Anything you can do I can do better

One of the more amusing things about getting press releases from TV networks is how they love to take pot shots at each other. Of all the countries Throng operates in, the Canadian networks seem to be the most ruthless. However, every now and then we get entertained by the local networks as they try to outdo each other as they talk themselves up.

Today’s example started at 4:52pm with TV3 trumpeting the considerable ratings growth in November of 3 News, Campbell Live and Sunrise. The press release is riddled with double negatives and even a hilarious triple negative: “fallen by negative -3.3%”.

Not to be outdone, TVNZ slapped together a response and released their own “go us!” 42 minutes later, complete with typos “Cambell Live” and “ONE news”.


So how do we make sense of the flurry of statistics? One can almost always find a figure to support a cause and the more different measures quoted, the murkier the picture becomes. These biased self portrait press releases are no exception. We’re left just as clueless about the state of things as we were prior to reading them. TVNZ compares their ratings to last year while TV3 compares to last month. TVNZ uses 25-54 demographic while TV3 quotes 18-49. TVNZ quotes national figures while TV3 includes regional ones. There’s audience share, average ratings and audience numbers. Percentage changes and percentage increases. Comparing one point in time with another rather than long term trends. Somewhere lurking behind the scenes is statistical jargon such as margins of error, measurement bias and seasonal fluctuations conviently not taken into account.

We’re not going to try and attempt to unravel their mess of numbers but what is obvious is that November 2008 was a generous gift month to all in the news industry thanks to the elections in the United States and here in New Zealand.

Oh, and we love Daniel M’s response to TV3′s release: “Our emphasis on news and information is starting to pay off” – Damn! 3 News wasn’t focusing on news and information before!?

About the author

Regan is one of the co-founders of Throng Media.
He's currently watching Survivor, Homeland, House, Glee and can't wait for the return of Game of Thrones.
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  • Sandwich

    “Oh, and we love Daniel M’s response to TV3′s release: “Our emphasis on news and information is starting to pay off” – Damn! 3 News wasn’t focusing on news and information before!?”

    I think Mark Jennings was talking only about Sunrise. Before this, they (Sunrise) seemed to be going for entertainment overload, with C4s Andrew Sz at the helm. Now he’s gone, they are back to news.

  • adman

    whats clear is that tvnz News is being thrashed in the 6PM timeslot by tv3.
    campbell live is gaining on close up, but as Regan notes, not by a massive amount, could be seasonal?

    sunrise is still absolutely slaughtered by breakfast. tv3 hauling out urban and metro numbers seems more than a little desperate. if they think this is going to impress advertisers to any degree, they’re wrong. short of hocking off a few Warehouse and Briscoes commercials with these obscure numbers, they best go back to the drawing board.

    not sure why tv3 didn’t market the awesome lead of nightline. they consistently KO tvnz’s tonight.

    i guess this somewhat disingenuous press release was more about trying to change advertisers’ attitudes towards sunrise. Good Luck.

    if you would just hurry up and put some cartoons or a kids variety show back on. at least we could sell some fisher price commercials.

    whatever happened to tv3s balls? under canwest and friesen this disaster would have been six feet under, before the ad market dried up. under impotent impey,the madness continues.

    If i was ironbridge i’d either install a CEO with some testicular fortitude, or cut my losses. canwest was clever enough to dump this donkey before nz’s ad market caved.

    very interesting times ahead.

  • Frogs&Horses

    Thats a pretty intense Sunrise slagging adman. Sheesh. Why do you care so much???

    The figures are improving. How long did it take Breakfast to build their numbers? 10 years. And how many times was it nearly canned? Plenty – because people said pretty much the same as what you’re saying about Sunrise.

    I love the underdog. And Michael Wilson.

    And I’m a converted ex-Breakfast watcher.

  • adman

    why do i care frogs&horses?

    have you ever tried to sell ads for a show like sunrise??? sunrise is not really a crucial time slot. what will have me fuming is if cuts are made to 3news, campbell live or nightline, to fund this freak show.

    newsflash, tv3 doesn’t have the morbid obesity of the state broadcaster to live off whilst it makes its program palatable.

    i was pretty optimistic hearing alister wilkinson was taking over, although not my first choice.

    But the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over, expecting different results. after a few weeks he seems equally committed to maintaining the status quo, not willing to make cuts of absolutely pathetic producers who have failed in their prior roles and are failing just as badly in this. i don’t need to name names.

    that whole office is toxic. each useless producer desperately covering his or her arse.

    i think for wilkinson’s part, EPs have a tendency to adopt rose tinted goggles when they move into shows and do not make the immediate changes, that seemed very obvious when they observed it from the peripheral. call it conformity by transfusion if you like. also, looks like he has to newsread at night too. he must be buggered.

    i’m happy to concede sunrise has seen some gains, but they’re no doubt because of driver. NOT any content redirection.

    what you don’t seem to be getting frogs&horses is, my last post was not an attempt to get impey to forcibly dump sunrise/ im not that naive. it was a call to arms, to all those damn producers to get off their bloody bums and do something!!!

    nb: i agree, michael wilson is fantastic.

  • Mrs

    Adman… What I find intresting is as far as I know theres ONE sales rep for Sunrise, and she’s a she. So you can’t be her.

    Plus Sunrise has no male producers so to say “his or her” when referring to Sunrise producers covering their asses is telling.

    So if you really are a sales rep for tv3, I would strongly advise you to change your job – for two reasons. You can’t be that great of a sales person if you can’t sell Sunrise at the price its going for and two, you’re a jerk if you’re slagging off your employer online. Integrity FAIL.

    But if you’re not a TV3 employee and merely posing as one… Integrity FAIL. again.

    So remind me why I should care what you say?

  • Rachel

    Can someone please explain how the figures show “tvnz News is being thrashed in the 6PM timeslot by tv3″? I’m still trying to unravel them myself…

  • adman

    Mrs.

    Firstly, if you maintain Sunrise only has one sales rep, I assume you are talking about reece?
    Congrats, you officially know nothing about television ad sales, so you’re already overqualified to work in the industry.

    you are wrong. there are two male sunrise producers. one is alister wilkinson. the other is matt hunt.

    The very fact you just conceded sunrise ad deals might as well be played out in monopoly money, is testament to why things must change.

    On me beating up on tv3. Well, sometimes you gotta kick ass, instead of kiss it.

    i’m not as positive as Impey on this country’s economic outlook. i see consumer discretionary spending in the dumps. unemployment numbers getting worse by the day. credit facilities tightening. a new govt. that plans to slash ad spend through government departments and SOEs (say goodbye to drink driving, no smoking, kiwibank, working for families, anti obesity and ACC ads). new media challenging broadcast networks like tv3 and c4, which will no doubt get worse as more homes gain access to nationals high-speed fiber internet). Plus lots more that i won’t get into more details here.

    suffice to say, if i were Impey i’d be battening down the hatches. He is not, i’m not sure why. But i’m not ceo, so it’s really not my business. that said, i’ll be damned if i’m going to sit by and watch those oxygen thieves on level 3 sit around a camp fire singing koom-bya-arggh and burning $100 bills.

    why should you care what i think? you don’t have to, its a free world, just don’t read it.

    but, given you clearly work on that groundbreaking production, do you really thing you’re in any position to be handing out pass or fail marks to anyone?!?

    put down the bong and get back to work. tool. those ali ikram karaoke lyrics aren’t gonna write themselves.

    Rach, i’ll send you a PM with my breakdown of the ratings when i get a minute.

  • Mrs

    Much debate about wheather I should indulge you by replying, but oh well. And just for your perspective, I am not a Sunriser.

    If you’re being rude about actual content producers, rather then “other” producers, maybe you should do your fact checking about who those people are and what they actually do, rather then looking at names on a list.

    Accusing people of drug taking and calling them names is yet another reason why I think you have an integrity fail.

    Ali’s karaoke hasn’t been running for 6 months or more, so you seem out of touch.

    Commercial costings (as you would know) have been set 6 months ahead, so thats why they seem disproportionally low.

    Again, continually slagging your bosses off in a bitter internet rant seems like another integrity fail. Have you actually spoken to someone about your concerns in an upfront and adult manner? You might get better results, or at least the explaination you might be looking for. And no one is holding a gun to your head to stay with a company that makes decisions you so obviously disagree with.

    But go on, rant away. I won’t be reading your posts again. They just disappoint me.

    Peace out.

  • sick of it

    Well I just think it is all a question of personnel taste & were the people of the nation are going.

    Take Hillery on TV3 I feel she is talking to “my age group” like Judy used to do on TV1, When I try to watch Wendy and her mate they seem to be talking to lower age group “or something else very odd” So it is possible NZ is going down hill and thats why they prefer TV1.

    And take all this rubbish you get on free to air TV, if they had all programs like that on like 30 years ago nobody would of wasted their money buying TVs, but now everyone today think it is “entertainment”. For example seeing a couple of ladies in the UK going around insulting people on the way they dress (Friday night 9:30 to 10:30) Even about 20 years ago we had “real comedy” like Fawlty Towers, now the best they can do is Relocation, Relocation and Fawlty Towers repeat, I wonder in 20 years time if we will get Relocation, Relocation repeated year after year after year like Fawlty Towers has been.

    From Mr Sad

  • adman

    Mrs.

    for what it’s worth. i’m glad you indulged me.

    i can assure you that i’m very aware of what each person on sunrise does.
    bloody nothing (kidding), but that is what this post is about.
    the only reason i felt comfortable in naming matt hunt is because i’m very impressed with the job he does producing the bulletin. you will notice i have a tendency rather not to name the people who i think are underperforming. they’re the only ones who need to know they’re missing the mark.

    i’m quite sure the only people who read this thread and think sunrisers actually take drugs are the same people that would believe they have an actual camp fire in their office.

    A cultural reference for you now. taking ‘bong hits’ usually refers to people with left-leaning political ideals.
    Used in a sentence, one might say. “I went to Sue Bradford to see if she could fix up my leaky home, but she was too busy drafting antismacking legislation, and taking bong hits.”

    nevermind.

    consider this. if every time an employee found themselves at odds with the decisions of his/her employer then resigned. do you think there would be a single employee in the country? It’s a universally acknowledged pastime.
    management make decisions, employees moan about them. It’s capitalism, and its hot.

    you’re right though, this is not the right forum for moaning. what i will say, is if this post somehow kicks any As into Gs, i’ll have no regrets.

    Remember my posts are actually very optimistic for mediaworks.
    >fantastic ratings in midday, 6PM and nightline, with good growth prospects for campbell live.
    >a decent performance by the radio group, given the economic climate.
    >i’m not sure ‘networks’ is very well monetized, but that will come.
    >combined with 3s schedule, and integration of C4 creates a very solid company with good profit and growth prospects.

    still, even the best companies need to be very cautious in this economy, because the reality is no one really knows when it will turn around.

    far out, this was supposed to be a thread about tv companies one upping each other on press releases. so with that, this should probably be my last post.
    In short, please try harder sunrisers. no one likes to see you letting the team down.

  • SimTV

    lol adman,, you’re like a conspiracy. Sprinkle a couple of facts amongst a pile of horse-pooh.

    Matt Hunt is the News segment producer. That’s all he does. Just News. So to call him part of the Sunrise production team in the office is, like Mrs said, very telling in that you really don’t know very much. Alistair is EP, he doesn’t segment produce at all, and never has. Sunrise do a different show to Breakfast, some folks like it, some folks hate it. It’s just different, that’s all.

    Impey – has got the business smarts to continue to steer Mediaworks in the right direction – and just as important, he’s respected amongst business and within the company.

    Perhaps a mandatory IQ test for posters next time ?