Nine targets younger viewers

Is there ever an interview by a network CEO that isn’t a good read? Sure they push a corporate line, but there are also cracks in their sentences that give us an indication of how they are travelling and what’s to come.

Today’s interview with David Gyngell in The Australian is no exception.

“August is Channel Seven’s month,” he says. “But September through to November is going to be as fierce a battleground as ever it is.”

Next week Gygnell will barnstorm the east coast cities to talk up the network’s achievements, plug the network’s second half and ask media buyers for a 35 per cent share of advertising revenue in 2009.

The dramatic turnaround has been in the key 25 to 54-year-old age group, which drives advertising budgets and was targeted by Gyngell early on. At the halfway mark of the ratings year last Saturday, Nine was up 6.5 per cent in the 25-54 age group and Seven was down 9 per cent.

The fact that Nine is leading overall is just “icing on the cake”, Gyngell says.

“I just care about having the most profitable network, not about being first,” he says. “We do things from a cost and return point of view, not just a winning point of view.

“There is a stability about Channel Nine that we haven’t had for a couple of years,” Gyngell says.

“We’ve demonstrated that we have more product than a couple of cricket matches, a couple of (celebrity chef Gordon) Ramsays, a couple of Underbellys, because now the word consistency falls into our vocabulary.

“That should give advertisers reason to say Nine has the momentum at the moment and Seven and TEN have to win that momentum back.”

The 42-year-old is stoical about the number of programming failures on his schedule this year: Power of 10, Monster House, Canal Road and Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune, to name a few. “So much programming doesn’t work,” he says. “I try not to be dumbfounded when something doesn’t work.

“If we fail, we do it fast. Anyone who says they know what’s going to work on television just doesn’t know television.”

“I look on this job as more than a job,” he says. “I try and treat it as a proprietor. I don’t say that with any arrogance and nor do I treat staff or shareholders like it’s mine. But that’s the best way to run it because decisions have to be made on so many levels … This is all I know. If I’m not doing this now, I’m not going to work in a bank or an online business or a telco. I am not a career CEO.

“The priority is on younger demographics. We’re not precious about winning the ratings every week. There’s no point in being No1 if you’re not writing the most revenue.”

The way to attract that key demographic is to pick the shows that suit the viewing public at the time and Gyngell says he can decipher a mood for escapism.

“There’s a little bit of blue-sky television around at the moment,” he says.

“Everything that’s really worked has been feel-good television like Domestic Blitz, Getaway, Battle of the Choirs on Seven and David Attenborough, which is just classy television.”

True, but the latter was also classy television when it was made six years ago….

The exception to this rule is Nine’s hit drama Underbelly, which “worked because it was just such a gripping story”, he says.

Continuing the escapist theme is a show Gyngell says will either be a spectacular success or a spectacular failure.

“Hole in the Wall is a very funny show. It is the most ridiculous TV show I’ve ever been involved in. If it fails, it will be one of the great failures and I’ll take down all the Nine celebrities too.”

Nine has had completed eps of HITW on its shelves for some time, even promoting the show during the Logies in May. It will no doubt be encouraged by the successes of Wipeout and, so far, Celebrity Singing Bee.

Gyngell was typically pragmatic about the current affairs war.

“The time slot of 7.30pm to 10.30pm is where 55 per cent of the revenue is written. I don’t think Anna Coren is better than Tracey Grimshaw.

“Sometimes ACA has better stories than TT and sometimes TT has better stories than ACA.

“I am so proud of 60 Minutes,” he added.

“It’s the best show on the network. They do an outstanding job. The numbers are proof of that. The view of past management who choose to criticise it now is irrelevant. The numbers are the numbers.”

“You’ve got a duty to inform and entertain. There are times we do things at Nine that have no commercial impact on the business but it’s an obligation.”

Full story at: The Australian