KEY POINTS:
The battle for current affairs audiences is raging, with New Zealand's top TV channels' news bosses claiming victory at the close of the year.
TVNZ head of news and current affairs Anthony Flannery said TV3's new breakfast show Sunrise failed to attract more viewers than the cartoons that preceded it.
Flannery also called TV3's week- night current affairs show Campbell Live a "handbrake to the evening's programming," as TVNZ celebrated a year of increased ratings for its flagship shows.
TV3's head of news, Mark Jennings, responded by saying TV One's Breakfast was "all about Paul Henry", and promised viewer numbers for Sunrise and Campbell Live would climb in 2008. He said it took TV3 about 10 years "to get on top" with 3 News.
"It's a marathon, not a sprint."
Each network has three main news offerings going head-to-head for audiences - Breakfast and Sunrise in the morning, One News and 3 News at 6pm, and Close Up and Campbell Live an hour later.
Jim Tully, head of political science and communications at Canterbury University, said both networks' shows seemed similar, although Campbell Live targeted a younger audience with more lifestyle features.
"People have more and more alternatives now," Tully said. "It's a small country with a fairly small pool that they both squabble over."
Factor in the multitude of alternatives to TV news, particularly the internet, and it was not surprising AGB Nielsen figures released in September showed the One News audience fell 12 per cent from the previous year.
3 News fared better, but it still lost 3 per cent of its overall viewers.
AGB Nielsen figures obtained by the Herald on Sunday put TVNZ on top for all viewers aged five and over in the breakfast news and 7pm slots, and the state broadcaster "couldn't be more confident" as it headed into a new year, said Flannery.
He pointed to the performance of Breakfast after the launch of Sunrise to coincide with TV3's live screening of the Rugby World Cup.
Since the start of October, Breakfast had gained 11 per cent more viewers in the 18-49 age group, traditionally TV3's target audience, while Sunrise figures stagnated.
It was a result, Flannery believed, of the major marketing campaign carried out by TV3 to get people watching early-morning television.
More of them were watching - it's just they were watching TV One, said Flannery. "It's going to be awfully tough on them," he said of the low ratings for Sunrise. "They must be seriously looking at their numbers over there at the moment, especially when some mornings they are getting less viewers than what they were getting for Dora the Explorer."
Tully said the breakfast shows seemed similar but felt Sunrise needed more time to gain traction. He questioned whether the presenter chemistry on Sunrise was right for the morning, but agreed with Jennings that Paul Henry dominated the Breakfast team.
Jennings laughed off Flannery's suggestion that TV3 was "winning the war of the spin", pointing out that 3 News had this year topped One News in the 18-49 and 25-54 audiences for the first time.
The network also swept the floor with its competition at the Qantas Television Awards earlier this year, taking out three major categories, including best news.
Jennings confirmed Campbell Live would undergo some changes but reiterated that "both programmes needed to do better" to win viewers from Shortland Street. He said while TV3 would "want and need to grow the ratings" for Sunrise, which had been on air for 12 weeks, he was pleased with the performance so far.
