By James Manning

The network’s biggest success this week was perhaps the continued improvement in Sydney for The Moonman – Lawrence Mooney.

The biggest challenges – working on The Hot Breakfast share in Melbourne (the cume is good) and guarding against the marauders coming after Mix 94.5, the only station not carrying the Triple M brand.

Overall the brand is in good health. Brisbane posted a record high cume, Sydney had its best cume in a decade and Melbourne is over 700,000 and close to its best in the past decade.

Something that OMD’s Jane Combes noted yesterday in her radio ratings analysis.

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“The new Sydney breakfast show started on a 4% share which was our new reality with brand new show,” Fitzpatrick told Mediaweek. “To have three consecutive surveys up for a brand new show is encouraging, especially when you consider none of them have been big bounces. They have had consistent rises over those surveys.

“I think we have the Sydney recipe right. With breakfast improvement comes drive growth. Kennedy Molloy are now #2 25-54 all people nationally with over 1m listeners.”

The Brisbane result was also pleasing Fitzpatrick after taking Lawrence Mooney out of the show last year. “It was something we had to do to relaunch Sydney. To be back to 400,000+ in cume and #2 in breakfast with Nick Cody joining Marto and Robin is encouraging.”

Adelaide is also a Triple M good news story in survey four. “Roo and Ditts examined the previous figures and realised what they had to do. “Roo is a natural leader. He and Ditts gathered the team around and said, ‘We are not happy with this and we’re going to fix it.’

Roo and Ditts

“They really applied some focus and this is the result of that.”

Fitzpatrick noted the change of market leadership in Perth, reminding us it was another year where Mix 94.5 slipped back in survey four. “This looks like the start of a trend at this time of year so we need to have a look at what we are doing mid-year. I am still confident in the Mix product and the brand.”

On the appointment of Fred Botica at 96FM, Fitzpatrick answered: “The changes at 96FM will make a bit of noise in the market.”

He noted some things are out of his hands. “I can only program our own stations and Mix is well constructed with a strong breakfast show – Clairsy, Matt and Kymba – and Kennedy Molloy who perform well in Perth.”

He is not dismissive of the potential for disruption. “We assume the people running 96FM are smart operators and know what they are doing, so we will keep an eye on that. But our focus will continue to be on what we are doing.”

Fitzpatrick said SCA was not surprised about the return of Botica to radio, given his past relationship with 96FM MD Gary Roberts. He does not predict it will musically tackle Mix: “It looks more like a musical Triple M position at this stage, or maybe WSFM. It can be hard to win men in Perth if you don’t have football though.”

Melbourne’s The Hot Breakfast had a down survey, but it wasn’t alone. “Everyone is going down in Melbourne apart from Fox. There was a tumble at Gold, a tumble at smooth. Triple M is being led by our afternoon and drive slot at the moment. Kennedy Molloy and The Rush Hour are both above station average.

“It’s not a cume problem for The Hot Breakfast, it’s a TSL [time spent listening] problem. We will get under the hood and have a look. Eddie, Luke and Wil don’t like not winning so expect a rally there and expect some laser focus on improving that rating from them.”

By James Manning

In survey day interviews with Nova Entertainment’s Paul Jackson, the discussions lately have started with the smoothfm stations given recent performance.

However the results this survey dictated a Nova-led ratings analysis.

Jackson told Mediaweek that considering it comes in the middle of winter, this is one of best-ever Nova results. All stations were up, all breakfast shows were up and the Brisbane and Perth stations were #1 overall plus their breakfast shows were also #1.

In Sydney the company has the #1 and #2 stations in cume. Fitzy and Wippa in Nova breakfast are #2 in cume with one of their recent best performances. “The station is on fire,” said Jackson. “Smallzy deserves a special mention too for the effort he has put in on the morning show. He is getting some very strong early traction and still doing brilliantly at night. He has now won 47 books in a row at night.”

Even though Sydney morning was up by what might seem like a modest improvement, 0.5, Jackson noted it makes a huge difference at the station. “The demos are very strong and some of the highest we have seen. These changes are about Nova gearing for the remaining surveys of the year.

“We have marketing starting for our stations this week and over the next few weeks.”

Jackson noted there hadn’t been any significant marketing spend for smoothfm at all so far this year. Something that makes their survey four results even more encouraging. When you dig into the demos you can see growth all across the station.”

“That will follow later in the year.”

Melbourne has had it challenges for Nova trying to break above its trend line. Jackson: “We have just had our biggest cume ever, sitting just behind Fox. We are now in a great position and year-on-year our numbers are very strong.”

The arrival of Matt Tilley in morning has had an impact said Jackson, who noted it was still very early days for him. (Cume was up, share was down.)

The Brisbane Nova result was significant as it marks four #1 books consecutively with cume and share. “Arguably this is their best year ever. Nova has managed to lead in what is a very tough market. Ash, Kip, Luttsy and Susie have had a flyer of a start and Kate, Tim and Marty have had some brilliant numbers. Daytime is very good too. Across the board it is a brilliantly executed radio station at the top of its game. All credit to Jay Walkerden and the team.”

When looking at Adelaide, Jackson noted he likes to focus on the Nova Entertainment stations. “Nova’s Dylan and Haley have done a great job under some fierce competition. We do have one eye on SCA who has thrown everything at Hit breakfast with Bec and Cosi and they have dropped 2.5 share points since the start of the year. The audience has clearly made its mind up on that show. At Mix, Jodi and Soda are 3.0 share points down since the end of 2018.

“It has never been closer between Nova and Mix and we have a bigger cume at breakfast. We have them in our sights – that is the target we set ourselves. Like we are in Brisbane and Perth, we want to be #1 station in cume and share.”

As talk turned to Perth, Jackson responded, “We like it when it is exciting. This was a good number for Dan Underhill in his last survey [before being poached by ARN for 96FM].

“Several years ago we were so excited when Nathan, Nat and Shaun got to #1 at breakfast. We are now in a much stronger position right across the day into the evening with strength and stability.”

With the new-look 96FM taking on Mix, could Nova secure its position as #1 during the radio war? “That is the theory, but things don’t always work out like that. Maybe [former Nova employees] Dan and Gary could be doing us a favour? We will just do our best and the rest will take care of itself.”

Jackson said any broadcaster needs to be careful about letting go of talent that could return as a competitor one day. “We brought Matt Tilley back into frontline radio. Even when we hired Smallzy years ago I had to appreciate he had previously done night shows. We brought him back and reinvented the program. There is nothing like a reinvented presenter with a point to prove.”

smoothfm stations both dropped some share, but Jackson said there is nothing to be too concerned about. “This is the time of year when football does a little better and football takes some share away from male listening.

“There’s no concerns either in Sydney where smooth is #1 FM share and #1 cume at an absolute all time high and with six wins in a row.”

By James Manning

There were many talking points for ARN on survey day, however our first question for national content director Duncan Campbell was about its Perth station 96FM– and we didn’t really want to focus on its ratings performance.

How did ARN woo back Fred Botica to radio?

“We were obviously not getting it right in Perth and hiring Gary Roberts was an obvious move for us to make,” Campbell told Mediaweek. “He was subsequently able to pull some rabbits out the hat in getting Fred and Lisa to return. Resurrecting Botica’s Bunch is a real coup.”

When Roberts first discussed breakfast options with ARN, Botica was not then part of the plan.

Campbell told Mediaweek that Roberts rang Botica and said they should have a chat. “Fred was heading off to play golf. He said he would play and call him later. Maybe half an hour later Fred rang back, saying he didn’t think he would play golf. He decided he would go and talk with Gary.

“Fred would have only returned to radio for Gary.”

The return to radio was so quick that Roberts and Campbell got the Botica’s Bunch team of Botica and Lisa Shaw back on air pronto, starting during the survey break this week while the opposition stations were all on a mid-year holiday.

“Those first Botica’s Bunch shows were so good it was almost as if they’d never been away,” said Campbell.

The big ratings story for ARN this survey is a turnaround finally at KIIS 101.1in Melbourne. “Both the station and Jase and PJ went up with rising cumes as well. It has always been acknowledged as a good show and the audiences are catching up. I used to answer questions from the staff about the new 101.1 breakfast and I’d say we would give the show the time it needs for the audience to get to know it.”

It might have taken a while, but Jase and PJ and now right in the game, outrating The Hot Breakfast and closing the gap on sister station Gold and the Christian O’Connell breakfast show. KIIS is now 0.2 behind the smoothfm Melbourne breakfast show, which just two surveys ago was celebrating being #1 FM.

“KIIS breakfast has been 18 months in the making and Jase and PJ and the team didn’t lose faith or focus and it has paid dividends this survey.”

Campbell tells Mediaweek often, “It’s a long game played slowly,” but it’s never been truer. “It’s also a game of trends,” something OMD Sydney head of investment Jane Combes also told Mediaweek this week.

Although Campbell knew the Melbourne breakfast show sounded good, he heeded the supporting ratings data. “No one is going to sign off on a $1m brief for KIIS breakfast because the national content director said it sounds good.”

In Sydney KIIS 106.5 dipped, something that Campbell noted is all part of ebbs and flows. “There will be a headline somewhere this week about Kyle or KIIS dropping. But down movements are always short-lived.”

In Brisbane, ARN runs two of the three stations battling for second place behind Nova. “I did say in the past that Hit 104 would come off this year and they have after some very strong results last year. Our research indicated those levels weren’t going to be sustainable. Triple M has also softened a little bit, although still doing OK.

“97.3 is now right back in the pack which is where we want to be. Our goal is to be top two.”

One of the stations standing in the way of that ambition is ARN’s AM music station 4KQ which has posted its second 10%+ share this year. “4KQ is a great product and part of the reason for the growth is the quality of the sound on DAB+ and the streaming apps.”

While Mix 102.3 is down in Adelaide, Campbell said that can be linked to football attracting audiences elsewhere. “We are pretty confident it will bounce back next book.

“Breakfast is lower than we would like it to be, but that will come back as well.”

ARN doesn’t treat the back half of the year very differently to the first. “The only difference is we don’t put as much investment into survey eight because there is no rolling effect [into the next survey].

“These surveys can be important for agency buying when it comes to contract renewals.”

‘The Voice of Rugby’ Gordon Bray lead Network 10’s coverage of the 2019 Rugby World Cup along with 1999 Rugby World Cup champion and former Wallaby Matt Burke,  Scott Mackinnon and Roz Kelly.

Network 10’s head of sport Matt White said: “We are proud of our Rugby history at 10 Sport and can’t wait to add another chapter with our coverage of the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

“Gordon Bray is ‘The Voice of Rugby’ and brings experience and knowledge that is unmatched in the game. Matt Burke has been there and done that. Burkey will provide insights that only a World Cup-winning Wallaby can.

“Network 10 will be on the ground in Japan for the whole tournament, with host Scott Mackinnon and Sports Tonight’s Roz Kelly reporting all the news, colour and fun of the Cup across all of our platforms. We can’t wait! It’s time to get behind the Wallabies.”

Network 10 has provided a bio for the key member of the commentary team:

Gordon Bray AM

Gordon Bray is the undeniable Voice of Rugby. This year, Gordon will celebrate 50 stellar years in sports broadcasting. He is also on the march to 500 rugby test match commentaries since his first Wallabies call in 1976 against the French on ABC Radio in Bordeaux.

He has not only covered every Rugby World Cup since the first tournament in 1987, but has been behind the microphone for all the great moments in Australian Rugby over the past 40 years.

Gordon is the author of six books on rugby including best-seller The Australian Rugby Companion. He is the recipient of a one-off Prime Minister’s medal for contribution to sports broadcasting, the Order of Australia for services to sports broadcasting, community and rugby, and the Penguin Award for Australia’s Best Sports Presenter.

Matt Burke

Matt Burke is the sports presenter for 10 News First Sydney and presents Network 10’s Rugby broadcasts.

Matt established himself as one of Australian rugby’s most accomplished backs during an 11 season international career with the Wallabies. He represented Australia at three World Cups: 1995, the winning 1999 campaign and in 2003 at fullback, wing and outside centre.

His 81 Test appearances for the Wallabies – the last against South Africa in August 2004 – netted him 878 points from 29 tries, 174 penalty goals, 104 conversions and one field goal.

Rated in 1999 by a panel of experts as the best Australian and NSW Waratahs fullback in the code’s history, and a unanimous choice as the best Wallabies fullback in the “Team of the Decade” (1995-2005).

Scott Mackinnon

Scott MacKinnon is a sports presenter at Network 10 and co-host of Sports Tonight. He hosts 10’s rugby and Supercars coverage.

Career Highlights include hosting the British and Irish Lions series, Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championships; sideline reporting for the Wallabies test matches and working at both the Sochi Winter Olympics and Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Roz Kelly

Roz Kelly presents the national 10 News First weekend sports bulletin. She is also co-host of much loved sports news show, Sports Tonight, and is a prominent member of the 10 Sports team.

A multi-award-nominated reporter and presenter, Roz Kelly has covered many of the world’s biggest sporting events.

She began her media career in local news and went on to hold positions as a reporter and presenter at Sky News Australia, Fox Sports and Nine Network.

During her four years with Nine, Roz worked on the London Olympics, the Tour de France, the Rugby World Cup, The Ashes and the ASP World Tour.

Roz was twice nominated as a finalist in the prestigious Australian Sports Commission Media Awards’ Best Coverage of a Sport category and was also named Women’s Health magazine’s Woman of Sporting Words in 2013.

Vieira was appointed CEO in February 2014, having previously been based in Los Angeles as the Executive Vice President International Production for industry/government member organisations at Ausfilm. She previously worked as the Executive Manager of Locations for the Pacific Film and Television Commission prior to Ausfilm.

“I am leaving to explore what is next in my own development, but know that Screen Queensland has never been in better hands than it is right now with the Queensland Government, Board and entire Screen Queensland team,” Vieira said.

Vieira will finish at Screen Queensland on 24 August 2019. The position of CEO will be advertised shortly.

Screen Queensland Chair Linda Lavarch praised Vieira for her achievements as CEO and acknowledged the significant transformation of the organisation that has taken place through Vieira’s leadership.

“Tracey’s achievements during her time with Screen Queensland are considerable and she is leaving the organisation in a strong position to continue to see growth and meaningful achievements for the local industry which has grown year-on-year since 2014,” said Lavarch.

“Her established relationships in North America have paid significant dividends for Queensland which has had back-to-back international productions since Tracey took the role and maximised the Queensland Government’s Production Attraction Strategy.

“Through Tracey’s leadership Screen Queensland has: set a path to gender equity in the industry; launched its very first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy; opened sqhub, the first entrepreneurial startup space for the screen industry; established the Screen Queensland Studios, which opened in January 2019 and have been occupied since their first day; secured the Asian Animation Summit for two years; attracted the World Congress of Factual Producers Conference to Brisbane; and backed the local industry to achieve year-on-year growth.

Vieira said she is incredibly proud to have been part of the Screen Queensland team that has passionately driven change to the screen agency.

“I came into the role during a tumultuous time for the organisation and industry in Queensland with a clear vision of what we needed to do in partnership with the industry to make Queensland a great place to create content for all platforms and ensure that industry could stay in the state to do so,” said Vieira.

“The whole team at Screen Queensland has worked tirelessly to revolutionise what a screen agency can be and have done that with excellence and generosity.

“I leave knowing that this is the culture of Screen Queensland and am excited about what the organisation and industry will continue to do together.

“I am particularly proud of the partnerships we have delivered with companies like Stan where we developed the first feature film for the streamer and then announced a development deal for premium drama series, and with SBS where we partnered on the first VR series for a broadcaster, to attracting Australia’s very first Netflix original series Tidelands with Queensland company Hoodlum Entertainment.

“We have worked closely with all the broadcasters as well as private financing partners, Australians in Film and many others to elevate content for global audiences and so I leave knowing I have done what I came here to do.

“It has been immensely satisfying to have been able to discover, elevate and support the many talented creatives and businesses we have here in Queensland creating world-class content such as Bluey, Harrow, Goldstone, Wik vs Queensland, Bureau of Magical Things, Balloon Barnyard, The Second, Tidelands, Grace Beside Me, Family Law, Safe Harbour, The Butterfly Tree, Ella, Winchester, This is Desmondo Ray, Snake Sheila, Blue Water Empire and many others along with working with games studios and games developers to support their businesses, games and growth. The talent in the state continues to be underestimated but is knocking it out of the park.

“As CEO my focus has been to ensure that we focus on creating world-class content from Queensland creatives for global audiences on platforms that are right to reach those audiences.

“As such we have embraced taking risks to develop talent with the market and through the support of our Board and the Queensland Government, we have been able to achieve this and incredible record growth.

“I really believe that it is now time for me to pass the leadership baton to new hands and watch the industry continue to flourish,” Vieira said.

Sports fans busy online during June 

The latest insights revealed that the Cricket World Cup (Match 8 and 9) and State of Origin (Game 1) which were all aired on 5 June 2019, resulted in the number of Australians accessing sports content online increasing by +44% when compared to the previous four Wednesdays.

Along with audience, engagement across sports-related content on mobile devices saw an increase of +93%.

Nielsen Social Content Ratings also showed that Australian social media engagement for TV content increased by +367% on 5 June 2019 when compared to an average of the previous four Wednesdays. Seventy-five per cent of total social media interactions on this date was driven by State of Origin.

Seven crashes into news top 10

In June 2019, news.com.au was the top news entity with another unique audience over 10 million.

It was followed by ABC News Websites (8.8 million) and nine.com.au (8.1million) in third place.

smh.com.au (7.9 million) was ranked in fourth position, followed by 7News.com.au (5.5 million) and The Guardian (4.5 million) in sixth place.

Seven pointed out its new digital destination ranked above many long-established news brands, including the Daily Mail, The Age, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian.

In seventh position was Daily Mail Australia (4.3 million), followed by Australian Community Media Network (3.7 million), previously known as Fairfax Digital Regional Network.

Next was The Age (3.5 million) and Yahoo! (3.3 million) in 10th place.

Andrew Mercado

And apart from Miss Fisher and Dr Blake, Aussie murder mysteries are a bit hit and miss when it comes to survival.

10 last tried in 2013 with Shaun Micallef and Kat Stewart in Mr and Mrs Murder but now they have My Life Is Murder (Wednesday) which is about a “fearless” ex-cop Alexa (Lucy Lawless – pictured) and her wacky “millennial data analyst” assistant Madison (Ebony Vagulans). They solve oddball cases for Det Insp Hussey (Bernard Curry) but for what reason or why, it’s never made clear. All you really need to know is that Alexa is so brilliant, she spends her spare time watching how-to-videos in international languages.

My Life Is Murder could have been called My Life In Melbourne because every plot advancement takes place with a waterway or city skyline perfectly framed in the background. So far, there is no mention of the city’s favourite game, but that’s OK because the AFL is busy looking more at two Adam Goodes documentaries.

The first, The Final Quarter (Thursday on 10), uses only news and footy show footage, in chronological order. The Australian Dream (in cinemas August 22), written by Stan Grant with Adam Goodes’ involvement, is different in that it will include retrospective interviews. So start with The Final Quarter, which shows everything exactly as it happened.

Anyone wondering why Sam Newman is no longer on TV need look no further than him having a furious rant about racism. Why are he and the other furious white men so angry, especially when compared to the calm and measured responses from Goodes?

Also angry this week are the cast and crew of Home & Away who have had to endure yet another round of rumours that Australia’s highest-rating drama is about to be moved, axed or (in the stupidest take of all) shifted to a later time slot so it can do “more adult oriented storylines”. And that would happen even though it is screened in the UK daytime and early evening? Yeah right. 

Seven’s director of programming Angus Ross told Mediaweek, “I can assure fans that the story is utter drivel. There are absolutely no plans to move it from its 7pm timeslot on the main channel.”

“Home & Away under pressure” is right up there with great urban myths like “the psycho killer in the back seat of the car” or “the vanishing hitchhiker”. Although in Summer Bay, that’s just an average week!

Sports fans will witness football royalty in action when Manchester United takes on the A-League’s Perth Glory at Optus Stadium on Saturday night July 13 live on Seven.

The Red Devils arrived in Perth on Monday for their official pre-season tour, bringing a full-strength squad that includes international superstars Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, David De Gea, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard, and new signings Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Glory stars Ivan Franjic, Tomislav Mrcela, Chris Ikonomidis and new signing Bruno Fornaroli will be desperate to claim the scalp of the English Premier League’s most iconic club, while Saturday night’s game is also their first chance for redemption since May’s heartbreaking A-League Grand Final loss.

Next Wednesday, United concludes its 10-day Perth visit with a clash against long-time rival Leeds United, also live on Seven.

Mel McLaughlin and Mark Readings will host Seven’s coverage from Optus Stadium, while the commentary team includes former Socceroo Stan Lazaridis, David Basheer and David Davutovic.

Fans will be able to watch both games live and on full replay on 7plus, with highlights and interviews available at @7Sport on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

By James Manning

Thursday Week 28 2019

 • Seven News 1,000,000/934,000
• Nine News 844,000/869,000
• A Current Affair 620,000 (No Adelaide)
• ABC News 633,000
• 7.30 463,000
• The Project 241,000/416,000
• 10 News First 375,000
• The Drum 178,000
• SBS World News 113,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 261,000
• Today 210,000

Seven

Home And Away started the week in the 600,000s and ended it on 586,000.

The Front Bar was up against the World Cup Cricket and did 300,000 with 184,000 in Melbourne. Ryan Fitzgerald was again on the show, this week standing in for Mick Molloy.

Nine

A Current Affair started the week with 888,000 and on Thursday the crowd was down to 620,000 because of no show into Adelaide.

Nine then covered the much-anticipated Australia v England World Cup Cricket semi-final. Australia capitulated early and despite some resistance from Steve Smith, they never really looked competitive. The match did 682,000 for the first session. Somehow there was an audience of 193,000 UK expats or Aussies hoping for a miracle watching the second session as England blasted its way to a place in Sunday’s final.

10

The Project was just over 400,000 after 7pm with Em Rusciano a special guest.

MasterChef then farewelled Queensland mum Christina Laker on the eve of Finals Week as a week of challenges across Western Australia came to an end. Laker was contestant #18 to depart the series. The Thursday audience was 592,000.

The episode was followed by an all-to-rare MasterChef Masterclass with 394,000 watching.

ABC

Escape From The City did 399,000 looking for a home in Port Douglas.

SBS

The Handmaid’s Tale had the channel’s best audience with 189,000.

The Great House Revival did 138,000 an hour earlier at 7.30pm.