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Why did TV shows return to coding as a single entry in TV ratings?

"Seven and Nine just got together and discussed it."

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Amongst one of the welcome changes in the new-look television ratings is the removal of ‘split-coding’ for Seven News, Nine, News, The Project, The Chase and more.

Now most shows are coding as a single entry in line with their EPG and playout.

There are still some exceptions including in Breakfast television, and where two half hour shows screen as a one hour double.

But what triggered the change, which began on January 1st?

Seven Head of Scheduling Brook Hall told TV Tonight, “It was a legacy thing where some markets went out to an hour. We had Today Tonight in Adelaide and Perth so we had to code the halves separately, and it just never progressed. So Seven and Nine just got together and discussed it.

“The aim is to get rid of all these 2x half hours, but it’s baby steps. The fact the biggest two shows on TV did it, I think is a good first acknowledgement that ‘Hey, everyone should follow suit.’ I think 10 agreed that The Project will do it and then this will just start moving everywhere. That would be the aim.”

The Project has since coded as a single program along with 10 News First.

SBS is yet to follow suit with SBS World News.

There may still be caveats such as Winner Announced, or possibly ‘roadblocks’ where shows are launched jointly across multichannels.

But this is a positive step.

“Seven and Nine had to lead the way on their biggest show to show we’re doing it.”

12 Responses

  1. Yes, a little surprised this article didnt mention the introduction of the new Reach metric. Thats clearly the reason why programs are no longer being split-coded. Reach figures are boosted by the longer broadcast times.

  3. I wonder about sport? It did not happen at all with tennis and cricket in January and acknowledge its difficult representation due to telecasts (such as Olympics/Comm Games/Australian Open) where you have multiple events/matches across a day’s worth of telecasts, sometimes chopping and changing within minutes too. But cricket, AFL and NRL is a different story and let’s hope we see it happen there too, including Grand Finals, etc.

  5. It’s very good to see the removal of split-coding for some shows. Having 10 or so shows representing the top 20 on some nights last year was silly with all the split-coding. We now get to see more shows into the top 30 in this new ratings format.

    Seven’s Afternoon News was another show that’s gone away from split-coding. 10’s News First had a 6pm portion coded separately until recently, when Deal or No Deal entered the race at 6pm. So that 6pm coded segment is now gone for 10’s News.

    Weekend Sunrise still has three coded segments for Saturdays – “early” (7-8am), “normal” (8-9am) and “late” (9-10am), while Sunday’s version has just two – “early” (7-8am) and “normal” (8-10am). Not much consistency there. Not sure if Weekend Today do the same.

    1. Agreed. By removing the split coding for the shows, it enables consistency in coded programs.
      Since 7 axed the East coast edition of TT 10 years ago, it changed the 6:30 coding as Seven News/Today Tonight (though retaining SA/WA ones). And after the SA/WA editions ended production, it rebranded at Seven News at 6:30. Thankfully, it is gone. I wasn’t a big fan of split coding because it is unfair for other FTA networks, especially 10/SBS to provide some shows in the top 20.

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