Written quickly ...
Mediaworks
review of its 7.00pm mainstay current affairs program, Campbell Live, shows
shallow reality-TV minds are sadly in ascendency at that company, with little
understanding of markets and long term profitability.
Building
a viable advertising base is not ‘only’ about ratings, surely, it’s about
building diversity to reflect and keep
a diverse audience, because not all advertisers want to advertise to Jono and
Ben’s audience, whom are mooted to be the replacement show. To the programming
architects of Mediaworks, Christie and Weldon: all TV has damn near lost our
household, and thus so have TV advertisers. We watch the 6.00pm news, the two 7.00pm
current affairs shows, Sunday, and
oftentimes Native Affairs, also Graham Norton over a Friday night bottle
of wine or three, but nothing else. Reality TV bores us witless and has taken
our evenings back to books, Internet and DVDs. (Sometimes Mrs and H and I even
talk to each other). I bet we are not alone: there will be a huge number of ‘us’
who are being switched off. I think Christie/Weldon are destroying Mediawork's future
by taking the quick bucks from an immature reality TV, and forgetting we all
grow up and want actual satisfying content that entertains and feeds our souls
and intellects.
If
I was an advertiser of anything other than junk food and Briscoes, I would be
concerned about the mono-culture all TV now largely caters for (and has created
by short term ratings-think). Personally I’m starved of arts and literature
content, there is no longer a single show on the fine arts and the written arts,
thus, and sorry, add to my evenings above, I get same now by listening to huge
dollops of streaming BBC3 and BBC4. There is no
reason for any New Zealand TV advertiser doing business in those fields - and that's a wide range of business from arts and entertainment to restaurants - to spend the marketing budget on TV. Say there is finally, again, a book show,
then it may not get huge ratings, but it will get an audience that is different
to the reality TV munters, which still won’t be ‘small’, and thus an
opportunity for a different range of advertisers.
All
businesspeople understand the strength of diversity, and the fallout of
servicing a single client category when the model changes. But TV, both private
and state, doesn’t seem to ‘get it’.
Also,
given that ratings seem to be the main player here – I’ll deal with politics
shortly - how do ratings work? Via MySky technology I watch both competing TV3
and TV1 shows in that 7.00pm timeslot: I watch Seven Sharp because I like Hoskings and that show’s lighter fare,
and I watch Campbell because it tackles the more serious issues in depth and John
is a likable guy, doing good works (eg, the current fund raising for Vanuatu).
But how does ratings cover that? If I was one of the ones in the ratings mix –
and I don’t know a single person who is: who are they? – then I suspect only
the show I watch ‘live’ would count? If so, what poppycock. That would be a
meaningless statistic.
Regardless,
finally a personal note. It has also been suggested via
the Herald that part of the problem is Christie and Weldon don’t like Campbell Live because of its
anti-government slant: um, that’s not a criteria for programming. If this
seriously is the case, then those two should be looking for new jobs tomorrow. John
Campbell and I would largely be political adversaries – read my blog - but John’s
show is class, depth television even if I don’t hold with some of its sometimes advocacy. Albeit noting that
even political adversaries have commonalities: as a Christchurchian through the
quakes thank God for Campbell Live which
has been the only TV source rightly trying to foot trip the politicians with
transparency, and John and I see eye to eye, exactly, on animal welfare.
Because we are all different, there are many similarities across political
identifications.
Plus
another anomaly: unsurprisingly I’ve read Campbell
Live is popular with the advertisers, so this review becomes more ‘worrisome’
indicating credence to the political motivations.
If
Campbell Live is ditched then in my
opinion Mediaworks deserves its often dalliances with bankruptcy; indeed, it
probably explains them. Perhaps your past problems, Ms Christie and Mr Weldon,
are because your programming is creating a mono-market of mainly teenagers –
who don’t, incidentally, spend the ‘big’ money – and you are destroying a
diverse market that represents a diverse content starved population, and thus
are restricting yourselves to a narrowing range of advertisers who find TV
relevant to them anymore.
To
John Campbell and crew: keep your peckers up, I still believe
intelligence and ‘actual content’ wins the long game, despite generation
airhead in charge of your employer.
