Greg Dixon: Prime-time in sight for little channel that tried

COMMENT

The Lord loves a trier, apparently. But I'm not going to let that put me off. I too have a soft spot for a battler, and during recent years there has been no television network quite as try-hard as Prime.

Yes, Prime. You know the one, number six on your Sky Digital remote? The one stuck between the dodgy, flirty neighbours that are Sky 1 and E!?

Well you should remember the station; it isn't like Prime hasn't been around a while. But although it launched in 1998, it's fair to say the Australian-owned channel has taken more than a little time to find its feet let alone an audience in these here parts.

But the news coming out of the wee channel based in Albany, a boring burg north of Auckland, suggests the future is rather more rosy for the little-network-that-hasn't.

They're great producers of press releases over at Prime - which means management is getting its value for money from someone among its small staff of 80 - and from the general tenor of the recent bluster, they've finally got reason to brag.

Despite another loss last financial year (of $6 million, down from $8.9 million), Prime is growing. In late September the network finally gave it to other networks with its first primetime victory over all the competition with something like 436,500 punters tuning in to watch an episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the show Prime describes as its flagship.

Then this week yet another release arrived announcing that Prime was "New Zealand's fastest growing television network". Apparently the first week of this month it had its highest weekly share of the audience watching between 6pm and 10.30pm.

I can only assume all this is due to the improved quality of the shows Prime has been offering in the past six months or so.

The network has provided me with a few treasured moments over the years, chief among them being the dubious pleasure of finally seeing the infamous "jump the shark" episode of Happy Days. This was where the Fonz (on waterskis and in shorts but still wearing his leather jacket) jumps over a school of caged sharks.One of television's greatest, lowest moments.

However, old and dodgy repeats are no basis for a successful free-to-air network, and Prime has been a more impressive beast since it began its joint venture with Aussie broadcaster Channel Nine in early 2002. The Australian network provides such shows as Millionaire, which has been a consistently good rater for Prime.

But interestingly it is its new and various British content that has also been pulling punters in its target market of 25-to-54 year olds.

Of course The Bill and EastEnders will always have a loyal following from their time on the other networks. But it's been the addition of quality documentaries like Brain Story, the mad Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear, Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World (which sadly ended this week) and my new favourite comedy, Little Britain, which have finally provided regular reasons to take notice of what's going on on the channel.

The network might not yet be in its, well, prime. But it's finally starting to look like the little channel might have one in the future.