TV1 edges back in ratings war

December finally brought good news to One News as its ratings bounced after plummeting for nine months.

The improvement came at the end of a year characterised by TVNZ news head Bill Ralston as "arduous", by his TV3 counterpart Mark Jennings as "a bit like Edmund Hillary - we knocked the bastard off" and by media commentator Jim Tully as "wonderfully interesting".

Nielsen Media Research ratings showed One News was still trailing 3 News in the younger Auckland age groups in December, but had stolen back some audience share after an abysmal November.

One News boosted its share of Auckland 25 to 54-year-old viewers to 32 per cent from 26 per cent in November, while TV3 dropped from 47 per cent to 37 per cent.

The lift came at the end of a year which included Close Up presenter Susan Wood taking TVNZ to the Employment Relations Authority over the state broadcaster's attempt to dock her pay by $100,000, the end of Judy Bailey's reign, the abrupt resignation of chief executive Ian Fraser, and a parliamentary select committee inquiry into all of the above.

The year's ratings revealed the impact of the events: One News lost six percentage points from its overall audience share, while TV3 gained five percentage points.

Mr Ralston said new presenters Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie, the appointment of Tony Davenport from Channel 10 in Australia to replace Paul Yurisich as bulletin editor and other newsroom changes would "bring a fresh approach into the 6pm area".

This year would also see a new lead-in show for the news to replace Headliners, and a new interview show for Mark Sainsbury, who will also play a bigger role on Close Up.

"The year has been arduous, but I suppose we will look back and see this was a pivotal point at which One News and current affairs changed its culture and became something more in tune with this decade than the past."

Summing up his year at TV3, Mr Jennings gave the credit partly to his competitor TVNZ.

"I don't think anyone could have predicted the self-destruction that went on at TVNZ.

"I thought we would have a good year, but we didn't count on the blood-letting that went on over there."

The December ratings showed the Auckland market could not be taken for granted, he said, and the challenge for TV3 this year was to consolidate its gains.

In the 7pm current affairs battle, Close Up was down from a 38 per cent share in January, but had held steady on about 34 per cent since the launch of Campbell Live in March.

John Campbell's new show had remained steady with between 15 and 17 per cent audience share.

The head of Canterbury University's School of Political Science and Communications, Jim Tully, said TV3 should not be complacent, as TV One would be on the offensive this year.