One Has Potential To Be A Good Sport

The ratings are in for the first free-to-air commercial digital channel, Network Ten's sports channel One:

One, the first commercial free-to-air digital standard definition channel to launch, drew its highest rating audience over the past two days last night with One Week at a Time, drawing an audience of 59,000.

So, is that a good result?

Industry magazine B&T Weekly quotes Ben Willee, managing director of media agency Initiative Melbourne:

“I think Ten will be a bit disappointed with those figures. Quality programs drive viewership and if you look at the 300,000 that Fox Sports gets for the NRL, One has a long way to go. They would probably be expecting to average around the 100,000 mark for their shows before they make money out of it.”

But to be fair, Fox Sports has had about 15 years to build up to those audience numbers and the idea of sub-stations off the big three networks is a concept still foreign to many entrenched television viewers.

The good news about these additional stations is the ability for advertisers to even more effectively select programming choices that appeal to their target audience - it's the model pay TV has been using for years.

In a time when businesses are looking to maximise their dollar, television could be worth a second look.