Sun Still Rises For Seven, Just Not Today
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday March 18, 2008
THE Seven Network has accused Nine's Today show of being a copycat of its Sunrise program after figures showed Nine was regaining ground in the breakfast ratings war.
Figures from OzTam showed that over the last five weeks the audience for Seven's Sunrise was down 1.7 per cent from the same time last year. Today, hosted by Lisa Wilkinson and Karl Stefanovic, gained 11.3 per cent.Seven yesterday said it was unfazed by the figures, pointing out that it still had 50 per cent more viewers than Today. The network also accused Today of copying Sunrise, fronted by Melissa Doyle and David Koch."Today appropriates everything Sunrise does," said Seven's director of corporate affairs Simon Francis. "Sometimes a competitor has to copy, and the audiences know which breakfast program sets the agenda - and that's Sunrise." Sunrise has now held its position as the No 1 breakfast show for 182 consecutive weeks.The latest figures came as the networks started two weeks of non-ratings. This year, Seven is leading the ratings war, having won three weeks out of five, while Nine has clinched two. And Nine has had mixed results with some of its new programming. But Nine quickly hit back yesterday, saying Sunrise was going backwards. "In reference to Seven's comments, one of those breakfast programs is going backwards and one is making huge inroads heading forwards," a Nine spokeswoman said.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury