Gyngell: “Australian television, we always fight with each other.”
"It’s a small, tight market and I think we’ll always continue to always fight," says Nine CEO.
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Last night’s Media Watch aired a feature interview with Nine CEO David Gyngell on his views on how streaming services may impact on broadcast television.
The Nine boss was frank in admitting the power had shifted from networks to consumers, and that the former had to lift their game to remain relevant. He focussed on News, Sport and Drama as key areas where Nine was spending on content.
Asked how he saw the future of television in 5 years’ time he said:
“I think in five years time you’re going to have two or three $5-10 a month subscriptions to different services. If you can afford the Foxtels of the world you’ll definitely be buying Foxtels because that’s a good service. Again if you can afford it you’ll have the Apple TVs, if you can afford to buy content, so the world’s your oyster, so the power’s moved from us, the broadcasters in my instance, to the, the consumer and, if we’re good enough, that could be a good thing for us. Commercially it’s clearly going to be, you’re going to have to be on your game.”
Asked about advertising on streaming services he said there would be none in the immediate future, but viewers would judge them accordingly if they decided to introduce them in the future -something he did not rule out.
“They’ll judge you with their feet pretty quickly because they’re not locked into anything, at the moment the promotion is no contracts no ads, but I’ve never ruled out an evolved business model if it was good for the consumer which means it was going to be good for us. But you just don’t have the same luxury, you can’t push people around in the media business anymore, or the consumer anyway,” he said.
The topic of anti-siphoning laws led to further discussion on a battleground with Foxtel / News Corp. That led to something we’ve known all along. Aussie TV networks are known for their scrappy fights (and sometimes so are TV bosses).
“Australian television we always fight with each other,” he said. “You’re partially friendly with someone on occasion but mostly you’ve got to do your best to get your share. It’s a small, tight market and I think we’ll always continue to always fight for pay if they want to try to get hold of our sports rights or the anti-siphoning, I think that’ll never change. I think the healthy nature about our businesses is we’re so super competitive in Australia and I think that super competitive streak will see the Australian television industry become stronger than ever. How profitable it will be will depend on you being sensible as a proprietor, to say you can’t walk away from this or you can walk away from that.”
There have recently been reports Gyngell may “swap” roles with Nine Chairman David Haslingdean, to spend more time with his family. Nothing is confirmed as yet.
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6 Responses
FTA will survive to a certain level but if they want to insure decent audiences, they must produce local product. Particularly drama which will always attract peeps. Can’t be downloaded, streamed etc…I will watch local product before International any day of the week. But it needs to be of a standard, which doesn’t seem to be happening much due to questionable taste of decision makers and ability of current creatives.
Great insight from a major player in the business, I’ve always wanted QandA to do a tv executive special or a couple a year whereby the audience can ask these type of questions to Gyngell and his colleagues
I think it will be lucky if FTA survives another 10 years.
Ten as a network is dead, there is no hope there, the brand is too toxic
Streaming has been huge in the US for 5 years now and cable 4 times as big in the US as Oz – and FTA TV in the US is still huge. Granted – it’s a fraction of what it was, but audiences are still big.
The #1 entertainment show on Foxtel is 140,000 viewers. The #1 show on FTA is 1,700,000 viewers.
It is on the decline no doubt – but I still think in 10 years – the most watched shows will still be on FTA
More arrogance from free to air TV.
Would someone please ask the bosses of commercial TV how they intend stopping people zapping through long commercial breaks, or jumping onto their computers during live TV ?
Surely it’s a matter of time before companies shelling out big bucks realise no-one watches long ad breaks anymore?
Barry did ask about that. Gyngell’s answer was along the lines of “more live news, sports, and reality TV which you can’t delay until later”. In other words, he’s still clueless. Live news at 6 is stupid in a 24/7 world, sports will eventually move onto AFL/NRL specific streaming sites, and reality TV is only on because its cheap to make.