Producer follows Holmes to Prime

By ALAN PERROTT

Prime Television has poached another senior member of the Holmes team.

Executive producer Philippa Keane handed her resignation to TVNZ's head of news and current affairs Bill Ralston yesterday morning after more than five years with the show.

She said there was no bitterness in her decision and she simply wanted to keep working with her old boss.

Her move came the day after Holmes' resignation after 15 years with TVNZ to co-produce and host a new 7pm current affairs show on Australian-owned Prime.

Sources close to Prime Television do not expect the pair to be the last TVNZ staffers to move to Prime's Albany studio.

Mr Ralston said he expected TVNZ to be targeted once Prime decided to get serious about news. "And it's about time Prime stepped up, they've been running a cheap rip-and-read service out of Sydney."

He said it was a big and brave call for anyone to choose to shift from the No 1 rating network to another rated a distant fourth.

Peter Thompson, senior communications lecturer at Unitec, said Prime was playing a high-risk game.

Prime is set to relaunch itself with a new schedule of shows. The Holmes announcement was held in conjunction with a pitching of the channel's new programmes to advertisers.

"They're putting all their money on the roulette wheel at once and hoping it comes right for them," said Mr Thompson. "They can't afford this to fail."

Should Holmes not attract viewers or advertisers, investors and the public would see the station as a lame duck.

Margaret Henley, senior lecturer at Auckland University's film, television and media studies department, said Prime's actions should encourage TV3 to put more energy into its 7pm slot.

Among viewers aged 5 plus, TVNZ's new Close Up at 7 last night attracted 17 per cent of the potential viewing audience and 43 per cent of the actual audience at that time.

At the same time, The Simpson's on TV3 attracted a 7 per cent rating and 18 per cent channel share while Hogan's Heroes on Prime drew a 1 per cent rating and 3 per cent channel share.

In August, Prime chief executive Chris Taylor said: "I think it's entirely possible that in between five to 10 years, Prime should be the biggest network in the country. It's a big call and a lot of things would have to go right, but it's there for the taking."

While Prime can be received by 75 per cent of the population, it averages about 6 per cent of the total viewing audience.

If Holmes started his new show on Monday he would step into a slot where Prime struggles to attract 40,000 viewers. His TVOne show averaged 670,000 viewers.