Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. - George Orwell
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://theharshcouch.com/thc/2015-01-13/
The Harsh Couch - 2015.01.13 Just 950 Lashes to Go
wibbly
#1
Re: “empty TV” - I think TV is less and less an informer/low brow educator of most people these days. The internet fills that role and you can get all the intelligentsia or idiocy you want there.
There’s likely some in older generations who get their current affairs input mainly through TV and old school newspapers, but those people are likely set in their ways, unlikely to change their minds any time soon no matter how enlightened the TV they are exposed to.
A question for the THC presenter married to a South African - does you wife make you put bricks under each leg of your bed as protection at night time?
wibbly
#3
As I think I revealed in the episode, I have recently been privy to ratings figures for TV News in Australian capital cities, and audiences are truly tiny …
Around 200,000 viewers in Sydney for the ratings leader.
The figures were for between Christmas and New Year, so not sure how that compares to regular weeks. I can imagine that impacting figures in both directions.
11,000 viewers for the second place-getter in Perth. That really is nothing. Any smaller I’m guessing it becomes hard to sell advertising.
As an (imperfect) proxy for the value of the Australian TV advertising, take a look at the share price of Seven West Media (ASX:SWM, https://www.google.com/finance?q=ASX%3ASWM&ei=EM-3VODUA5S28gbFyIG4Dg - stretch the price time scale on the chart out). SWM covers print and online as well, but 70% of their revenue comes from TV advertising.
Interestingly, SWM’s TV advertising revenue has been increasing in the last 3 years (see page 8 of their annual report at http://sevenwestmedia.com.au/docs/default-source/annual-reports/2014-annual-report.pdf).
Quote from the report: “Based on SMI data, television industry advertising has broadly maintained its share of total advertising expenditure, while print’s share of total advertising has declined at the expense of growth in digital advertising.”
More interestingly, a lot of the TV revenue growth over FY13 and FY14 was driven by Government spending and party spending around the election. That’s a fairly regular cyclical effect in political advertising and one that probably creates some conflicts, particularly as the incumbent government tends to ramp up government advertising heavily before they enter into the blackout period once the election time is announced.
An old housemate of mine and mutual acquaintance of ours used to work at Channel 10 selling advertising. She was able to predict when the government would call the election date fairly well based on how government agency spending would buy up advertising space in advance.
(disclosure; the author holds shares in SWM EDIT: which does not make him an expert in the topic, just an idiot for investing in the TV sector)
wibbly
#5
Discussion in Australia now that TV broadcasters need additional relief on their licence fees …