Sunrise v Today: now for the fine print

Lawyers for Seven and Nine will head to the Federal Court today to battle it out over claims the Today show is Australia’s #1 breakfast show, after it claimed 21 of 40 weeks in the ratings year.

Seven maintains Sunrise leads overall including regional viewers and that the metric in television is an annual average not weeks won.

But Nine scrutineers have been looking closely at the wording of old press releases by Seven. It claims Seven has repeatedly use the ‘5 City Metro’ measurement as a means of determining its success on a given program and used ‘weekly wins’ as a way to trumpet its success.

It cites a Seven release claiming, “Seven won the 2015 television ratings year for the ninth consecutive year in Melbourne and Australia, with a combined network share of 28.8% in Melbourne and 29.3% across the 5 City Metro markets.”

In 2012 Seven media releases excluded the Olympic Games from its figures when Nine had the Games. Nine issued data with and without Olympics. But this time it has excluded the Rio Olympics.

Meanwhile sources tell TV Tonight Seven has only claimed it was #1 and cited metros when it was already winning regionals. It views the case as being about damage to Seven profit if Nine can claim the title. In 2014 when Nine was challenged on a claim of being Queensland’s number one in News at 6pm having won Brisbane, they had to change their promo.

Yesterday Today executive producer Mark Calvert sent a memo to staff to rally the ranks ahead of the case:

Dear team

After an incredibly busy few days, I wanted to send you a quick note, to thank each and every one of you.

Your 24/7 service to our incredible viewers is awesome to witness.

You produce the greatest breakfast show on TV. No doubt.

And now you have the number one breakfast show, based on the industry standard of survey weeks won, in the five big metro markets.

We are also tracking ahead of the other lot on the daily average across those five cap cities.

You’ve all seen the reports about our so-called rivals disputing our position. Tomorrow, they will spend money, and take up court time, arguing that we are “not number 1.”

They are doing this because you have them rattled. They’re behaving like the narky kid who gets beaten in a kick-about on the oval… so he takes his ball home. They’re Donald Trump, only accepting the result if he wins. They’re bad losers. They’ve forgotten that breakfast television is fun. 

Be in no doubt, by the key measure, in the 5 cap cities, we are undeniably, indisputably, NUMBER ONE.

Be proud of your achievement. I’m certainly proud to be a part of this great team.

We’ll continue to work tirelessly for our viewers.

And we’ll continue to celebrate, because as a wise man once said: “Winners have parties. Losers hire barristers.”

We know our numbers.

They all add up to one simple truth…

YOU ARE THE BEST BREAKFAST TEAM IN AUSTRALIA.

Here’s to you!

Meanwhile, here are several other Seven press release claims using similar language:

August 2009: “Seven wins 20 weeks in primetime in the current television year and, with 15 survey weeks remaining in the 2009 television season, Seven cannot be overtaken on weekly wins in the 40 week television year.”

September 2014:  “Seven has now won 20 survey weeks in 2014 on combined network share in Melbourne, leading Nine (9 weeks) and Ten (1). With 10 survey weeks remaining Seven cannot be overtaken on weeks won in 2014. This excludes the two Easter weeks also won by Seven.”

November 2013: “With just four survey weeks left in the OzTam ratings year, as a result – both on combined network share (including digital channels) and on the primary channel alone – Seven wins the 2013 ratings battle in Melbourne in terms of the number of weeks won.”

TV Tonight cannot confirm if the Cash Cow is being called to give evidence.