Nova Entertainment highlights from GfK Survey 2, 2020 included:
Nova Network #1 network with most listeners
Nova Network #1 drive with Kate, Tim and Marty
smoothfm 95.3 is #1 in Sydney share and cume audience
Nova Network #1 nights as Smallzy wins 53rd consecutive survey
Nova Network #1 25-54
Nova 100 Melbourne #1 in cume with record audience 1,102,800

Nova Entertainment’s chief programming and marketing officer Paul Jackson is more than satisfied with the performance of their on-air teams as radio goes into ratings lockdown until the end of September.

“We have great cumes all around the country,” he told Mediaweek. “Everything changed in the last few weeks of this survey period and that would have impacted a lot of radio stations trying to measure daytime time spent listening. People have been grappling with that and spending more time on news/talk stations.

“Because listening patterns did change, I am looking at this survey more at the cumes. Looking at smoothfm share in Sydney I am calling it a draw with WSFM (the latter leads by 0.1), but we are well ahead on cume.”

Jackson said the great news for the business in the Sydney market is that smoothfm and Nova 969 are the only stations in the market with a cume over 1m.

smoothfm’s Richard Wilkins, Mel Doyle, David Campbell & Cameron Daddo

“Nova 100 also posted its highest cume ever and is #1 in cume in Melbourne. We also lead in cume in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. When you come to share of audience we have wonderful stories – both under 40 and 25-39 we are very strong.”

Jackson is not expecting any major changes in terms of how radio is bought over the next few months. Highlighting how trends in radio will be used by advertisers, he said: “From survey 1 to survey 2 this year, some stations were slightly up or slightly down, but within the range of where they were. If you take an average of last year there was a lot of very strong listening going on. I don’t see any major change for any individual stations. We have a lot of good radio in Australia and they seem to be as strong as they ever were.

“We will continue researching our audience to make sure our stations have the right sentiment and tone and we are giving the audience what they want. That can be moments of escapism and music that makes them feel good, or the news and information, we have to be judging the moment of time we are in and it is changing week to week. We have to be delivering the right messages at the right times.”

Jackson said that although there are no more surveys for some time, the mindsets for the on-air teams is that nothing has really changed. “No one is really conscious day-to-day that we are not in survey. However, we are not talking about things like the next big marketing campaign, and why would you at a time like this? As for the shows, it is natural for them, many of which have been going for many years and have a deep connection to the audience, to continue to try their absolute best. We will not be doing anything different that we would have done in a survey period, bar top-line marketing. We will want to make sure we remain in a strong place when we do start surveys again.”

Regarding marketing spend, Jackson said smoothfm was fortunate it had done some marketing at the start of the year. “We also did some Nova marketing at the back end of 2019 and over summer. Given we have such strong cumes around the country it is now about what we do on air. Giving the audience the connection, relatability and connection they want. There is no marketing message from any of our stations that needs to go out urgently right now. Things will change over time, but who knows if that time will be this year or the following year.”

Jackson added that if a station wanted to experiment with something, out of survey might be the time to that. “But then if you are out of survey you don’t really know if it is working or not!

“We don’t need to be experimenting – smooth is rock solid, steady and on the right trajectory. Very much the same for Nova. I would have to get very nit-picky to go through the Nova numbers to find stuff we could do better in.

“It is times like this where audiences are going to tend to stay with shows they now and love rather than sample something new or different.”

Screening each evening at 8.30pm from Monday, April 20, the week kicked off with the premiere of Blue Planet Revisited, exploring the challenges facing the marine eco-system and wildlife in the Great Barrier Reef and the Bahamas.

The channel showcases much of the work from the award-winning BBC Studios Natural History Unit. The producer of content across TV, online and radio, the unit is overseen by Julian Hector. Mediaweek recently spent time with the seabird biologist turned filmmaker as he presented some of the unit’s future plans to TV buyers in Liverpool.

Earlier this year Hector and colleague Sir David Attenborough were presented an award by Queen Elizabeth for their work on Blue Planet II which studied the impact of ocean plastic pollution.

Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit Julian Hector with Queen Elizabeth and Sir David Attenborough

At the presentation, Hector said: “On behalf of all of my team, it is an honour to receive the Chatham House Prize jointly with Sir David Attenborough – the world’s greatest storyteller. The extraordinary wonder and beauty of marine life shown under threat in Blue Planet II awoke the world to the fragility of our planet. We didn’t set out to make a program about ocean plastics or climate change, but we documented what we saw – this is our world whether we like it or not.”

Speaking to Mediaweek just days after receiving that award, Hector spoke about how he started his career: “I used to be a field biologist and studied albatrosses in the Antarctic and did my PHD there. I stayed in that world for about 10 years and then made a gear change into the BBC Natural History Unit 25 years ago.”

Images from BBC Natural History Unit flagship production Discoveries which launches on BBC Earth on April 27

Hector started making shows for the broadcaster before being promoted to run the Natural History Unit four years ago.

Now in that management role, we asked Hector how many days he gets out of the office. “Not enough. I really crave working in the field. I have an amazing team of executive producers and the Natural History Unit presents the work of those amazing men and women to the world. I encourage them as much as possible to get into the field and see their teams at work around the world.

“It is really good for creative minds to go where the story is, come back and lead their teams, keeping fresh that way.”

Hector said a creative driver for his department is to understand what people are interested in and what they want to see. “We are truly driven by innovating. Our big promise to the audience is to get them closer, and then closer still. The idea of different perspectives really drives capture technology. Linked to that is to really innovate in storytelling. We want to be able to have audiences attach their minds and agendas of individual animals. We monitor the audience uptake of our shows and the level of engagement and how they emotionally connect with the story we tell.”

Although the technology has changed significantly since Hector first started making content, he noted some basics are unchanged. “One of the things that defines the Natural History Unit is us capturing unique animal behaviour. Also capturing unique plant behaviour. For both of these things you point a camera at it and press the ‘Go’ button. Now we can do things like set up rigs which might have 36 cameras on them so you can film something like a primate moving through a forest at 360º angles. You just couldn’t have attempted something like that in the 1980s. Other innovations include remote camera technology and macro photography.”

Images from BBC Natural History Unit flagship production Discoveries which launches on BBC Earth on April 27

Drones have revolutionised natural history filming and Hector said it was hard to image how using them could be overdone. “They will be seen as one of the great step changes in the perspectives we bring to audiences. In the past we had to get around in great big helicopters with camera operators hanging out of them costing maybe $20,000 an hour to run.

“Now we can use drones that are able to go much lower, be much quieter and much cheaper. In our series Seven Worlds in 2019, some of the most memorable animal behaviour sequences were shot by drones. They gave audiences perspectives that were amazing.”

Hector is a big 4K, UHD, advocate. “Natural History really lends itself to it. Part of the promise of natural history is that we will immerse audiences in the natural world. The colour palette and the sense of being there is really driven by UHD.”

As to whether the picture quality continues to grow to 8K and beyond, Hector commented. “The issue used to be how much film stock you could carry into the field. Now the issue is the amount of storage you can take into the field. If you are filming in 8K you need very large numbers of drives and drives need power and we are very sensitive to carbon neutrality and the impact of what we do. Filming in 8K though lets you do things like project onto buildings or to crop in on images and retain good quality.”

The scope of the programs coming out of the Natural History Unit range from the big investments to more niche programming. “The flagship titles are important – they can take four years or more to make, are well funded, but those shows are only as good as the off-screen talent making them. Those people are rare. The wider range of content we do are important to reach different audiences more regularly and they are a fabulous training ground for the big blue-chip pieces.”

As to audience trends, Hector said: “Bringing the natural world into someone’s home has always been in demand. Thank goodness a big shift has happened with an appetite to watch stories about our relationship with the natural world. Big environmental pieces, the conservation agenda, are becoming a sweeping trend.”

Hector has spent some time in Australia, but not enough he said. “I’ve loved my visits to Western Australia where I have seen southern right whales. I have seen some of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Ash which blew my mind. Some say it is the tallest tree in the world. My heart was bleeding for the great human and animal tragedy during the recent fires. I have friends in Australia and they have been reporting back to me. We really want to tell some of those stories.”

The night show will be called The Christian O’Connell Show with the tag line – Be Part of Something Special. It will mean the broadcaster will be on air for five daily in Melbourne where he currently broadcasts from 6am until 10am.

The evening Christian O’Connell Show will air weekdays from 7pm – 8pm on Sydney’s WSFM, Melbourne’s GOLD104.3, Brisbane’s 97.3FM, Adelaide’s MIX102.3 and Perth’s 96 FM stations.

On the launch of his new national nights show O’Connell said: “I’m so lucky to be able to continue to build a new radio show here in Australia. It’s open to any free spirit who loves storytelling, and radio that’s inclusive and talks about all aspects of our lives. I aim to carry on making radio that’s about real people, rather than reality TV or showbiz gossip.

“Right now, we need spaces where we can support each other, through laughter, tears and hope. We are at a time when the power of radio to create connection and comfort is so vital and I hope that I can continue to remind our listeners just how special radio can be… even when hosted by a Brit like me!

“In Melbourne in just two years the show has become number one and that’s all thanks to the strong and supportive community of listeners who have really become part of the show, so to be able to offer that across Australia is a really exciting opportunity.”

ARN’s national content director Duncan Campbell said: “Christian’s ability to connect community and engage listeners is unique and valuable and has resulted in some of the most creative, integrated client campaigns ever delivered. Listeners, more than ever, need content and talent that can be trusted and provide both assurance and entertainment. Christian’s quick-wit, relatable humour and compassion really resonate with listeners and the new show will amplify his community of passionate fans across the country.”

ARN’s CEO Ciaran Davis said: “ARN continues to invest in talent that will support our objective to define audio and remain the #1 national network. Christian is exceptional talent and delivers on incredible integrated campaigns that connect with audiences and produce tangible results for clients. This new national show not only extends Christian’s reach to new audiences it strengthens ARN’s commercial offering for our clients nationally across all of our broadcast, on-demand and digital assets.”

Mason Rook, commercial sales director of Guardian Australia, said that the brand was positioned to support brands during this time. 

“For brands looking to run advertising this financial year, Guardian Australia would like to provide a credit to the same value, which can be used to drive greater impact of their current campaign or used in the future when marketing budgets are likely to come under increased pressure,” says Rook. 

The publication’s national reach has more than doubled this month to 11.6m Australian readers. Early March figures averaged one million daily readers, and have grown to 2.2 million daily readers and 47% of all Australians visited The Guardian last month, according to Nielsen data.

“This initiative will give them the opportunity to tap into our growing audiences, whilst taking pressure off the bottom line. We also know that when things get tough, marketing budgets are often one of the first things to be cut – it’s our hope that this will help future-proof business and support them when budgets inevitably tighten up later,” says Rook. 

 “We really want to do what we can to help keep Autralians employed and the economy ticking along, and this is the best way we can leverage our audience growth to contribute to that common goal.”

Drawing on footage from ABC News plus international current affairs series Foreign Correspondent, Road to Now unpacks modern history in six one-hour episodes: Age of Conflict, Global Shapers, The Fight for Freedom, Return of the Wall, Globalisation and In Harm’s Way.

Each episode features commentary from those who either occupied positions of power or reported on the events at the time, including British historian and author Professor Niall Ferguson, CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and senior UN Official, The Right Honourable Helen Clark, The New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist and author Tom Friedman, Australia’s former Foreign Minister and International Crisis Group President Gareth Evans, and Former Prime Minister of Australia and author The Honourable John Howard.

The series commences at the end of the Cold War and follows the events that followed leading up to the present day. Road to Now is a roadmap to the 21st Century.

Road to Now episode synopses:

• Age of Conflict – Tuesday 26 May, 9.30pm
How the “peace dividend” from the end of the Cold War vanished in waves of terrorism and war, leaving the Middle East mired in conflict.  

• Global Shapers – Tuesday 2 June, 9.30pm
Profiles the national leaders who changed the world during the past 30 years. and shaped international opinion. 

• The Fight for Freedom – Tuesday 9 June, 9.30pm
The quest for personal and political freedoms has shaped much of the past 30 years, so why is ‘democracy in retreat’?

• Return of the Wall – Tuesday, 16 June, 9.30pm
Why are walls of steel and razor wire going up along European and the US borders? And what happened to the international commitment to give refugees asylum? 

• Globalisation – Tuesday 23 June, 9.30pm
Globalisation, technology and the spread of economic power from West to East have profoundly changed the world of money and transformed the lives of billions.

• In Harm’s Way – Tuesday 30 June, 9.30pm
Natural disasters causing death and destruction are intensifying as the Earth’s climate changes, leaving billions of people in harm’s way. 

Over 20 years since Will & Grace first aired the series finale will be shown exclusively on Stan.

In the season finale episode, “It’s Time” Will (Eric McCormack) is determined to not reminisce about his life in the city or his ex, McCoy (guest star Matt Bomer). Grace (Debra Messing), on the verge of giving birth, keeps having false alarms of going into labour. At the behest of Stan, Karen (Megan Mullally) goes to the top of the Statue of Liberty to get closure with her ex-husband. Jack’s (Sean Hayes) dream of taking a bow on a Broadway stage becomes a very real possibility. Minnie Driver and Brian Jordan Alvarez also guest star.

Will & Grace ran for eight seasons from 1998 to 2006 and was rebooted in 2017, having a 246-episode run over two decades. It has totalled 91 Emmy Award nominations, 18 Emmy wins (including outstanding comedy series), and seven SAG Awards. The show is also one of the few in television history where each cast member has won an Emmy Award.

The cast commented on the finale: 

Eric McCormack: “We’ve done certain episodes that while they’re very much about right now, they will withstand the text of time. I have a greater appreciation of how great a job this is, so in some ways it’s harder to say goodbye this time.”
Sean Hayes: “All I feel is gratitude to the writers, to my peers, to the fans.”
Debra Messing: “To be able to make people laugh and think and feel, that’s the trifecta. This is a family with a history. No question there’s going to be tears on that last night.”
Megan Mullally: “To have a job doing a show that people liked so much, that’s amazing.” 

The finale will premiere on Stan at 3pm this Friday, 24 April. All previous episodes including the return seasons are available to stream now. ​

Disney+ has had another show top the charts after the massive success of The Mandalorian and it is another product from the Star Wars catalogue with the franchise proving a winner for the new digital platform.

The seventh and final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released on February 21, 2020. The series is set during the three years between the prequel films Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, with the finale coming up on May 4 also known as Star Wars day.

Game of Thrones is close to being one year away from its final ever episode but that hasn’t stopped the show from returning to #1 in New Zealand. The show dominated the first half of 2019 including 19 straight weeks on top of the chart thanks to the shows eighth and final season airing between April and May. During the six-episode season, the show consistently flirted with the 20 million threshold for demand expressions in Australia, and close to three million in NZ which were the highest marks for the year. HBO’s epic fantasy series took home the top honour of the Most In-Demand TV Series in the World, along with the trophy for Most In-Demand Drama Series in the World, for 2019 at the 2nd Annual Global TV Demand Awards. 

Tuesday news highlights
Seven News 1,258,000/1,166,000
Nine News 1,148,000/1,109,000
ABC News 912,000
A Current Affair 864,000
7.30 695,000
The Project 379,000/610,000
10 News 505,000/279,000
Sunrise 317,000
The Drum 270,000
Nine Late News 236,000
SBS World News 233,000
ABC News Breakfast 230,000
Today 215,000
Morning Show 205,000

Nine: A Current Affair started the week on 904,000 and then did 864,000 on Tuesday.

The first elimination came in episode three of Lego Masters and it was goodbye to Annie and Runa in front of 1,035,000. This comes after audiences of 1,239,000 and 1,049,000 earlier this week. “Go hard or go home” was the warning to contestants in an elimination challenge where they had to build their ultimate hero saving the day. The team of Annie and Runa, an unlikely combo of a scientist and a psychic, built a scene from The Little Mermaid, but it didn’t impress Brickman ahead of the other builds and they were sent home.

The Castle then followed with 518,000 watching the classic Aussie comedy.

Seven: Home and Away went from 657,000 on Monday to 672,000 last night.

House Rules then did 502,000 before First Dates Australia was on 288,000.

10: The Project featured Malcolm Turnbull on his book tour with 610,000 after 7pm.

MasterChef Australia then went into its second elimination in three nights with Courtney performing poorly as she got flustered during a two-round pressure test. The Tuesday audience was 908,000 after 1,095,000 on Tuesday a week ago.

NCIS then did 376,000.

ABC: Foreign Correspondent did 577,000 with a horrifying report on the impact of the pandemic on New York City.

Catalyst followed with 378,000.

SBS: Great Canadian Railway Journeys pulled another 300k+ audience with 320,000 after 332,000 last week where it was the channel’s most-watched for the week.

Insight then did 243,000 followed by Dateline on 122,000 and then The Feed on 52,000.