News bosses make a meal of ratings war

The battle of the 7pm current affairs slot has become a food fight with TVNZ news boss Bill Ralston describing TV3's Campbell Live as "current affairs lite".

A month after Campbell Live's John Campbell went head to head with Prime's Paul Holmes and TVNZ's Close Up with Susan Wood in the half-hour slot, the ratings place Close Up ahead in most demographics, capturing an overall average audience share of 34 per cent, or more than half a million people.

However, Campbell Live is not far behind, with 124,500 people in the 19-49 market, and ahead of Close Up in the desirable Auckland market in the 18-49 slot and TVNZ's target bracket, the 25-54.

Paul Holmes has improved since its first month, but only has 10 per cent of Close Up's audience.

Ralston said he was "not particularly worried" about the lag in ratings, as the gap was slowly closing and Campbell Live was not going to be able to sustain its ratings long term, he said.

"It's not a satisfying diet for people. It's current affairs lite."

But TV3 news manager Mark Jennings countered that if Campbell was "lite" fare, Close Up was "stodgy, dull and boring".

"They're meat and three veg. It's solid but there's nothing exciting."

It's not offering anything that wasn't on the menu 20 years ago."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY