KEY POINTS:
The rivalry in TV's prime-time current affairs slot is set to heat up with next week's official arrival of new Close Up host Mark Sainsbury.
The former One News political editor fills the post vacated by the resignation of Susan Wood late last year and sees him up against TV3's John Campbell fronted Campbell Live.
The clash was described by TV3's director of news and current affairs Mark Jennings as "the battle of TV's two nice guys", who were more alike in style than Campbell and Wood.
The programmes battle to break stories, win viewers and bring in advertising dollars in a time slot when ratings points can equate to millions in revenue.
This year's game plan means Sainsbury will get out of the studio more to hit the streets once the show starts again for the year on Monday.
Meanwhile, Campbell's focus on stories that have a "real impact" on people's lives will increase when Campbell Live starts on January 30.
Makers of both shows did not predict major changes and remained adamant the programmes would stay in the 7pm slot despite the suggestion from some that the market was too small to support the rival shows.
Martin Gillman, chief executive of media planning and buying agency Total Media, said TV2 and Prime TV were the winners so far of the prime time current affairs battle.
"The evidence is that there is a finite overall market size for current affairs at 7 o'clock and it's being split," said Mr Gillman. "I don't think either network will probably want to move and in the meantime they are both, I suspect, bleeding money over it."
Mr Gillman, a self-confessed Campbell fan, said Sainsbury's appointment "got the thumbs up" from the industry.
Unitec school of communication senior lecturer Peter Thompson said Sainsbury brought more "political gravitas" to Close Up, a departure from the populist style of Wood and Holmes.
He said the rise of alternatives to free-to-air TV were a challenge for both shows and it could be time for TV3 to re-examine Campbell Live.
Looking at last year's performance, both networks claimed victory.
TVNZ presented ratings charts showing Close Up ahead of Campbell Live on average last year for viewers aged 5 and above, its target audience of 25 to 54-year-olds and nationally for TV3's target of 18 to 49-year-olds.
"There are four main categories that we look at as a programme," said Close Up executive producer Paul Patrick. "Last year, we won three out of the four. The only one we narrowly lost is Auckland 18 to 49."
Meanwhile, TV3 boasted of Campbell Live's "strong inroads into Close Up's audience share" pointing to a decline in its rival's share of viewers aged 18 to 49 over the past three years.
Jennings said both networks needed to grow the overall current affairs viewership by producing shows people wanted to watch.
He pointed to Campbell Live's strength in metropolitan areas, the same part of the nation where its 3 News show first started to get traction, and said "confident, but not complacent" that the show's ratings would rise. "It took our 6pm news nearly 10 years to make significant progress. The Campbell Live show has only been going a relatively short time."
