NZ's three big TV bosses show rare united front in new push for advertisers

March 29, 2018

The CEOs of TVNZ, Mediaworks and Sky TV have made a rare appearance together to announce a new partnership.

They've launched Think TV, a research and advocacy company aimed at improving confidence among advertisers around the merit and effectiveness of TV ads.

Kevin Kenrick of TVNZ, Michael Anderson of Mediaworks and outgoing Sky TV boss John Fellet joked that it was unusual for the rivals to share a stage other than in a courtroom as they spoke to an audience consisting mainly of ad industry staff today in Auckland.

Think TV CEO Kim Portrate told the audience it was an "incredible event for the TV industry" and said her company will help arm the three broadcasters with research to push back against the "digirati police" - meaning those who believe digital ads are the only future and that television ads are no longer effective.

Ms Portrate said Think TV can help to "give TV advocates back their voice".

Numerous big Australian networks including Seven, Ten and Nine have already partnered with Think TV, despite being rivals in most arenas, and today's event in New Zealand showed a similar willingness to work together on encouraging TV advertising this side of the Tasman.

Mr Fellet, who has recently announced he will step down as CEO later this year, joked about the rarity of all three network CEOs agreeing on something, saying "we do get together - but normally over a lawsuit in a courtroom".

Mr Kenrick said fragmentation of audiences has made marketers' jobs much harder, and that "in recent times the narrative has been dominated by big online players".

"We've actually done a poor job of telling our story and actually helping advertisers to build their brands and sell their products via TV - and it's a challenge that we're up for," Mr Kenrick said.

"I think the critical thing that is driving this is that consumers want a choice and they want control ... people have got really busy lives, and I think what consumers are relishing is the opportunity to build their viewing behaviour around their own lives which vary day-to-day.

"What comes with that is the technical complexity of it, because you try to put this content in all of these different places and the user experiences are unfortunately not that consistent."

Mr Anderson said there had been a lot of misinformation in the advertising industry about the effectiveness of TV, and Think TV would help the networks to have information to push back against that misinformation.

"I'm really glad that Think TV is able to start taking some of this narrative ... so that we're actually on the front foot, on the offensive when we're talking about some of these things," he said.

"For us it's about the ability to take those different audiences on different platforms and actually measure them so we've got a consistent approach to the marketplace and something that advertisers can access in an easy to understand way."

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