MediaWorks head to head with TVNZ

Photo / Martin Sykes

MediaWorks is aiming TV3 and C4 at older audiences - challenging Television New Zealand's grip on a revived advertising market.

Yesterday, TV3 chief executive Jason Paris unveiled next year's programming and revealed revamps of both channels.

TV3 will be tweaked for a slightly older audience. Changes would be subtle and gradual over two years.

Paris said the 7pm show Campbell Live - under deep scrutiny by MediaWorks mid-year - would be a key part of the new-look TV3.

He said the rebranding of C4 to Four would also aim older and changes would be more dramatic.

Edgy shows would be dropped in favour of more mainstream fare such as The Simpsons and America's Next Top Model, moved from TV3 to Four.

MediaWorks plans to move TV3's target demographic from 18-49 years old to 25-54 years. C4 was aimed at people 15-39, and the rebranded Four would be aimed at a more mainstream audience aged 18-49 years.

"It's a shift to demographics marketers want to reach," said advertising consultant Michael Carney.

"MediaWorks are going to where the money is. While the audiences were okay for C4, the advertisers with young brands were going elsewhere - such as online with places like Facebook."

Paris said that programming would play an important part in the change.

The bones of the tweaked TV3 aimed at 25-54 years olds were already in place, and 3 News was already making inroads, sometimes beating One News' core 25-54 audience.

He said that the work done developing C4 as a youth-oriented channel had been almost too successful.

A lot of people were not considering C4 as an option because it had been too clearly defined as a niche channel.

"Seventy per cent of ad revenue is aimed at 18-49 and 25-54 target groups," said Paris, who moved to MediaWorks earlier this year from heading marketing at TVNZ.

But after a period where TVNZ's revenue has bounced back from an ad slump, it will be wary of the new push.

MediaWorks has struggled to benefit from a recovery in the TV ad spend this year.

Ad revenue for TVNZ, MediaWorks TV and Sky Network Television (including Prime) for the third quarter was $164.7 million, an increase of $16.7 million, or 11.3 per cent.

In the past, MediaWorks has made a slightly oblique play for advertisers with audiences slightly distinct from TVNZ.

TV3 aimed somewhere between a TV One and TV2 demographic, while C4 aimed younger than TV2.

Now it is becoming TV3 versus One, and Four versus TV2.

Questions remain, though, how much it will cost and how long it will take to build Four from its small niche audience to take on TV2.

MediaWorks is weighed down with debt after upheavals earlier this year.

Paris would not spell out the resources MediaWorks will use, saying only that the revamp was a "multi-million-dollar project".

TV3 has notoriously tight budgets, but Paris said that the changes could be made by squeezing more out of existing resources.

Derek Lindsay, media director of ad agency DraftFCB, said the key issue in building Four would be to ensure it did not take people from TV3.

TVNZ has always had that problem, with audiences see-sawing between One and TV2.

Shows on the new-look Four include Joel McHale's new comedy, Community, the drama series The Gates, and Top Chef: Just Desserts, a spin-off of the Emmy-winning Top Chef series.

New shows on TV3 next year include Hawaii Five-0, the remake of the popular cult-classic, and The Defenders, a comedy-drama about two Las Vegas lawyers, starring Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell.

The Graham Norton Show, starring UK comedian Graham Norton, will screen on TV3. The channel will also show a series featuring a Top Gear favourite, James May's Man Lab.