Media briefs and TV ratings

Is the ratings war beginning to turn? Hmmm, is that the sound of
a ratings war changing tack or perhaps the sound of programmers and
management at Seven shaking their heads and wondering why
their ratings locomotive, Desperate Housewives, has
lost its legs? Seven will argue no
change, it doesn’t really want to win the ratings, all
it wants is the most number of programs in the top 20 most watched shows, which
it still has. But bragging rights for beating Nine are bragging rights worth treasuring, and you have to wonder whether
we’re seeing the beginning of a late Autumn-Winter rebound by Nine on the back of football and a
slowing in Seven’s momentum. For the
second week in a row the program that helped boost Seven’s ratings comeback in
2005 has fallen short of pre-Easter audience numbers and
is now just a good hit. Desperate Housewives (1.617 million) ran third last
night, beaten in the 8.30pm timeslot by Cold Case (1.723 million). Today Tonight was second with 1.622
million. Seven’s other ratings giant from 2005, Lost, has already eased back to the pack and is averaging around 1.3 to 1.4
million viewers, compared to more than two million a year ago and 1.8 million at
the start of this ratings year. After
finishing in third place last week for the first time in
decades, Nine is on track to perhaps win the week or at least go
close after winning Sunday and Monday nights, but its problems are slowly multiplying.
Advertisers are still wondering what CEO Eddie McGuire will produce as a new
strategy. Nine’s
big selling point this year was to concentrate on the 25 to 54 age group, giving
up on the younger viewers and those over 55. Nine has certainly lost audience share in the 16 to 39
age group, but it’s also losing ground in the 25 to 54 group (down 4 percentage
points of share compared to Seven and Ten). And, to
rub salt into its wounds, Ten is now within a couple
of points of Nine’s share in the 25 to 54 age
group. – Glenn Dyer

Labor heavyweights refuse electoral Insight. Tonight’s edition of SBS’s
Insight current affairs program looks at “What Labor needs to do to win
Government in Canberra”. A
pertinent topic and there’s a good panel assembled for the discussion,
including former Labor
Ministers John Button, Chris Schacht, Susan Ryan, Bob McMullan and Barry Cohen.
Former West Australian Labor Premier Geoff Gallop is a starter, and current ALP
Federal President, Warren Mundine makes up the
cast. There’ll be a bunch of
swinging voters in the audience to provide the spark for the
debate. What’s that I hear you
ask: where’s the current ALP Federal members, the ones who will be “winning”
government in Canberra? Those Parliamentary
heavyweights, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Bomber Beazley himself all declined Insight‘s invitation to
appear. So while we will get
some inkling of what swinging voters might want from Labor, and what some old
hands think has to be done, it will all
fall on absent ears. Or
perhaps the views of the audience and the panel might be a little unpalatable. – Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV
ratings