Strong Ratings Growth Birthday Gift For Sunrise

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Thursday, 1 October 2009

Strong Ratings Growth 2nd Birthday Gift For Sunrise

Sunrise will celebrate a year of remarkable audience growth when the early morning news and entertainment programme, fronted by Carly Flynn and Oliver Driver, celebrates its second birthday on Friday, October 2nd.

Sunrise increased its share of the key 18-49 audience by 38% in its second year on air, compared to figures for the first 12 months. In the same timeframe, direct competitor Breakfast saw its 18-49 share eroded by 9.2%.

MediaWorks CEO Brent Impey says he is delighted by the gains Sunrise has made since the show first went to air in 2007.

“It’s great to see more and more Kiwis sampling Sunrise, and becoming regular viewers,” says Mr Impey.

“3 News took 17 years to become New Zealand’s dominant news programme. The audience growth we are seeing for Sunrise is well ahead of 3 News’ growth in the early years.

“Sunrise’s performance so far has exceeded my expectations, and bodes extremely well for the future.”

September was a strong month for Sunrise. The programme’s 18-49 share grew by 66.0%, compared with September 2008, with particularly strong growth seen in the cities. Sunrise grew its Metro (5 city) 18-49 share by 82.1% and nearly tripled its Urban Auckland 18-49 share with growth of 172.1%.

Sunrise continued to make inroads into TV One’s target 25-54 audience in September. The programme’s 25-54 share grew by 32.1% in September 2009, compared with September 2008. Breakfast’s 25-54 audience share dropped by 15.4% year-on-year for the same time period.

Mr Impey said Sunrise had come into its own in the past year, with a strong team of presenters and a terrific mix of information and entertainment.

“I’m proud of the way that Sunrise responds quickly to breaking news, most recently with Carly Flynn’s reporting from the scene of the Samoan natural disaster – not only for TV3 but for international networks including ITV, and Hong Kong and Australian news media,” he said.

“On Monday we launch Sunrise’s biggest viewer giveaway, where 100 people will compete for five brand new cars across New Zealand, in our ‘Sunrise Stuck on Suzuki’ contest.”

September was another good month for TV3. The channel recorded an audience reach of 3,731,100 viewers, continuing to be the most viewed channel in New Zealand over a month.

Top rating programmes include Outrageous Fortune, What’s Really in Our Food and 3 News, which maintained its winning margin over One News in the key 18-49 demographic. 3 News recorded an average 18-49 share of 32.4% in September, compared with One News’ share of 28.9%.

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