| SBS THE ONLY COMMERCIAL TV NETWORK TO GROW AUDIENCE IN 2007 |
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| Island Breaks ad strategy results in 38 per cent revenue growth
SBS begins its 2008 programming over summer SBS will be the only free-to-air television network to increase its 16-54 audience in 2007 compared to the year prior, when the official ratings period ends on the December 1. Across the All People ratings measure SBS will also finish strongly recording 4 per cent growth, while its share of free-to-air viewing will rise by 6 per cent, according to figures from OzTAM*. In the 16 to 54 year old demographic for 2007, SBS's audience is expected to grow by 4.2 per cent and its share will be up by 8.7 per cent over the same period, while all the other commercial networks will lose viewers. Share of the important OG1 (highest socio-economic group) audience is up by 13.2 per cent, while the other commercial free-to-air networks have lost 14 per cent of their audience. Subscription TV dropped 7.3 per cent of audience in this demographic. SBS will also improve its television advertising revenue by an estimated 38 per cent for the year to December 31, 2007, driven by the successful Island Breaks advertising strategy and growth in its cross platform offer through Online and Radio. "We are slightly ahead of our forecast for the Island Breaks strategy and envisage the trend to continue in the second half of the financial year as the message works its way through to clients," SBS Director of Commercial Affairs Richard Finlayson said. An SBS commissioned study by research company ada.tv to quantify how Island Breaks affected viewer ‘ad avoidance' behaviour found that SBS viewers paid 45 per cent more attention to SBS's short Island Breaks, compared to the average attention paid to the more frequent and longer ad breaks on the Seven, Nine and Ten networks. "The result was over 100 per cent among 16-39s, arguably the hardest demographic to reach and engage, as they find themselves confronted with myriad entertainment options," Finlayson said. "Audiences are switching off during long ad breaks and we argue that clients should insist on metrics to measure the number of viewers actually watching and engaging in their commercials, not just the programs." SBS's strategy to continue to attract new viewers to the network in 2008 starts in December with its strongest line-up of locally produced programs ever including Australian police thriller East West 101, genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, Food Safari and RocKwiz, supported by all-new episodes of Top Gear and the best of the UK episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? "We are kicking off our 2008 programming two months earlier than the other free-to-air networks because summer is always a strong period of viewing for SBS. This won't be a trial of new programming, we are hitting the ground running," Finlayson said. 2008 program highlights In a world first, SBS has secured the rights for a local version of hugely popular UK series Top Gear. It has also extended its commitment to the UK version for the life of the series. In new dramas and series SBS's programming includes Skins, East West 101, Who Do You Think You Are?, Food Safari, Real Top Guns and Tribe. SBS has a strong sports line-up including Euro 2008, Le Tour de France, Beijing Olympics, NFL Super Bowl XLII (live), Dakkar Rally 2008, World Rally Car Championships, Local Athletics, Sportsweek (motorsports), Tour Down Under, Cadel Evans – On Tour, Australian Sports Awards and FIFA Club World Cup Final. Among SBS's returning series next year are Big Love (series two), new Inspector Rex, all new episodes of Iron Chef, South Park (series 10 and 11) and RocKwiz. Multi platform growth for 2008 While SBS continues to deliver great programming, it will also focus on offering advertisers integrated multi platform deals including Radio and Online. "For the 2007 year, we anticipate doubling our revenue in online and have exceeded our budget in radio, buoyed by strong Federal and State Government spending," Finlayson said. "SBS is well underway with a major restructure and new look for our online assets, the first of which launched last week with our News portal," Finlayson said. "We will now more than double our online traffic to 1.2 million unique browsers by July next year. Our growth in video and user generated content allows us to deliver multiple opportunities to reach our online audience. Our growth strategy very much revolves around video, and we aim to be offering 40 to 50 hours a week of streaming video to browsers by July 2008." SBS's new local satire program Newstopia, hosted by Shaun Micaleff, is SBS's first program to be offered in its entirety as streaming video and has had 70,000 video initiations. SBS's online Premier League highlights have had 260,000 video initiations this month. SBS's unique In Language business (a national radio station broadcasting in 68 languages, websites and television news in 23 languages and full translation services) increased advertising revenue year on year by 19 per cent. "SBS In language has grown at 50 per cent above the total ad market and is on track to replicate this performance in 2008. This year there has been a real increase in awareness among marketers that there is a great opportunity for growth in targeting CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) Australians and SBS is uniquely positioned to continue to take advantage of that trend." * OzTAM 5 city metro, 5 Station Share 1800-2230, Official Survey wks 7-44 excluding Commonwealth Games. SBS excludes FIFA World Cup. About SBS The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is Australia's multicultural and multilingual public broadcaster. SBS is unique. Its radio and television services broadcast in more languages than any other network in the world. SBS Television is watched by more than seven million Australians each week. What they see is a unique mix of Australian-produced and international programs drawn from over 400 national and international sources. Programs in languages other than English - which comprise more than half the SBS Television schedule - are accessible to all viewers through SBS-produced English language subtitles. For further information contact: Richard Finlayson SBS Director of Commercial Affairs T: 02 9430 3805 Rochelle Burbury Open Dialogue T: 02 9270 2712 M: 0408 774 577 E: rochelle@opendialoguepr.com.au |
