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Big Bang reruns coming to Seven

Seven swoops after Nine pulls back on its Warners deal, grabbing the first 7 seasons as Free to Air exclusives.

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And here we were just getting over networks accusing one another of copycat programming…

In surprising news today, Seven has confirmed it has picked up Seasons 1 – 7 of The Big Bang Theory for Seven and 7mate from October.

As the exclusive Free to Air home for the sitcom, it means Nine will only retain Season 8 (2014) and the upcoming 9th season.

If it is stripped on 7mate (as it surely will be) it could see 7mate’s nightly share lift, and the network as a result.

“The Big Bang Theory provides demographic certainty for Seven. It will ensure we have Australia’s biggest digital channels and will give 7mate unprecedented demographic dominance,” said Seven Head of Programming Angus Ross.

The switch has been made possible after Nine did pulled back on its output deal from Warner Bros. studio, with select content available on the open market.

Big Bang has been a huge hit for Nine, both in terms of premiere episodes and its rerun value on both Nine and GO! The network has also resorted to replays in primetime when local content has under-performed, stripping multiple episodes on any given night.

From October it will now only be able to draw upon two seasons on either channel.

42 Responses

  2. Ok, I was not expecting this?

    As a fan of Survivor who watches the Go! Airings, this is good for me. Now Survivor can be aired earlier in the evening and not at 9:30 when the 8:30 hour is filled in with TBBT reruns.

  3. I wonder if 7 will be sneaky and play old repeats up on 7Mate against Nine’s first runs to just to spoil the ratings a little and fragment the audience?

    The Middle will no doubt get some more exposure to fill all those empty slots on Go.

    1. No that’d be a really stupid move, the networks should just agree and not rely on tactics like weird start times like 8.43, but instead just make or acquire quality programming.

  5. It just won’t be the same on seven. I have never watched Seinfeld on seven mate, cause after years of it being on GO! or ten it just didn’t feel right on 7mate.

  10. Nine probably let it go as they are putting all their money into sports rights which ultimately will do more for them – they probably also realise that it is only a matter of time before BB repeats stop working for them.

    Seven could at least take a fresh angle by using them as a regular 7pm strip or similar without the random programming spots they used to use on Nine.

    Or maybe Seven will keep them as a back up for a schedule filler should they have another Restaurent Revolution style reality flop!

  11. I thought Nine copied everything Seven did? Or is that just the people here who are surely on 7’s payroll sprouting this? Face it, all Networks copy each other. This is cheapish programming 7 can throw onto high rotation that will bring eyeballs to their Network, go good on them

  12. It was only a matter of time i suppose but i’m really really surprised Nine gave it up. Of all the rerun shows, this is the one show you want in your rerun catalogue. Nine are idiots.

    David talking Warners any news on who has Supergirl? Haven’t heard anything.

      1. When I did the google search of foxtel and supergirl I found a page on syfy Australia with with lots of news articles about supergirl, the facebook page of syfy has a recent post with general information on supergirl and a gizmodo article 14/5/2015 that says syfy could possibly get supergirl. Whilst nothing confirming it, is it possible that syfy is going to get supergirl?

    1. The amount of home shopping that still gets shown by the main and secondary channels overnight despite the dedicated shopping channels, would it even be noticed if they did?

  19. I find it surprising that Nine gave this up, of all shows!! It is practically their backbone of some nights of tv. Will be interesting to see what they will rely on in future…

  20. It would be good for 7mate to have a couple of nights a week as ‘sitcom’ night. They do have plenty of them.
    Beats showing them all late at night on 7. Really hope it isn’t used the way it is on Go as a schedule filler.

      1. Nine probably expected that non-exclusive repeat rights would be available, so they could still buy them for Go!. That’s fairly typical. New Tricks repeats have screened on the ABC, Gem and UKTV at the same time.

        The fact that Seven would pay for exclusive FTA repeat rights to all seasons may have caught them out. That hasn’t happened before and TBBT is probably the only show where repeats are valuable enough for it even to be considered.

        Ten doesn’t have the cash to be taking such gambles to hurt Nine.

  24. Why would Nine give up one of its only cash cows?

    Let’s hope that 7mate have some consistency in scheduling episodes. Nine / GO made a complete mess of that. You never new what was new or a repeat, and what season you were watching.

    1. Nine retains exclusive first run rights to new TBBT episodes. At $100m p.a. the WB deal was not a cash cow but a money pit. Once Nine dropped the deal, WB are free to sell repeats and new series to anyone who wants them. Note TBBT repeats have been sold to Netflix, Stan, Quickflix, Comedy Channel and more recent eps on iTune. Nine has shown every ep 3 to 4 times a years for many years so they aren’t worth that much.

      Seven is looking to lower the average age of viewer on its network, and TBBT makes good filler when you run out of cat videos. There is also an element of revenge.

      This is different from Friends when the WB deal switched hands exclusive rights to new eps went with it (that doesn’t happen anymore because networks buy options to future series outside the output deals to stop it). Thus Seven had first run of S1 and Nine S2+, but Seven sat on S1 to stop Nine showing…

    2. This is probably why new eps of Mike and Molly were yanked from Go yesterday and replaced with TBBT repeats. Show them as many times as possible until they go to Seven.

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