I’m sure it’s something that Nine didn’t want, yet more legal trouble. They’ve been in plenty lately with the 60 Minutes debacle, the 9Now streaming case against WIN, last year’s The Hot Plate debacle, etc.
Although personally, I find this quite ridiculous. How about improving the quality of Sunrise before worrying about trivial stuff like this Seven?
Too hard basket. 
Pell spit his diamond encrusted dummy again? Olympics shouldn’t be counted. Its an event that happens every 4 years and it not a true reflection on ratings because people tune into watch the sports and Sunrise is covering them because of the timeslot.
My summary as I see it, though we don’t know what the arguments are at this stage.
Nine’s claim to being number one:
Today has won more weeks than Sunrise this year with or without Olympics in the 5-city metro market, to the extent that the show can’t be beaten based on number of weeks won.
While I personally don’t think this a very good measure, it is a claim that has been been made in the past by Seven without dispute and seems to be otherwise well accepted in the industry.
Seven has publicly disputed the number one claim in two ways.
Weeks won is not a proper measure of being number one and that the average audience of a show across the year is the only proper measure. With that argument, neither show could make a claim until the end of the year because it is very close based on average weekly audiences. If Olympics are excluded (as Seven did in 2012 when Nine had the London Olympics), Today is slightly in front; if they are included. Sunrise is slightly in front.
Second claim is based on regional + metro numbers where Sunrise is in front. If you look back at previous program wins by Seven over the years, there are lots of examples where they have claims to be number one solely based on metro numbers, so in this case, they are being inconsistent.
Exactly, let’s call Seven’s actions for what they are: a dummyspit move trying to save face.
You can’t use one form of measurement as the defacto means of winning the ratings, and then trash that same metric the moment you start losing. I mean, you can, because Seven are doing that, but it’s poor form and potentially a PR disaster. Australians hate a whinger.
As noted at week 28 in the Seven v Nine News Ratings topic :
The potential exists for networks after next week to start claiming their news service has “won the year” based on number of weeks of the 40-week survey won. Potential claims from 9 Sydney, 7 Adelaide and 7 Perth plus I wouldn’t be surprised if Seven claimed a national win based on the traditional 6pm result (even though across the hour that isn’t the case).
Seven News at this stage had won 21 weeks at 6pm exactly the same number as Today.
According to this post, the next day Seven started running promos claiming “Australia’s Number 1”
The full post is here:
Really, you can cut the numbers anyway you like
“Australia’s #1” - Well, ALL networks have use the 5 city measure for ratings claims for decades
"Australia’s #1" - Yes, I agree - it should really be national viewership
"Australia’s Most Watched" is a claim I Think Sunrise could make
Then moving on to News
7 or 9 News could claim “Australia’s Number #1” based on just the 6pm news. But what if the claim refers to the actual news service, and then you would like at ratings for Early News, morning shows, morning news, 3pm news, 4pm news and 6pm news"
What if online is factored into the news service “More Australians get their news from 9 News than any other source”
9 News is carried on all SCA stations and 7 News is carried on Prime7/GWN stations - what if someone crunches the numbers and comes up with something different there?
“Victoria’s #1” could be different to "Australia’s #extra
and 7 News could well claim to be “NSW’s most watched news” or “#1” as it airs across Prime7 - where as 9 News doe snot air at all in NNSW - NBN News does.
And then - if you look at ratings - relative to market share - SC News Tas and GWN7 News WA could both claim to be “Australia’s highest rating news”
So really - the point is - you can claim anything you want,
I think the big story is Sunrise has clearly weakened. Today has clearly strengthen. But nationally, Sunrise is still way ahead.
Nine may want to work with it’s SCA and NBN stations to try and increase Today’s ratings in those areas to get the national numbers up. Having some more Newcastle News and perhaps working with SCA stations to offer local news windows or local weather and news tickers could be a good way to do this.
Sure, but if you’re going to sue another network for bragging about being number one, you’ll have to explain why you used that same metric to claim the same feat for every year since 2004!
Completely agree with you!
And if “favourite / #1 / most watched” promo and press release claims must refer to national viewership, not just Top 5 markets per Seven’s claim - then they may want to reconsider their Upfront release yesterday:
HOUSE RULES
Australia’s number one renovation show
Then what is “The Block”?
WANTED is Australia’s number one regular drama of 2016
Is that true, can anyone think of a drama that did better? What about Offspring on Ten / SC / WIN?
THE SECRET DAUGHTER is currently the number one drama on Australian television
Looking at Top 5 markets, “Daughter” and “Doctor Doctor” are neck-a-neck. Nine may want to crunch season to date figures nationally.
ratings have NEVER been based on regional figures. Advertising rates are set on 5 cap cities and has always been the standard measurement.
Channel 9 GEM?
Cheif…
These are the headlines Today wouldn’t want. Can’t they just reword their promos and avoid the legal action?
Channel Seven sues Nine over false and misleading conduct after Today Show claimed ratings win over Sunrise
The Daily Telegraph
I don’t think they should have to.
Using the industry standard measurement, Today is the #1 breakfast show of 2016, and Sunrise is not.
I get that regional areas push Sunrise over the line, but regional areas aren’t counted towards official ratings in Australia. If they wanted to include the regional areas, than incorporate them into OzTAM properly.
Until then, the 5 city metro is the standard, and Today has indeed won that, and should be allowed to call their program the “#1”, without Seven being childish about it
[quote=“NQCQTV2, post:876, topic:101”]
Using the industry standard measurement, Today is the #1 breakfast show of 2016, and Sunrise is not.[/quote]
If they say they are the #1 breakfast show of 2016 then that’s fine but if they say they are Australia’s #1 breakfast show that’s where they will run into a legal battle.
There you go. You could understand viewers being cynical about both shows when they see that.
Yes, I know that. Hence the winky face.
Double standards by Seven. The 5-city metro number is the accepted metric for reporting ratings and has been used by all networks since 2001.
Channel Seven’s media release regarding the 2015 ratings where they claim that “AFL is the most-watched event on television in 2015”.
However, metro + regional numbers show AFL ranked fourth
There are countless other examples.
It is a double standard but they have been clever (sly?) with their wording.
Notice that they say “most-watched event on television in 2015” and are careful not to say “in Australia” which would be incorrect.
