Media briefs and TV ratings

News Ltd: Not in the news business. If anyone needs proof that the flagship website of the once great Australian newspaper company, News Corp, is not interested in the business of news, just have a look at the way it covered Kevin Rudd’s announcement of his first ministry. Instead of a report on who was given what job there was a complaint by the anonymous author that Rudd gave too much information. And this from the company whose chief executive is pretending to head a campaign to force governments to reveal more rather than less! Hypocrisy at the Murdoch Australian headquarters clearly knows no bounds. — Richard Farmer

Seven home and hosed in the 2007 ratings battle. With 2007 ratings finishing tomorrow night at midnight, the Seven Network is already home and hosed with a clear win over Nine. And Seven will be the first network to complete a clean sweep of all five metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Even when it was at its strongest, Nine couldn’t complete the sweep because its affiliate in Perth, Sunraysia TV, was such an inefficient operator. Up to last night Seven had a 29.0% share in All People, compared to 26.9% for Nine. In Sydney it leads 28.8% to 27.7%; 28.6% to 27.1% in Melbourne; 28.6% to 28.1% in Brisbane; 29.0% to 26.3% in Adelaide and 31.4% to 23.5% for Ten in Perth, with Nine third on 23.4%. — Glenn Dyer

You saw it here first folks. From today’s Age:

Rohan Connolly refers to “post-election emails” doing the rounds. He particularly likes this “one here, which details a scorecard from a fictional Old PM’s XI against the New PM’s XI match”. That post-election email doing the rounds was … Crikey. Seems some industrial spirit forwarded it to mates without the original attribution. Here’s the scorecard from Tuesday’s edition:

Last night’s TV ratings
The Winners: Missing Persons Unit finished at the top of the most watched list with a very solid 1.447 million. Next came Seven News with 1.226 million, Home And Away with 1.224 million and Today Tonight with 1.186 million. The 7pm ABC News was next with 1.149 million (the Rudd Cabinet and Liberal leadership battle boosted it and the 7.30 Report), followed by Ghost Whisperer (1.119 million), The Gift (1.107 million), Getaway (1.1 million), A Current Affair (weak with 1.069 million) and Nine News (1.063 million). Temptation averaged 995,000 and RPA: Where Are They Now? had 939,000.

The Losers: Seven’s Heroes (884,000) and Bionic Woman (961,000) finished weakly after solid starts. Ten’s Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?, 808,000 at 7.30pm (859,000 on Wednesday night). Viewers might be a little cleverer than Ten thought. Neighbours down to 621,000.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne. Today Tonight won nationally but needed its 107,000-plus margin in Perth to get home. It lost Melbourne and Brisbane again. The ABC 7pm News in Melbourne beat both Seven and Nine in the news rankings, and it beat Nine in Sydney. Nine News (278,000) and ACA (290,000) both failed to crack 300,000 viewers in Sydney. That’s very weak and worse than Seven News’s problems in Melbourne given the revenue at stake in Sydney. The ABC News finished fifth nationally and easily accounted for Nine’s Temptation which is fading quickly. The 7.30 Report averaged a high 957,000 as interest in federal politics remains high. Lateline, 280,000; Lateline Business, 115,000. Nightline, 317,000. Ten News, 734,000; the Late News/Sports Tonight, 434,000. SBS News, 177,000 at 6.30pm; 189,000 at 9.30pm. 7am Sunrise, 442,000; 7am Today, 300,000 for the second day in a row. That’s its best performance for years.

The Stats: Nine won with a share of 31.2% (29.9%) from Seven with 27.6% (30.0%), Ten with 20.4% (20.3%), the ABC with 15.6% (15.1%) and SBS with 5.2% (4.7%). Nine won everywhere bar Perth. Seven leads the week 29.5% to 27.5%. In regional areas though a surprise; a different result with Prime/7Qld winning narrowly with 28.8% from WIN/NBN for Nine with 28.4%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 22.6%, the ABC with 14.4% and SBS with 5.8%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Only two nights to go in official ratings for 2007 and not a moment too soon. Last night was a fair night but only one program was watched by more than 400,000 people in any market: Missing Persons Unit attracted a very solid 487,000 viewers in Melbourne. It has been Nine’s most solid performer this year. Difference Of Opinion ended on the ABC last night with 354,000. Not a strong finish to a program with nothing much left in the tank. If the concept is to be revisit, it needs a complete rethink. Difference Of Opinion was just too bland. That’s exactly what ABC management is aiming for with its accuracy reviews. What we need from the ABC is a defence of its journalism, good or bad, right or wrong, and not an attempt to suffocate it.

Source: OzTAM, TV Network reports