Initiative Media Week in Review: May 17 - 23

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes - People 18-39
1. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia - Challenge    NEW-10    16.5
2. Monday    2000-2030    Recruits    NEW-10    14.8
3. Sunday    1830-1930    Merlin    NEW-10    14.3
4. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    14.0
5. Wednesday    2030-2130    House    NEW-10    13.2

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-39
1. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia - Challenge    NEW-10    19.0
2. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    18.7
3. Sunday    1830-1930    Merlin    NEW-10    15.9
4. Monday    2000-2030    Recruits    NEW-10    14.5
5. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    15.1

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-54
1. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    19.5
2. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    17.3
3. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia - Challenge    NEW-10    16.8
4. Sunday    1830-1930    Merlin    NEW-10    15.9
5. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    14.6

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 35-54
1. Tuesday    1930-2030    Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation    NEW-10    19.4
2. Tuesday    2030-2130    NCIS    NEW-10    18.2
3. Mon-Wed    1830-1900    Today Tonight    TVW-7    15.5
4. Sunday    1930-2030    Masterchef Australia - Challenge    NEW-10    15.5
5. Mon-Wed    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    15.4

TVW-7 once again won the week overall (0600-2400) for Total People with a commercial share of 37.9%, followed by NEW-10 with 35.3% and STW-9 with 26.8%.
TVW-7 had the top programme again this week with the Sunday News, as well as six other programmes in the top fifteen. These included Monday News, Today Tonight, Thank God You're Here and The Zoo. The programme Sunday Night on TVW-7 continues to perform well with an average audience of 178,000, the highest audience since its launch on February 8th, 2009.
STW-9 was able to get two programmes in the top fifteen, the season return of Sea Patrol and 20 to 1. Sea Patrol had an average audience of 182,000 viewers, down only 4.7% from last season's finale.
NEW-10 had the remaining six programmes in the top fifteen, with the highest rating being NCIS, which averaged 232,000 viewers. Their other top shows were Merlin (228,000), Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation (220,000), Masterchef Australia - Challenge (205,000), Saturday Night AFL: West Coast vs Collingwood (197,000) and Saturday Afternoon AFL: North Melbourne vs Fremantle. The season finale of House had an average audience of only 153,000 viewers, up 11.1% from the previous weeks episode.
NEW-10 continues to dominate daytime television with AFL and Ten News At Five taking out the top nine daytime programmes.
Nationally Seven won the week with a 28% average prime time share, with Nine in second place with 25.5% and Ten in third with 23.6%. The top programme for week 21 was Seven's Sunday News which had just over 1.7 million average viewers, Seven also rounded out the top three with Thank God You're Here and their Monday - Friday News, all pulling high audiences of over 1.66 million.
SMG Red (part of the Seven Network franchise) is launching New Idea TV from June 1, a television show based on the women's magazine. It will be scheduled on weekdays at 3pm, featuring food and lifestyle topics including beauty, fashion, relationships, celebrity gossip and health and hosted by Rachel Friend. Masterfoods, Target and Johnson & Johnson have signed on as major partners for the 12 week series.

REGIONAL TV RESEARCH
The economic forecaster Charlie Nelson carried out a survey in April for both metro and regional Australia. It pointed to a robust recovery in consumer spending, with regional consumers showing the strongest increase in ability and willingness to spend since last year. In April 2008, 21% of regional consumers agreed they had few financial concerns being able to buy and save what they wanted. This figure has risen to 28%. In contrast, the metro consumer figure has remained steady at 24%. The research points to above average regional increases in higher value discretionary spending such as cars, holidays and home appliances.
Source: Regional Consumer Pulse, May 2009

RADIO
Survey #3, 2009 results were released two weeks ago and the following is a snap shot of the Eastern States market.
Sydney
• 2GB further increased its share for People 10+ by 1.0% up to 15.6% and remains the number one station. This is in part due to an increase of 2.3% for People 40-54.
• 2Day FM lost 0.1% for People 10+, based on decreases in share for People 25-39, 40-54 and 55+.
• Triple M dropped a further 0.6% to 3.2% for People 10+; this was due to a decrease in share for People 18-24, 25-39 and 40-54.
• Although Nova 96.9 only lost 0.5% for People 10+ down to 7.0%; due to losses against People 10-17, 18-24, and 25-39.
• Vega 95.3 decreased share by 0.4% down to 4.3%, and had slight decreases across all demographics except for People 10-17 and 55+.
• Mix 106.5 lost 0.7% for People 10+ down to 4.3%; with their biggest loss 1.4% for People 40-54.
• WSFM remained the same with a 6.5% share for People 10+, but saw decreases against People 18-24 and 40-54.
Melbourne
• 3AW has lost a further 0.5% for People 10+ and has been unable to retake their number one position from Fox FM. They saw decreases for People 18-24, 25-39, and 40-54.
• Fox FM increased share by 2.1% for People 10+ up to 14.9%and has now taken the number one position in the market. They saw an increase of 8.1% and 3.3% for People 10-17 and 25-39 respectively.
• Triple M increased share for People 10+ of 0.3% up to 4.9%; their greatest increase was 2.3% for People 40-54.
• Nova 100 lost a further 0.2% for People 10+, brought on by a significant loss of 7.0% for People 10-17.
• Vega 91.5 gained 0.3% for People 10+; due in part to an increase of 1.3% for People 40-54.
• Gold FM also gained 0.6% for People 10+ up to 7.0% with increases for People 18-24, 40-54 and 55+.
• Mix 101.1 FM had a slight increase in share of 0.1% to 4.8% for People 10+, with gains of 0.9% and 0.3% for People 25-39 and 40-54 respectively.
Brisbane
• Nova 106.9 retained its number one position for People 10+ despite a decrease of 0.4% down to 13.9%; there were share decreases of 1.6% and 1.2% for People 18-24 and 25-39 respectively.
• Triple M slid a further 0.7% for People 10+, down to 9.1%. The most significant loss was a decrease of 3.1% for People 25-39; however, there was an increase of 2.6% for People 40-54.
• Talkback station 4BC lost 1.1% down to 7.4% for People 10+. Their biggest decrease was 3.0% for People 55+.
• 4KQ lost share for People 10+ by 0.2%, down to 7.5%. The greatest decrease was 0.7% for People 40-54.
• 97.3 FM gained 0.5% for People 10+ up to 10.0%, with increases in share for People 10-17, 18-24, 25-39 and 55+.
• B105 saw an increase in share of 0.7% up to 12.4% and are still in the number two position for People 10+. They gained share for People 18-24, 25-39 and 40-54.
Adelaide
• 5AA lost a further 0.3% for People 10+ down to 12.8%. The station had a significant loss of 2.6% for People 40-54%.
• Nova 91.9 increased share by 0.8% up to 9.5% for People 10+. This was driven by gains against People 10-17 (up 8.3%) and 18-24 (up 2.7%).
• Triple M increased share for People 10+ by 0.5% up to 11.5%, backed by increases for People 10-17, 25-39 and 55+.
• SAFM lost 1.3% of share down to 11.8% for People 10+. This was brought on by decreases for People 25-39, 40-54 and 55+.
• Mix 102.3 increased share by 1.7% to 12.6% for People 10+, with gains for People 18-24, 25-39, 40-54 and 55+.

DIGITAL RADIO
Brisbane's commercial radio stations began broadcasting their DAB+ digital radio services  on Monday May 25, joining commercial stations in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne who have already made the switch. Brisbane listeners will be now be able to listen to new digital stations which include Radar, Pink Radio & NovaNation. Services in Sydney are expected to be switched on May 30.

ABC CIRCULATION RESULTS
According to the latest ABC figures, weekly magazines continued their downwards circulation slide in the quarter ending March 2009. Famous (Pacific Magazines), Time (Time) and Quokka (WAN) were the only three weekly titles to post circulation gains year-on-year, reporting sales increases of 10.09%, 4.51% and 6.75% respectively. Some other results as follow:
• Famous magazine was an exception with an increase of 10.09% year-on-year
• ACP magazines - NW down 15.16%, Woman's Day down 13.62% and OK! down 15.12%.
• Who (Pacific) and Zoo Weekly posted year-on-year drops of 4.87% and 6.49% respectively.
• Take 5 (ACP), down 1.53%.
• That's Life! (Pacific) down 1.92% year-on-year.
• The overall circulation figure for weekly magazines was just over 2.47 million, down 5.07%, despite the addition of ACP's Grazia magazine, which launched in September 2008.

DIGITAL RESEARCH
News Digital Media's Connecting Campaigns report has found the following:
• 45% of respondents prefer to receive ads that are targeted to their interests, nearly double those who did not prefer receiving online ads targeting their interests.
• 60% of people under 18 are more likely to search for a product after seeing an ad for it.
• 42% of respondents find ads more credible when hosted on websites they trust.

NEW MEDIA
A company called Media Cart is due to launch in Australia with high definition computerised video screens that fix to the front of supermarket trolleys. When shoppers approach a product category in the shop, the relevant product footage gets displayed. The intention is to launch in Canberra in October.