Did Shakespeare help ABC News 24 to rate?
ABC2's arts broadcast of Bell Shakespeare on Sunday night didn't net many viewers, but at least it gave ABC News 24 a free kick in ratings results.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
ABC2 Live Presents broadcast another of its key Arts events on Sunday night with the screening of Bell Shakespeare’s King Lear.
While not strictly “live” to air, it had been recorded at the Arts Centre in Melbourne led by John Bell in the title role and marked 20 years since he established his theatre company.
But only 23,000 viewers watched the broacast according to figures from OzTAM.
11,000 watched in Melbourne, with 5,000 in Sydney, 4,000 in Brisbane, 2,000 in Adelaide and just 1,000 in Perth.
The low share for ABC2 (just 0.5%) contrasted to the Sunday shares the preceding week (1.7%), which on the first day of ratings results for ABC News 24 (0.7%) allowed the new channel to land in front of ABC2 and ABC3.
Still it was nearly four times the amount of viewers who watched the opera Bliss when it aired to 6,000 viewers in an ABC2 Live Presents broadcast in March.
At the time Amanda Duthie, ABC’s head of Arts and Entertainment, defended ABC2’s Arts broadcasts to TV Tonight.
“If we’re not going to take those risks, such as with the Australia Council and arts organisations or producer, then I’m not quite sure who is.”
The Arts industry would appear to agree, even if they aren’t necessarily watching. Bliss was nominated for several Helpmann Awards yesterday.
Keating the Musical remains the most popular of the ABC2 Live events with 73,000 viewers in 2008.
The biggest audience for ABC2 on Sunday was its children’s programming with 146,000 watching Captain Mack.
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- Tagged with ABC2 Live Presents King Lear, Bliss, Captain Mack, Helpmann Awards, Keating! The Musical
6 Responses
I re-iterate my objection to airing these specials in the highest-contested ratings time slots. I would have watched this had it not been up against something else that I could not view in another time-slot or on catch-up.
Thanks KFed maybe they can!! Had to do that with the RSC version of Hamlet!!
I believe Keating! was on ABC2 again a little while back. Any idea how it rated?
I think it’s about people knowing that recordings of live theatre, opera etc will be a regular feature at a regular time so that they can factor it into their viewing.
@Madame Tango Perhaps they can release it on DVD and send it to you?
I think the problem for Lear was not so much that people didn’t want to watch it but that we were all over on ABC1 watching Cranford! To be honest I was desperate to see this and I forgot! For people in the country it is essential that ABC2 keep showing things like this!! How else are we going to get to see it?