TVNZ says latest stats bad news for rival network

TVNZ presenter Wendy Petrie. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Television New Zealand has used new figures showing the rising popularity of its 6pm news show to fire an attack on its rival TV3's "smoke, mirrors and big marketing campaigns".

The state-owned broadcaster released the new Nielsen ratings figures yesterday and its head of news and current affairs, Anthony Flannery, quickly bagged 3 News for its marketing based around newsreader Mike McRoberts.

Last night, TV3 questioned the picture portrayed by TVNZ and hit back at Mr Flannery.

The Nielsen data shows a 5 per cent increase in viewers aged 5 and older for One News, comparing last month with July last year, and a 15 per cent decrease for 3 News.

TVNZ also supplied data for "the other show Mike McRoberts presents", 60 Minutes, which declined 17 per cent, against a 23 per cent rise for TVNZ's Sunday.

Perhaps more worrying for TV3 is a drop last month in the 3 News ratings in the 18-49 age group - TV3's target audience - in contrast to a small rise for One News.

TV3 still had a small lead in that age group.

Mr Flannery said the trends were very encouraging for TVNZ but showed that TV3, "which bases all its marketing around Mike", had problems.

McRoberts was a very experienced and capable reporter and presenter, "but a news and current affairs operation has to be about more than one person".

"It needs to have strong and experienced editorial teams. It needs to be more than smoke, mirrors and big marketing campaigns," Mr Flannery said.

"From the number of 3 News people who are regularly contacting me about jobs at TVNZ, and the poor performance of their news and current affairs - especially their flagship 6pm news - TV3 has major problems on its plate and some tough decisions to make."

But TV3's director of news and current affairs, Mark Jennings, said of Mr Flannery: "I think he's living in a fantasy world. I would be highly surprised if any reporters are contacting him when they are laying off about 30 people."

TVNZ said last month that its biggest news and current affairs shake-up in 20 years would lead to 31 roles being disestablished and the creation of 14 new roles.

Yesterday, the company estimated that the 3 News ratings losses in the 5-plus age group would represent $5.95 million of advertising income if spread across a year.

Ron Sneddon, the media director of Auckland advertising agency Mr Smith, was last night wary of this calculation, although he said it was true TV3 had lost advertising share.

Mr Jennings said TVNZ was "just dreaming. Our news is sold out all the time [for advertising] ... We are 98.5 per cent sold out and I think that's through to September."

Mr Sneddon said the figures for the 18-49 age group were significant and might reflect poor marketing by TV3.

VIEWER NUMBERS
Average number of viewers a day last month aged 5 or older

* One News - 665,110, an increase of 5 per cent from July last year.

* 3 News - 375,190, a decrease of 15 per cent from July last year.

Source: Nielsen surveys