There was no Sunrise today at my place
The end of Sunrise highlights the challenges media will always face when they enter an established market and aim to grab a slice of the national media pie.
Even in its category of breakfast TV it was always going to be David up against Goliath (TV1’s Breakfast). When you add in the other competitors for morning audiences, multiple options from online, print and radio, Sunrise faced a major scrap winning a commercial share.
Full credit to TV3, as it gave it more than a fighting chance. The quality of the product was first class, and it was delivered by a great team.
Regrettably for Sunrise we live in commercially difficult times, and things have to pay their way. For Sunrise, ultimately the numbers did not stack up.
I had always thought it was a safe bet that it would remain an essential in the TV3 line-up. How wrong I was and, to paraphrase Paul Henry – it’s sad to see it go.
Despite our scale, New Zealand offers excellent, possibly world class, media options and there’s simply not enough time to take in everything, no matter how good it is.
While there will always be the loyalists who are the backbone of media ratings charts, increasingly people are becoming promiscuous – looking, listening and reading around. In our intensely busy lives we are not inclined to spend our precious time on things we don’t have a high level of interest in, and this is reflected in modern media habits. For example, how many families sit down and watch shows together. More likely different people watch different items at different times
Breakfast TV as a medium, only launched in the UK in 1983, is likely to continue to face major problems in attracting and holding an audience at potentially the most time critical part of most people’s day.
So what does Sunrise’s demise mean for the public relations sector, working to tell its clients’ stories via television? The options have just shrunk by half for stories that are great for morning television, and lots of them are. The visual element, a bit of entertainment, some ‘nice to know’ information and perhaps add in a worthwhile cause and we’re onto a winner.
It’s a shame that now the (admittedly small) viewing public of Sunrise may not get to hear about it.
Tags: Breakfast, breakfast TV, Media landscape, New Zealand media, Paul Henry, Sunrise, TV3, TVNZ