The actual ratings for TVNZ7
June 11th, 2012 at 9:00 am by David FarrarOne of the stats that should never see the light of day is monthly cumulative audience. It is a meaningless figure which counts someone who watched 15 minutes of a programme once during a month the same as someone who tunes in for three hours a day, 30 days a month (watches 360 times as much).
Cumulative figures mean almost nothing, except to get very large numbers. The cumulative unique audience for Kiwiblog is 2.78 million people. That is double the 1.4 million monthly cumulative audience for TVNZ7.
What matters is actual shows, and how many watch a show. People watch shows, not channels. I have long said that I think there were some good quality shows on TVNZ7, but the idea of a separate non-commercial channel as part of a commercial broadcaster was incredibly stupid. Those who really care about public broadcasting should be trying to get a better model going forward, not trying to preserve a failed model. TVNZ was never going to promote shows on TVNZ7, which might take people away from TV1 and TV2. What you actually want is to get those shows on TV1 or TV3 or Sky, or even on the Internet.
Now to provide some hard data on viewership, I’m going to blog the ratings for most of the shows that were broadcast the week before last in the evenings, so people can see the audience differences. Now note TVNZ7 is so small it does not even get rated seperately, it comes under “Others”. So the viewing figure for others is the maximum TVNZ7 shows got.
The channels Neilsen reports on are TVOne, TV2, TV3, Prime, Maori TV, Sky, Others.
Viewer numbers for Tuesday were:
- Tuesday One News 773,000
- Shortland Street 712,000
- Masterchef 619,000
- Tuesday Close Up 487,000
- Intrepid Journeys 452,000
- The Middle 429,000
- 3 News 411,000
- Target 388,000
- NCIS 371,000
- Suburgatory 331,000
- NCIA: LA 303,000
- Campbell Live 270,000
- Funny Roots 270,000
- Coppers 249,000
- GCB 230,000
- Friends 164,000
- Bee Gees 164,000
- River Cottage 123,000
- Necessary Roughness 123,000
- Neighbours 90,000
- Others (incl TVNZ7) at 9.30 when Good Word is on) 82,000
- Deal or No Deal 78,000
- Crowd Goes Wild 37,000
- Whose Line is it 29,000
For Wednesday it is:
- Wednesday One News 725,000
- Shortland Street 618,000
- Fair Go 593,000
- Animal rescue 585,000
- Big Bang Theory 507,000
- Two and a half men 495,000
- Wednesday Close Up 470,000
- 2 Broke Girls 454,000
- Undercover Boss 427,000
- 3 News 338,000
- Castle 327,000
- Campbell Live 258,000
- The GC 245,000
- Road Cops 221,000
- Hell’s Kitchen 221,000
- Friends 192,000
- Almighty Johnsons 166,000
- Breakout Kings 150,000
- WWII in Colour 82,000
- Deal or No Deal 78,000
- Wuthering Heights 70,000
- Others (incl TVNZ7) from 9.00 to 10.00 when Backbenches is on) 65,000
- QI 41,000
- Whose Line is it 33,000
- Crowd Goes Wild 29,000
Now recall again that Others is actually for all channels outside the main TVNZ ones, TV3, TV4, Sky and Maori TV. This includes TVNZU, TVNZ kidzone24, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, Trackside, Choice, Parliament TV, Cue, Te Reo, ShineTV, CTV8, Ch9, Centre Stage, 33 TV, Channel North, Triangle TV. So the actual TVNZ7 numbers may be just a small fraction of “others”, which is already tiny.
Even all grouped together, the only shows on that evening which rate lower are those on Prime. And it not just just about the time of night. At 9 pm and 9.30 pm you often have 35% to 30% of New Zealanders still watching TV.
Now again the issue is not the quality of the TV shows. The issue was placing them as part of TVNZ on a non-commercial channel within a commercial company. It was never going to work.
Taxpayers spend $150 million a year on public broadcasting. There is no reason some of those shows which were on TVNZ7 can’t be funded, if a broadcaster is willing to host them. Setting the shows free from TVNZ7 might be the best thing which could happen to them.
Tags: ratings, TVNZ7
June 11th, 2012 at 9:09 am
The downside is that with all those ratings comes misinformation produced by teams of experts designed to normalize behaviors such as driving through central Auckland in a whopping big 4×4?
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 9:23 am
TVNZ was always going to struggle when it wasn’t promoted or advertised and wasn’t included in TV listings (newspapers, Listener or Sky). It’s been a useful but ultimately failed exercise, thanks to TVNZ.
Despite an active campaign to save TVNZ 7 it appears to be doomed, with no sign of National coming to the rescue. In light of this I suggested looking ahead in a speech to a Save TVNZ 7 meeting last week.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 9:27 am
Whilst it was never going to work without a subsidy, the reason why TVNZ7 was good as part of TVNZ is that it was cheap. It could run shows that TVNZ had already bought, but wasn’t airing, it could have a news operation run from TVNZ studios, with access to TVNZ archive for file footage, without paying. It could run old TVNZ shows, and repeat shows airing on One during the week. It could piggyback on the TVNZ frequencies etc. etc. And all for $14m a year (and that includes running all their first run shows, none of which got NZonAir funding). The only way you can get a channel that is anywhere near as good as 7 at anywhere near the cost of 7 was to have TVNZ run it.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 9:30 am
This is exactly what I suggested:
I don’t think TVNZ 7 can be saved. It’s a failed exercise, and too late to rescue.
We should be exploring a much more diverse, multifaceted and interactive media experience.
Traditional commercial television tries to capture and hold audiences. They want to be the whole machine, the only machine carrying their advertisers.
New media can only be one cog in a much bigger machine. New media will only have teeth if it accepts that they need to intermesh with as many other cogs as possible.
I propose exploring and establishing a much more diverse inclusive multi media. Much of this can be done via the internet, at relatively low cost. Voluntary, collaborative, community driven.
And as more funds are found this can grow. Not based on one channel like TV 7, but weaving a multi media web.
Why not start this now?
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:17 am
Do all those people who watch the likes of Shortarse St and the Masterchef rubbish get to vote in general elections? Truly frightening.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:21 am
I always wonder if you swapped the programming of tv7 and tv1 over if their would be any change in viewer numbers.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:28 am
WWII in Colour is the best show on that list. Outstanding…
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:28 am
What is the point of this thread? Why are taxpayers subsidising any media? Surely, this should be what the discussion is about?
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:37 am
“» Tuesday One News 773,000″
So many old people.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:41 am
Why are taxpayers subsidising any media?
It’s important to have some media that isn’t subservient to the advertisers, and the only way of doing that is funding by the taxpayers – unless viewers would be willing to subscribe to a non-commercial channel.
I fork out more than I like for Sky, I want a few channels and to get them I have to also pay for a heap of rubbish.
I’d be happy to pay a subscription for a good non-commercial channel, especially if it was part of a multi media service.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:47 am
The short answer is because an effective democracy requires people to be exposed to messages that they wouldn’t choose to be subjected to on their own (and hence which markets won’t provide). It doesn’t matter if only a few people watch it, because the point is to inject information into the public domain (where it gets passed around by the water cooler, etc.).
Think of public broadcasting as a man with a megaphone driving through your neighbourhood yelling “You need to know this in order to do your civic duty, morons!”.
Whether people like it or not is irrelevant. If you want to live in an effective democracy, you will have to pay for it.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:54 am
Ever heard of an EPG.
Igloo seems to be reasonable value. It has a few documentary channels.
Vote:I might consider it.
June 11th, 2012 at 10:54 am
If the figure for others includes “Trackside” then TVNZ7 really was just a dog pure and simple.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 10:58 am
“The cumulative unique audience for Kiwiblog is 2.78 million people.”
As a Market Researcher and Blog owner you should know better than to describe online unique views as ‘people’ DPF.
Over the last month I have viewed Kiwiblog from my smartphone, my home PC and at least two distinct office PCs – how many people am I?
[DPF: Unique Visitors both over and under counts actual people. In that situation you get over counted, but multiple peopel who get assigned the same IP address get counted as one person and under counted]
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 11:07 am
It’s good to see that there is somewhere in the media that has been promoting the success of Keynesian economics and all the good things that come with increased government spending, not to mention the successes of public health and public education systems, and the tax increases needed for all that.
At the same time I’m sure they’ve held the feet of Big Corporates and dairy farmers to the fire about their failures on issues like AGW, fracking, mining, dirty water, the evils of lower taxes and all that other nasty shit that capitalists get up to when they’re not being carefully watched and regulated by well-informed representatives of the people.
Because we really don’t get enough of that on TV1, TV3, National Radio and other respected MSM sources.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 11:14 am
Just goes to show how crap out TV is. On both days, the only top international shows were two and a half men (which is crap now CS isn’t on it) and big bang theory.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 11:16 am
PG @ 10:41.
“It’s important to have some media that isn’t subservient to the advertisers”.
Sorry I don’t buy it. If you want to have a government sponsored news programme, then perhaps there is a small case for that. Not really, however, as such things are always left wing.
I would rather be subservient to advertisers than to government and its bureaucrat allies.
When we are bankrupt, these subsidies will have to go, why not now?
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 11:47 am
“It’s important to have some media that isn’t subservient to the advertisers”
Why? And if the statement were true why is government funding the only option?
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 11:53 am
I wanted to watch TVNZ7 but could never find anything to hold my interest for more than a few minutes. Hated those braying infants on Backbenchers, the talk (media, books) shows were dreary, the documentaries of limited variety or interest.
Vote:Back to Food, Living, soaps and comedies. I can get the info and background I need from websites and just want some occasional light entertainment from TV. Why does anyone expect it to do more?
June 11th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Given that public broadcasters tend to do the best job of skewering the government, no matter who is the government, this doesn’t really follow. You vastly overestimate the control that the government has over public broadcasters. It’s the same when conservatives accuse left wing university teachers of being able to brainwash students with liberalism (despite the fact that we can’t even brainwash them into doing the readings, getting the right answers in tests or spell checking their essays, and that’s the real wet dream of all university professors).
Such things are “left wing” because reality is somewhat although not wholly “left wing” (that’s why universities are somewhat “left wing”). If you want demented and deliberate falsification buy a Murdoch paper.
Vote:June 11th, 2012 at 1:38 pm
That’s probably true. I was saddened by the amount of criticism that Helen Clark’s government got from National Radio for not being left-wing enough.
Reality – you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
For my money the best reality TV in the last two years has been the program:Euro Crisis. Pathos, tears, hopes and fears riding the emotional rollercoaster together, moments of gut-busting hilarity, breathtaking moments of chutzpar from some of the characters. The only missing touch was that there was no sign of Malcolm Tucker, but apart from that it has had it all. Pity it’s nearing the end of its run.
Vote:July 1st, 2012 at 9:06 pm
The taxpayer is subsidising Sky via the public channels the Govt. has gifted to Sky.e.g. TV 1, TV3, TV1 +1, Maori TV, Heartland, etc. was paid for via Government agencies and given to Sky. This was another nail in public broadcasting’s coffin. So now all you Sky subscribers are paying twice and watching advertisements as well! If we had a properly funded PBS we could all watch all of the content for less than you folks are paying now. That’s your choice and not mine. You are paying a premium because there is a monopoly operating. Great for the shareholders, Murdoch and for the National Parties next election funding campaign – enjoy!
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