The Big Bang on GO! Theories
There was a fair bit of spin going on yesterday as industry analysed the first figures from GO!
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Yesterday Nine declared GO! was “the most successful multi-channel ever to launch, breaking records in all markets.”
And Guinness Records are no doubt halting the presses as we speak.
Its Total People audience was 2.8% for 6pm – midnight. In its target demographic of 16-39 GO! secured a 5.6% share (5 City Metro, 6pm to midnight) on Sunday night. That was, it boasted, “a staggering 460% greater than ONE HD on debut.”
Of course that’s an equally staggering analogy given GO! has been on air for two weeks.
But there are no figures for GO’s first night on August 9th due to breakout figures not arriving until this week.
Other demos were 18-49: 4.4% and 25-54: 3.9%.
Nevertheless it was a good result.
By comparison Sunday’s primetime share for ONE was 1.9%, ABC2 was 1.1% and SBS TWO 0.4%.
The Big Bang Theory was its biggest show, with an average 230,000 viewers which Nine claimed is ‘the highest rating program in the survey year-to-date across the subscription TV and multi-channel platform, excluding sports events.’
Nine says Australia’s Next Top Model Live Finale averaged 185,000 earlier this year. Earlier this year Foxtel said that had 342,000 viewers but it’s also across two screenings and probably with regional viewers.
That 230,000 could yet go higher, given it was against tough competition from Sunday offerings. GO! is expected to enjoy its biggest audience with fan-favourite Survivor on Tuesday night.
In a recent TV Tonight poll, readers were divided on how big GO’s biggest titles would be, with less than 20,000 viewers the most popular choice followed by 101,000 – 150,000 and 50,000 – 100,000.
But the Pay TV sector hit back at the lure of GO! claiming that 98% of the audience was siphoned off from other Free to Air shows. Just 2% of subscription viewers made up GO!’s Sunday night audience. Indeed, Sunday was an unusual evening with SBS Ashes, a high performance by ABC1 and, the soft result for shows such as Rescue: Special Ops and Rove.
Of course, until GO! is actually available on Pay TV platforms its another unfair analogy. It take some determination to exit one platform for another.
Nine Network CEO, David Gyngell, said: “This is a terrific result for GO! and for free-to-air television. Viewers have embraced the channel and what it has to offer, and to be recording this sort of outcome within a couple of weeks of our soft launch is very good news for Australian television and the PBL Media Group.
“This multi-channel gives our viewers access, free of charge, to a second channel that offers a great range of entertainment. I’m gratified that GO! has delivered such strong ratings already.”
Ultimately everyone was right with their figures, it just depends how you look at it. So far it’s clear GO! has begun to carve out a following.
Today we’ll get our first glimpse of how its weekday shows are performing, including whether it boosted a certain game show.
42 Responses
Yes, what everyone says is true, we do need some new youth programming.. Come on GO, give us an Aussie Gossip Girl!
@ Rob
Yeah I was comparing those two shows as on Foxtel Cable ONE SD is Channel 531 (ONE HD on 210) so thought it was worth the comparison … however I do see your point though.
Also from what I have read (and I quote):
“GO! will be on Foxtel standard satellite and cable service in around 6 weeks as PBL Media and Foxtel do have an agreement to broadcast all the Channel 09 channels (this goes back to the 2004 agreement for Channel 09 being on ch 100 for satellite and cable), as around that time, the Optus D3 satellite will be in operation. Channel number will likely end up being ch: 109”
Also I would assume that Ten will not be far behind that schedule in buying capacity from Optus to be on the Optus D3 satellite with at the very least ONE SD.
I have to agree with people about GO needing some original Aussie programs. It’ll be the difference between GO being seen as a legitimate network or just a dumping ground for US sitcoms. GO is looking good but time will tell…
GO is fantastic! Watched Surivor tonight, such a good play for Nine to go with a Youth based channel. I do agree with everyone though and think GO needs some new Australian shows.
No surprises with go rating well, it will be interesting to see what seven do with their second sd channel.
luckily im not holding my breath as i would be various shades of blue
pathetic seven pathetic
Floyd- i disagree that they should reduce the number of times they air a show, they only show each of them twice. i really value the second screening because it means i don’t have to miss out on any shows when my recorder is occupied with the other channels during primetime. if something did have to give it would probably end up being the GO show, but since it is repeated i don’t have to miss anything.
Surely you can’t compare Go! with One HD, One HD only has sport while Go has bigger range of shows..
Give it a few weeks and GO! will be outrating Nine…How embarrassing for them.
I have to agree with everyone on this one… GO is very promising, but needs some new Aussie youth content. I understand its a new channel and all, but it seems lazy just to be playing repeats.
@Johnny1.5
One Week was on par with On the Couch for most of the year but some weeks just dropped off for no apparent reason. The paytv audience actively want to watch what they pay for while FTA viewers are more wishy washy so comparing the two is pointless. AFL coverage on 7 v Ten is a better comparo
GO will eat more into Nines audience (or share that audience) than ONE will into Ten’s so it will need to rate alot more to get any extra advertiser benefit to match the supposedly higher content cost than ONE would have with their stuff
Interesting to see how much people will watch once current material fades away and first run stuff replaces it. Aliens rates low compared to Big Bang and if many of the same or simialr shows failed to get traction on Nine why or who is waiting for it to be shown in crap SD on GO
@ Floyd:
Yeah the Formula 1 was ONE’s big show over the week, One Week At A Time was 98,000 then UFC Wired 82,000, which if you compare to Pay TV is not great when for instance Fox Sports 1 with On The Couch got an average of 149,000 viewers (I will not compare that to 9’s Footy Classified as it has more access to viewers than ONE does).
Have to admit I watched The Big Bang Theory on GO Sunday Night, it works well while Timeshifting Bones on 7 … with TBBT finishing at 9pm, then scooting over to Bones and watching while ad skipping … with Dancing With The Stars finishing late it meant I was caught up to real time by the end of the first ad break in the 2nd Bones Episode.
Simple way to get a local (almost) soap on Go! – just put on Shortland St. Even that’d beat a lot of what they have on now.
I haven’t really watched much on GO! but if I have absolutely nothing better to do there are a few shows I’ll watch. Seinfeld repeats and guilty pleasures like The Bachelor, Bachelorette and The Hills. Yeah I know, shameful.
Since everyone is suggesting that Go! commision Australian shows – why doesn’t it make a cheap soap? it is a youth orientated network perhaps a late night soap so it can have juicer and more racy storylines than Neighbours and H&A.
Soap and cheap do not go together in the same sentence sorry. Until there is revenue on GO! don’t expect any serious production investment. Maybe after 2013 when we are all on digital.