The 2018 OzTAM television ratings survey year ended on Saturday evening. From now until early February it is summer survey time.
When the numbers are in on the Sunday morning following the final day survey for the year it triggers a mountain of press releases from the commercial FTA broadcasters to highlight what went well for them in 2018.
In a fragmenting TV market it is getting more challenging to decipher who has performed the best.
As Seven, Nine and 10 come to grips with the way viewers are consuming their content, the small print that accompanies the various ratings analysis grows longer and longer.
The networks, depending on their various performances, analyse primary performance, multichannel results and combined network shares. They are also factoring in BVOD data from their various streaming platforms. The linear TV data now also calls on either Consolidated 7 day or Consolidated 28 day results.
Each of the networks now has a different focus with changes to strategy as they fight for a piece of the total TV annual ad-spend of $4.15b.
Seven’s release was the shortest of the documents when it came to explanation. Brief comments from Seven’s director of network programming Angus Ross and Seven West Media chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette were accompanied by a dazzling list of headlines.
The focus was very much on the combined network performance of all its channels. (Seven primary was also #1 all people for the year.) Both Nine and 10 have noted Seven’s play for a total audience across all channels, while their competition has different strategies and less channels.
The Seven release started noting it was Australia’s most-watched network in 2018 for the 12th consecutive year followed by 18 other victory banners.
See Seven’s 2018 highlights here.
Read what Seven’s director of network programming Angus Ross said to Mediaweek here.
Nine’s 2018 highlights centre around its performance of the primary channel ranking #1 in key demos.
As well as accompanying tables, Nine detailed the performances of its best programming and then supplied commentary from Michael Healy, Nine Network director of television, and Michael Stephenson, Nine’s chief sales officer.
See Nine’s 2018 highlights here.
The recently rebranded Network 10 was very keen to position itself as a network serving only people under 50.
With that in mind it was able to announce:
10 is the under 50s network dominating entertainment programming in its target demographics (under 50s, 16 to 39s and 18 to 49s).
A focus on that core audience was able to let it also announce:
10’s primary channel had the most growth year-on-year in its target demographics.
The Network 10 release provided commentary from Network 10’s chief executive officer Paul Anderson: “We head into 2019 with fantastic momentum.”
And also Network 10’s chief content officer Beverley McGarvey: “We’ve established a brilliant line-up of marquee shows that perform well across all platforms and we are looking to build on this success in 2019.