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Nine in big push against drifting TV audiences

Nine steps up local content & HD in a bid to stop viewers drifting to SVOD, Pay TV and Online.

9HDYesterday’s 2016 Upfronts by Nine is a sign of things to come with the network free of its Warner Bros. output deal and planning to ramp up local content over the next three years.

“We are the only network not to have an output deal now,” says Andrew Backwell, Managing Director of Programming & Production.

“So we’ve diverted all the funds we’ve been spending on American content to local production. We will have the biggest, most diverse range of local content of all the networks.

“What you’ve seen today is a lot of announcements of content that’s coming. But in the next 3 years we will have ramped up our expenditure to an additional $100m on local content.”

For a commercial network to invest in a local Sitcom, things must be changing indeed. Nine was famously burnt badly by Ben Elton’s Live from Planet Earth in 2011, scaring it off scripted comedy for some time. Now as viewers tire of a Reality TV diet and drift to new platforms, Nine is expanding its genres, including in Light Entertainment and -boldly- a Sitcom in Here Come the Habibs!

“I’m very pleased we’re going down this route. It’s a very hard area to get right and everyone has stayed clear of it. So we’re giving it a go. We have a great team in Jungleboys. It’s in production at the moment and we’re seeing rushes come through and it’s looking really strong,” says Backwell.

“Part of our strategy is to not just rely on stripped Reality content that plays 5 nights a week for 12 weeks. We’re doing more shorter-run stuff and we want to get a lot more Entertainment and Variety onto our schedule. In the past you’ve seen Reality all year stripped at 7:30.”

Wait, did he just say Variety? Is a Tonight show on the cards?

“Variety is something we are looking at. It’s something that depends so much on who the host is,” he adds.

“We are looking at something, probably for 2017 I would think.”

Playing local content on Free to Air creates a point of difference from other platforms. In addition Nine is cleverly switching its Primary channel to High Definition while 9Life will feature The Bachelor, Million Dollar Listing and The Real Housewives from November 26:

Channel 90: 9HD
Channels 9 / 91: 9SD
92: 9GEM (reverting to SD)
93 / 99: 9GO!
94: 9Life (from Nov 26)
95: Extra

“We have to stop people drifting off”

As viewing numbers for Free to Air slide, Backwell is making a united front for the sector. Historically, Aussie networks have fought ferociously in a relatively small market, with blood on the mat.

“The fact is Channel Seven and Channel TEN are not our enemy. I’ve said it before, and I absolutely mean it. What we have to do as a Free to Air platform is to not fight each other. We have to stop people drifting off to Pay TV, SVOD services, and online, but keep them on Free to Air,” he insists.

Yet Nine Entertainment Co. is also part-owner of SVOD service Stan. How does he equate the need to have both platforms successfully?

“My job at Channel Nine is to keep you on Free to Air, watching our shows. I try every single day to stop people going to extra services.”

Nine also plans to discuss channel changes with Foxtel, in relation to satellite subscribers unable to view in HD.

“That will all happen in the next week with negotiations and discussions,” says Backwell.

“I personally believe it’s in Foxtel’s interests for them to carry our channels and for us not to pay them to do it. It’s a service to their viewers. But that’s a much broader discussion.”

“It will be a completely different service to Jump-in.”

In the first quarter of 2016 Nine will also Live stream its channels on 9Now, which supercedes 9jump-in, together with Catch-Up services. The announcement comes amid calls to drop the Reach Rule, with regional broadcasters claiming Live streaming demonstrates out of date rules.

“The strategy is not to impact the regional television stations. It’s there because our viewers these days expect to see all our product on all their devices,” Backwell explains.

“We have a whole new technical platform for 9Now and it will be a completely different service to Jump-in. It won’t just be Jump-in with a new logo, it will be a completely different tech-based service all set up for video.”

Reality will still feature heavily on Nine’s schedule, but as part of a broader mix. Backwell insists he wants to avoid like-genres going head to head as happened this year. Reno Rumble will appear early in the year with The Block “book-ending” the year.

2015-10-29_0002

Dave Hughes is a surprise announcement as Australia’s Got Talent host, as part of a move to position the show differently to The Voice.

The Voice is a very serious competition but this is light, family fun.

“What he won’t be doing is making fun of the contestants, but he will be light-hearted.”

New formats acquired at MIPCOM include This Time Next Year, to be produced by ITV, a “transformation” show with 2 doors in a studio. Explaining the format, Backwell gives the example of a man in a wheelchair.

“He says ‘This time next year I want to be able to walk,'” he suggests.

“Then exactly one year later you go back to the studio, with the host in the same outfit and she walks across the set, the door opens and he walks through.

“Then you have the backstory of their journey. So what you have, essentially, are Before and Afters on steroids. One minute they are there, then the next it’s completely different.

“We know from The Block people love Before and Afters.

“There may be a couple who have tried IVF four times and failed. This time next year they walk through the door holding the baby.”

Prison: First & Last 24 Hours tracks two individuals entering / leaving the prison system.

“They’ve been sentenced, and we track them from that moment across their first day: to the jail, checking in and the reactions of their family,” he continues.

“The last 24 hours is a different person, and the anticipation of their family as they’re coming out and the emotional reunion. So it’s the 2 pivotal points of the prison story.”

Despite all that competition that looms large from SVOD, Pay TV and Online, Backwell says 2015 will finish well, with results to be similar to 2014.

“We’ll win the Demos again. Seven will win the year again because they dominate in 65+. So I’m pretty happy with the way the year has played out,” he insists.

“I’ve said it a million times: we don’t care about Total People, we don’t care about 65+ audience, we don’t commercialise them. I think that’s more Channel Seven’s area –they want the Oldies.

“Ours is 25-54 and we’re going strongly down that path.”

63 Responses

  1. I am mighty impressed Nine is taking bold new steps to keep up with people’s viewing habits and taking chances with increasing local content. It will hopefully give the free to air industry a shot in the arm. When David Leckie, John Stephens, and Peter Meakin moved from Nine to Seven years ago, they turned Seven around and Seven became the number one network. Nine seemed to lag for so many years after, although David Gyngell has done a great job. But it feels that now Nine are on the front foot, making changes and moving forward in a good direction.

  2. What a joke! The datacasting channel 9Life is to become a “real” channel? An extra channel, 9SD, is being created to simulcast the “main” channel? “We don’t have an (US Studio) output deal now” so our TV schedule will be more attractive to viewers? Good luck with that. Never mind the quality, feel the width!
    I must check that my TV’s/PVR’s/STB/USB tuners can decode MP4.

  3. Gongrats to Nine for making their primary channel HD. Just crazy that due to dated government policy from both sides of politics, we have had to wait this long. Hopefully the other free to air networks will do the same for 2016. Now I might even go out and buy myself a bigger screen TV…cause up until now there has not been much point.

    1. Nothing to do with govt policy. As already discussed and explained below, Nine could have simulcast its main channel in HD and SD all along – there was no legislation preventing them from doing that.

  4. Give full credit to Backwell for finally admitting that there is a problem with audience drift away to SVOD/streaming/timeshifting/pay-tv etc. Its about 10 years too late, but better late than never. In the next few years we will see if its a case of “talk is cheap” and await to see any action on reality overload, starting on time and guerrilla programming (actually money + dartboard programming).

    The almost entire lack of overseas programming (except for overseas made reality) will be an interesting experiment for Nine, its advertisers, and it will be interesting to see what happens to their demographics.

  5. I don’t quite understand the need to put the a simulcast of a HD or SD channel its obsurd to me. Maybe in the beginning but now its 2015 ten or more years since HD first came or since the FTA Networks had HD channels. Clearly they believe that not enough people have HD Tv’s or set top boxes. David do you know how many houses have HD tv’s or HD set top boxes? I think enough people do or maybe city people do but regional people don’t. Nines overall strategy is not bad foreighn content on SVD and local on FTA they are trying to have all the basis covered. As far as content is concerned its ordinary at best. Hopefully they can pull it off. Lets see what other networks do.

    1. This time around Nine are sensibly switching to MPEG-4 (H.264) for 9 HD, which rules out a LOT of MPEG-2 only HD decoders (2001 through 2008/9 for the major manufacturers…and well beyond 2009 for the cheap TVs and STBs)

      Drawing a line in the sand, broadcasting all channels in guaranteed-to-work MPEG-2 SD, and saying that you need to upgrade to an H.264-capable decoder for HD makes much more sense than our previous system in which the lowest-rating channel (News24/7Mate/GEM/One) is the one you might not be able to access.

      1. Exactly, it’s all about making sure everyone can still watch 9 because of HD being MPEG-4, Nine probably noticed the trouble some had picking up Ch 78 Racing with it being in MPEG-4, so have made allowances. Especially for clubs and pubs who would want the Cricket on over summer, if Nine was purely HD with no backup of SD then some commercial premises could be in a situation of not being able to show it (and Nine would miss all those eyeballs).

  6. The common marketing perspective of ignoring over 55’s may not be a good thing with an aging population and people working until they are older. Alot of 25-54’s I know have no money and don’t even look at ads on TV (I’m one of them) but the over 55’s I know do have money and do watch ads on TV as they watch live rather than recorded or in their own time…

  7. with Nine now focusing on local cont men as well as giving up WB content they will seem like the odd one out, sticking out like a sore thumb smack bang in the middle of 7&10. they will still have American content but nothing new from WB, only the new eps they air like a Big Bang and 2 Broke Girls. Nine used to be of of my most watched channels, but over the years my 9 viewing has ‘drifted’ to better channels like Eleven, Ten, Seven, and even SBS 2. they needed more variety, a mixture of both AU and US shows, and needed to focus on fixing other problems like shows going over time.

    I don’t think it’s gonna work out too well for them, and they’ll want that WB output deal back.

    1. 9 can still go out on the open market and buy any programming not tied to an output deal. Including WB

      Output deals don’t make sense anymore. They cost an absolute fortune and produce very few hits

      It’s much better to strategically spend the money on the programming they want

      This is how the UK has done it (itv, Sky, channel 5 and 5) for decades

      1. I’m not entirely sure you’re right in the case of US content – the ties between network & production are closer there than UK/Aus, so output deals tend to come with the territory – but it’s hard to deny that overpaying for them in the past has been the root of many problems for Aus networks.

        US trade publications used to run stories in the lead-up to buying season laughing about how the Australians were coming to make them all rich…

  8. Given the small market in Australia, the 3 networks should be working together as much as possible to allow shows at certain times and days of the week to catch on and keep people from ‘drifting’.
    (il-informed and naive- I know)

  9. “The fact is Channel Seven and Channel TEN are not our enemy.”
    He keeps saying this but either he or his bosses don’t actually believe it. You only have to look at the dirty tactics they’ve employed this year to see that; eg running programs late, scheduling similar spoiler programs against each other.

    “We have to stop people drifting off to Pay TV, SVOD services, and online…”
    Again, this is true but 1) they’re trying to shut the gate with the horse already halfway out, and 2) see above – how does starting programs at 8:47 instead of the advertised 8:30 help with this?

    “My job at Channel Nine is to keep you on Free to Air, watching our shows.”
    You’re not doing your job particularly well. Try starting your programs on time, no deliberate spoiler programming (offer an alternative), and… argh, I give up, you’re not going to listen anyway.

  10. I’m stuck on the word “drifting”. From where I sit the drift is more akin to a full on power slide. FTA is constrained by morals and legislation (I believe) that precludes showing real adult entertainment until all the kiddywinks have gone to bed.

  11. As an over 70’s couple there is nothing now nor it would seem nothing they are planning that will make us watch channel 9 I am sad to say. In years gone by it was the channel we watched most but not any more

  12. My mother’s in her 80’s & was saying to me the other day that there is not much on TV at the moment, it’s all for young people. I on the other hand have too many shows to watch at the moment. Wednesday is the worst night right now, everything is on that night & both my recorders are needed. Compared to just a few weeks ago when nothing was on that night. I wish some of the shows would move to Tuesday night when not much is on. And in a couple of months it will be non-ratings & nothing will be on again.

      1. I read carolemorriseys “wednesday is the worst” meaning that its the best for Tv, but worst for them to watch everything. Secondly, Fargo is the best TV of the year for me, was last year and so far this year too…

        1. Ha ha, yeah that’s what I meant. Sorry for the confusion. Too many good shows on Wednesday night at the moment. Wish they were more spread out.

  13. While “we don’t care about 65+ audience” may be one of the most honest things a TV exec has ever said don’t think it’s very wise to come out and say that about what is still a significant chunk of your audience. The demos may be important but you’re not dismissing them when you get the huge ratings are you where you have to appeal across all ages.

    As for Foxtel – surely the most mutually beneficial agreement here is for FOX to carry their SD channels for free and get exclusive HD simulcasts of their multi-channels in return. That’s pretty much what happened with ITV and C4 here in the UK, though after a couple of years they rolled out to cable too.

    1. I hope someone from Foxtel is reading this. That is a fantastic idea – running exclusive HD versions of Nine’s channels (included only for Foxtel customers who pay the extra $10 a month for HD) will make people more likely to pay for Foxtel and will make them money. If Foxtel choose to only show Nine in SD then I will watch Nine using my television tuner and not through the IQ, making me less likely to channel-surf and watch Foxtel programs. Then I may become used to FTA and cancel my Foxtel subscription, or at least not pay for extra packages like Drama.

  14. Well it looks like I will be “drifting off” Nine – I went back and re-read the previous article and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of drama being offered. All I see is more “reality” garbage and we’re not really interested in lifestyle/shopping. I fall into the “older demographic” at 57 and haven’t really been watching Nine much anyway but it will probably be a lot less now.

      1. 1 new drama that doesn’t look all that appealing and 1 new telemovie is not drama. I too hardly watch nine and can’t see myself returning to 9.

        Maybe their strategy is to fill their channels with reality/lifestyle programs and dump drama to stan or foxtel.

  15. I almost feel Stan should merge with Presto – and Ten/7/9/Foxtel should become equal 33% owners

    That’s how Hulu is run in the US

    A combined pay streaming service with the might of all 3 nets is the only way to fend off US owned Netflix.

    1. But the television industry in this country thinks money grows on trees and expect viewers are able to afford foxtel, fetch and/or pay for 3 separate svod services.

    2. Unfortunately, despite Backwell’s platitudes about Seven and Ten not being the enemy, that is clearly how Aus TV Networks think of each other. Frankly, can’t see them changing until it’s too late.

  16. There’s lots of talk about keeping viewers on free to air but nines announcement demonstrated that the content isn’t there to return to nine as a viewer. Where’s the drama?

    Interesting that they are doing a technical overhaul to create 9now as jumpin was awful but will the content be there to make use of it. Will devices such as fetch and windows phone get an app?

  17. Nines choices of show hosts seems a little weird and off beat. The change of Go and Gem to 9 Go and 9 Gem seems to odd as well. Like us public can’t work out these channels are from the same Camp? Just imagine Ten doing the same, Ten 11 and Ten One. Give us some credit Nine, we are not morons.

  18. So all this rubbish about nine needing legislative change to broadcast their primary channel in HD is just that, rubbish. They could have done this when HD first came out rather than ignoring their customer base and coming up with excuses like government change is required or technical difficulties.

      1. The legislative change was only to stop them having to broadcast an SD version of the main channel. Nine is still broadcasting an SD simulcast on 9/91 so why was it needed?

        Looks like they were just hiding behind that while they delayed upgrading their equipment to compress 1HD and 5 SD channels into their 7 MHz (which they are campaigning to get for free).

        Clearly Foxtel don’t think it’s worth paying for transmitting Nine’s HD channel, because they don’t. That may change with the switch from Gem to Nine, but maybe not. Why would Foxtel pay for satellite bandwidth for something Nine are going to be streaming over the NBN satellite?

      2. I did not say that this article did. However over a long period of time many have argued that legislative change was required. I argued it wasn’t, and it wasn’t. All that was required was channel 9 to want to do it because it was the right thing to do. Seems like they now want to do it. Hopefully the ABC and Channel 10 will do the right thing soon too.

          1. cnrmlj is actually correct. The relevant part of the legislation stipulated that the networks had to broadcast their main channel in SD. The networks have always been allowed to broadcast it in both SD & HD, and SBS have been doing just this the whole time.

            From 26 Nov the Nine Network will be broadcasting their main channel in HD, but will still include an SD stream. This is something that they could have done years ago if they’d had sufficient incentive. NRL fans were apparently not enough but it would seem that people drifting away to SVOD is.

          2. Ok. So let me get this right. I make a slightly sarcastic comment about one of your pet shows and my comments get blocked. You on the other hand are allowed to incorrectly accuse me of being ‘not correct’ and ‘not listening’ when i clearly am correct and am ‘listening’. Your site, so you set your rules but i didn’t think your double standards would be that blatant.

          3. I answered your question that legislation was required so there wasn’t much point in further discussion. Where a comment is blocked it does not meet site policy, could be on various grounds but best to follow up via Contact. I don’t have pet shows any more or less than any other viewer. The site covers numerous genres.

          4. Yep, sorry David, but Squirrel and cnrmlj are correct.

            As long as the 9SD channel continues broadcasting, there were absolutely zero legislative changes required to (re)introduce the HD simulcast — ie. reverting to exactly what all networks were doing with their HD channels from 2001 through 2007 before they introduced their ‘breakaway’ HD channels and eventually full blown multichannels.

            All legislation did was give them the option to turn off the SD version of the primary channel completely — but they’re certainly not going to do that if they follow Nine’s lead and move to H.264 for their primary HD channel.

            But I will say the legislation gives them plenty more transition options going forward (such as MPEG-2 HD primary vs MPEG-4 HD multichannels) and Nine certainly couldn’t have simulcast 9 in HD+SD, and kept GEM and Go around, without the major increase in H…

  19. From what I understand, NineHD will definitely be MPEG-4, which is a bold but needed move.

    Just awaiting confirmation from NBN now, but from what I’ve been told, they’re ready.

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