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Nine to simulcast The Block on 3 channels

Nine borrows TEN's simulcast strategy in a brazen bid to top the ratings.

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2014-07-26_0232aWelcome to the new TV landscape, where multichannels are just an excuse to prop up your ratings (or even your local content quotas).

Tomorrow night Nine will simulcast The Block launch across its three channels: Nine, GO! and GEM.

Under OzTAM rules networks can merge simulcasts into a single  ratings figure ….and presumably benefit from a single headline trumpeting its success the next day.

TEN boldly utilised the simulcast strategy for Family Feud‘s first two weeks (and will continue into a 3rd), resulting in ratings figures higher than it would attract on a single channel.

What if all the channels combined their ratings?

Industry observers suggested that other networks would be eyeing the strategy closely, and possibly borrowing the technique.

Nine’s Block launch on Sunday goes up against The X Factor, and competes on the same night as the penultimate MasterChef finale.

The simulcast will likely push the show to the top at a time when it is most crucial. Ironically, TEN’s chance of MasterChef topping Sunday night will now see the strategy it ignited being pitted against it. Be careful what you wish for.

Nine and TEN both employing such smoke and mirrors will put pressure on Seven to follow suit.

Updated: A Nine spokesperson told TV Tonight, “Nine was the first to do this type of simulcast, we played the launch of The Apprentice on Nine and simulcast on GO way back in 2009.

“In the heavy traffic with Commonwealth Games we want as many people as possible to sample The Block as we are really confident it’s a great series.”

Such creative use of multichannels follows the media watchdog ACMA releasing data that indicated Nine had counted 51% of its local drama as New Zealand titles on GO! and GEM in 2013.

In TV Tonight‘s recent Multichannel Survey with networks, Nine advised its branding for GO! was “Comedy and Movies.”

It’s not clear whether The Block: Glasshouse is movie-worthy, but the way viewers are being offered less choice on multichannels is becoming a hell of a comedy.

79 Responses

  1. So now the floodgates are open!

    The only good thing to come out of this is that at least we can watch The Block in HD – assuming of course that it was produced in HD.

    But really, what a waste of two channel frequencies.

  2. Thanks DK…welcome to the new weird world of FTA folks….as someone else said…we will be back to just 4 channels…simulcasting is not a forward step..the idea of multi channels, I thought, was choice…..
    @ Russell….I for one will not be ‘sampling’ The Block….no matter how many channels they run it on…and I am sure I am not the only one!

  4. What is the point of killing off a new show by stealing viewers from its launch with your secondary channels?

    It also increases the chances that someone flicking around to find something to watch will stumble across your programme.

    Everything commercial TV does is to make money, it’s the only reason they exist.

    Nine still made Underbelly, House Husbands, Schapelle, Power Games etc. In a digital market most people only watch a handful of shows these days. What does it matter what Nine shows on Go! instead of TBBT repeats?

  7. I can not see any reason to watch the Block even in HD it is the content that is important , have a look at an old classic B&W movie, that is not in HD, yet we still enjoy it.

    Oh well does not worry me, but if it becomes the norm, we will go back to only four channels….a retrograde step. I enjoy the multi channels, but not if they are showing the same thing.

    It is about time that Channels had announcers again telling people what is going on, if it wasn’t for this site we would not know about late programming changes.

  8. So that means Nine has ruled out three channels for me to watch tomorrow night. The point of a multichannel is to offer something quality and different. Therefore in increasing the total viewership of the entire network, allowing advertisers to spread their commercials across various channels on the network for maximum exposure to the right audiences. Now the advertisers won’t have me seeing any of their product tomorrow night.
    Anyway, isn’t it all about the demos and not the total viewers, which is why APTCH got cancelled on Seven?

  11. Speechless. I have given Nein a wide berth of late. Not into the constant repeats of American shit coms. Never watch GO as it was just a Nein +1 of the same old comedy. I did watch some drama on GEM but now its Nein Nein Nein to all 3 channels. Its time for some competition on Freeview and these multi channels put out to tender.

  14. This is why we can’t have nice things…

    In all seriousness, get ready for every Tom, Dick & Harry show to be simulcasted across a network’s multichannels because of another loophole. While the loophole has good intentions (eg; a network simulcasting sport on their) HD channel & rightly combining the ratings, it’s being exploited now and hence should be stopped

  18. This strategy defeats the purpose of multi channels as David has stated.
    Highlights to me why there should be tighter controls on this self regulation!!

  19. This totally defeats the purpose of multichannels. Meanwhile sports fans settle for glorious SD on the primary channel while 50 year old movies are shown in HD on GEM.

  20. This is cheating and needs to be stopped now. The ratings tables should only show the ratings for individual channels. If the networks do simulcasts they could report the combined ratings o advertisers separately.

  21. I think you’ve over-simplified the strategy behind simulcasting. It’s not to “prop up” ratings. It’s to gain all important sampling and expose the show to as many people as possible. The more people that sample the show across 3 channels, the more people you have to tune in week after week.

    By eliminating “competing” programming on Go! and Gem (that could ‘steal’ a potential 200-300k potential viewers from The Block) Nine is almost forcing more people to sample The Block.

    The more people that get hooked on the block, the better for Nine, the worse for Seven and Ten.

    The “headline” it steals the next day by a higher aggregated figure is not the advantage here. But the sampling.

  22. Will it surprise anyone if TEN suddenly slapped tomorrow and Monday night’s Masterchef across three brands while 7 pulls the same stunt for X-Factor?

    I can see the media watchdog eventually telling the networks “no go”.

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