Television

TV Wars: City v Regional   Author: eNews staff and agencies | Sep 8, 2007, 12:50

It's often remarked that regional Australia and our big capital cities are not that different: that things like sport, mateship and spirit unite us all.

But when it comes to TV viewing, nothing can be further from the truth.

In fact regional viewers are conservative viewers, eschewing the likes of popular programs like Australian Idol, the Chaser and Thank God You're Here, not to mention It takes Two.

Programs like Big Brother and The Biggest loser are also not as popular in the bush as they are in the big city.

Border Security, the Force, A Current Affair, the News and programs of that ilk are more popular.

They are just the more prominent programs where performance in the much larger five metro markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, can be very much different to what people in regional areas are watching.

But the best examples of this quite different taste in TV can be seen from the past two weeks of viewing.

Last week Ten ran Australian Idol programs from Sunday to Thursday as it assembled the semi-finalists (24 in all).

The weekly rankings last week show that two Idol programs made it into the national top 10, and another one made in into the next 10, making three programs in the top 20, with a fourth at Number 21.

In regional Australia last week, just one Idol program made it into the top 20, at Number 19.

On Sunday night and Monday night of this week Idol was a top 10 finisher again in the five metro markets at Numbers 6 and 9 respectively, but in regional Australia, not a top 10 finish on either night.

But on Wednesday night Ten's Thank God You're Here had a better reception in the bush than Idol.

It averaged 1.8 million viewers and was clearly the number one program on viewer lists in the major metro markets, but in regional Australia it was 4th: not quite the cup of tea for those in the bush, but closer than Idol.

The ABC's The Chaser's War on Everything was second nationally with 1.4 million viewers, but in regional areas it came in at number 10.

It may have been a bit too cynical and snippy for folk in the bush, but at least it was more popular than Idol in the bush.

The irony is that Australian Idol does a bigger swing through regional Australia with its auditions than any other Australian program. It visited 11 regional cities and the five major metro markets earlier this year on its talent quest.

It in fact spent more time in regional Australia than in the five metro markets, and yet country folk just don't like it.

In TV talk this is a viewing pattern of an older skewing audience, but there are lots of young people in the bush: there are the rising population numbers in coastal areas because of Sea Changers and rising populations inland from Tree Changers.

And major regional centres like Newcastle, Wollongong and Canberra, should have viewing patterns closer to the big metro markets.

And Hobart and Tasmania as a whole is in the regional areas, as is Darwin

But it’s the audience numbers in far flung parts of Queensland, NSW which seemingly influence viewing numbers.

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