Yes, which I read so I’m not sure why you needed to respond and mansplain everything to me. I just happen to think their reasoning is BS.
I know everything costs more due to inflation and a shrinking advertising market, but they only have themselves to blame. They could have more money to sink into new initiatives and other programmes but they continually use up all their money on sport, a notorious loss leader except for the really big matches, which are few and far between. The overnight ratings for most of the BBL matches weren’t great and if you factor in the costs of production and rights deal would they have made much of a profit? They would be far better focusing on cheaper formats that would net them around the same figures that would cost them far less.
Let’s also not forget how much money 7 in particular has wasted in the past five years on obvious big budget duds. Pooch Perfect, Ultimate Tag, Holey Moley, Blow Up. Millions upon millions chucked down the drain when blind freddy could have told you they were DOA.
Maybe if they hadn’t or didn’t continually waste so much money they could afford to run two expensive shows on one night and not find moths when they turn out their pockets looking for loose change and have to string out the schedule.
As for saying Reality rates, I posted a list of impressive flops. Not all reality is a golden goose. In fact it seems to be on a downward trend for most of them. Most aren’t airing five nights a week anymore and most have had their episode count slashed, which means their cost isn’t spread out over more episodes which means it’s not as cheap to produce anymore.
Sport & news isn’t the only genre people are watching. I posted that Home & Away does well in the ratings and demos. Most ABC dramas do very well too considering the whole season is usually posted online before the season has played out on FTA. 7 have invested so few dollars into primetime drama the past five years I doubt you can conclude that they don’t rate well at all and therefore shouldn’t be commissioned.
Can I ask you what do you think people are watching on streaming services? What Sport & News?
At some point 7 can’t just keep pumping money into Sport and News. They’ll either be priced out of sports rights or go belly up hoping for the government to bail them out. Nothing sets them apart from 9 and going into the future 9 is placed in a far better position to weather the FTA drain circling. Now is the time for 7 to think outside the box and rebrand themselves. Original content is going to be the point of difference not relying solely on aging format reality shows that have dwindling appeal and ratings or go bust trying to get the cricket and AFL for the next billion plus deal.