lots about 1 million viewers after The Voice ended Monday night.
Maybe if advertisers start complaining and pulling out they might stop it and either promote the real start times down to the nearest 5 minutes or risk to loss of sponsors.
Actually part of the reason shows run late, particularly in the early evening, is because the commercial networks are allowed to average out their advertising minutes, so instead of being strictly limited to 13 minutes of ads per hour, they can load up during popular shows and average it out later in the evening with less.
In addition they need to include “market updates” and “fresh food updates” which currently exploit a loophole and don’t count as paid advertising even though of course they are.
This is an area that really needs reform.
“if they don’t like the show their currently watching”
Would be “they’re”.
Victor says…networks were at risk of alienating viewers to new dramas. Bit late for that they already have. I record most of the main shows I wish to watch and watch it later. I can skip the ads. It is beyond a joke now and if advertisers do not start throwing their weight around to the networks and demand correct scheduling more and more will do this and their advertising dollars are then wasted. As stated previously a lot of these shows are pre-recorded so I can never understand why they can not fit the schedule correctly. Networks never listen to the people they are there to entertain…do not think they really care anymore…just advertising dollars and bugger the viewer
Two ways to tackle this – either regulation, as such practices just don’t happen in the US or UK.
Or restrictions on ratings reports so a show can only get ratings for airing within it’s slot – so if a 9.30-10.30 show airs from 9.50-10.50, only the ratings from 9.50-10.30 are considered, with the other 20 minutes being considered to have zero viewers, bringing down the announced ratings by a third.