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Anybody home at My Place?

Only 37,000 viewers watched My Place on ABC3, but there were 176,000 watching kids shows on ABC2 at the same time.

ABC3’s kids series My Place is lovingly-produced series, full of high production values, strong cast, attention to detail and lavish settings -so why didn’t many viewers watch it on Sunday?

Once again this fine series is being ignored by the broader family audience.

Only 37,000 viewers watched on ABC3 at 5pm on Sunday.

At the same time on ABC2 there were 176,000 watching Peppa Pig and 173,00 watching Pingu.
Even by ABC3 standards the audience for My Place was low.

The top rating show on ABC3 on Sunday was Total Drama Action on 85,000 followed by Stoked (63,000), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (60,000), Dani’s House (58,000), The Legend of Dick and Dom (54,000), Prank Patrol (54,000), Trapped! (50,000), Ship to Shore (43,000), Half Moon Investigations (42,000), Jinx (42,000), Escape from Scorpion Island (42,000) and M.I. High (39,000).

The first season of My Place was one of the showcase programmes of the ABC3 channel launch, but its first run on ABC1 was a failure when it was ambitiously slated at 7:30pm Sunday. It was returned to a 5:30pm timeslot.

It’s a shame this excellent series never seems to get a decent break.

If it doesn’t pull better figures next week ABC should rethink its strategy pronto. Find a way to reward it with a broad audience, deserving of its quality.

19 Responses

  1. David, that timeslot is not too bad but coincides with other distractions in our house. I guess we tend to watch a lot of our TV time-delayed, partially because, particularly for a program like this, we can pause it if one of the kids asks us to explain something, and then carry on with the show. If it was just before the news that would probably be ideal for us.

  2. Our family (incl 2 girls – 6 & 7) have absolutely adored the whole series of My Place and it has been such a great introduction for them to concepts of history, family relationships, the passage of time etc etc, different living conditions, technology – all sorts of things. It’s simply a fantastic show. We will watch it all together as a family next weekend on iView – I don’t know how this is included in ratings figures (we also watch Masterchef on the Ten website). My Place was one of ABC3’s first iconic shows when it launched and maybe that’s why they’ve decided to hide it away there. They did show some at 7:30pm on Sundays on ABC1 and I think this show definately deserves a prime-time place – maybe not that late though – it should be stripped at 6:30pm on ABC1 on weekdays or Sundays. It raises broader issues about ABC3’s role particularly with it showing kids’ content when 99% of kids in the target demographic will be at school.

  3. @Chris, the ABC having 2 kids channels to compete against Foxtel isn’t “insane”, in the sense the ABC ones collectively outrate Foxtel’s. To some extent it is “insane” that Foxtel is trying to get people to pay good money for a suite of free babysitters when the ABC provides two options for free.

    To some extent, the existance of all-day kids channels is insane, in that kids shouldn’t be provided with the temptation to do nothing but watch TV. But then even without the channels broadcasting, that temptation would still be there in an increasing number of households…

  4. My Place should have aired later in prime time I reckon.

    I also believe ABC3 should be 24/7 with classic shows 9pm-6am in a 4 1/2 hour block with the shows then repeated til 6am. Shows like I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith, the Honeymooners, Bonanza, Alfed Hitchcock, Leave it to Beaver could take over the current test pattern and give viewers an alternative. Now surely these programs from the 50s and 60s wouldn’t be too expensive but it would give them a higher share overall.

  5. Jerome, have you looked at what ABC2 shows during the daytime? I’d say its upper age is mid primary school, and most of it seems to be pre-school/early primary stuff. ABC3 is a general kids channel.

  6. @ Rub_a_dub_dub. It’s a rather broad generalisation to say “kids these days like consistency”. My kids love this show because every episode is about a different kid. I like it because of the interesting way of telling the stories backwards in time and the clever links between episodes, ten years apart. Something for everyone.

  7. imo, the show isnt very good. Kids these days like consistency and that is what ‘My Place’ lacks. The only occurring elements in the show are a tree and a house. Kids like regular characters not just ones you see for 30 minutes and forget about. It is a rubbish show with no real direction.

  8. ABC2 should definitely go back to a 15-25yo channel not the 5-10yo channel it is most of the time now. Having two kids channels competing against Foxtel is insane.

  9. I agree ….should have first run on abc.1 at a decent time for families….and then a re run on abc.3….
    Such lovely work deserves better handling…advertising….and it is just such a great piece for all ages……..
    Do yourself a favour….just give it a try….

  10. ABC3 promo and marketing team can’t market themselves out of a wet paper bag. Right from the very start there was a marketing nightmare with the launch of the channel, failing to fill the audience of their live channel launch broadcast. The popularity of the channel has made it survive, but imagine what damage they could do on the ratings chart if somebody who knew what they were doing in the marketing department took the reigns.

    It’s simple – you have good programs, tell them people about them and when they are on and people will watch.

    School boy errors ABC3.

  11. ABC2 should not have kids shows. Defeats the purpose of having ABC3.
    Turn it into either:
    a) a indie themed channel.
    b) educated premium content like HBO or Showcase Australia
    c) make it a nation-wide community station where people get to create their own sit-coms (would be a good starting place for younger talent and extremely cheap to run).
    Out of the 3 options, I would like the third option because we have far too little oppotunities for young actors to be recognised, but I guess the HBO idea is ok.

  12. It was an odd programming choice but I recorded it and watched it later. I thoroughly enjoyed it.. The first series had a prime 8pm weekday slot for its first run. Why 5pm Sunday?

    Why don’t they run these quality new Australian series in a decent ABC1 slot and then later repeat them on ABC3? This would be perfect for Sunday mornings at 8.30am where it could be enjoyed by many more children and adults waiting for The Insiders to begin.

  13. Incredible isn’t it! Rubbish programming such as Neighbours scores higher ratings than this gem of a program (My Place). I mean what is it with the youth nowadays???? No accounting for taste is there????? Enough said……

  14. All I can say is a big F U to ABC for taking over not one but two channels with childrens content. ABC2 should revert back to a 100% adult/alternative oriented channel as it used to be.

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