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Local dramas struggling on Pay TV

Tangle's premiere last week on Showcase was modest at best. But local dramas screened on 'higher tier' channels are having a hard time.

Tangle_Episodic_4Last week’s premiere of Tangle took a modest audience on the Showcase channel.

Disappointingly it didn’t make it onto the Top 100 shows on Pay Television. Last week the #1 show on Subscription TV was AFL: Live on the Couch at 95,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1.

Landing at #100 was Vantage Point on Showtime at 21,000.

That puts Tangle‘s premiere at 21,000 or below.

Whilst the Showcase Channel forms part of the Showtime Channel package there were Showtime movies that made the list: The Bank Job (41,000), Pineapple Express (34,000), Juno (32,000), The Love Guru (29,000), Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who (27,000), and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (22,000).

Despite the good reviews for the show, it could take a while to build a loyal audience. It is not alone. Flagship series like Australia’s Next Top Model resonate well with Pay TV audiences, but neither 30 Seconds on the Comedy Channel or The Jesters on Movie Extra made the cut either.

Both channels are add-on packages on the Foxtel platform.

Pay television’s ‘drama’ channels are required to spend 10% of their budget on local production under government regulations.

Pay TV ratings are published each Monday in TV Tonight’s preceding ratings week thread.

37 Responses

  1. Tangle was promoted as the next Love My Way. Why? That’s only setting itself up for a fall because, in my opinion, it’s not even half as good. Why didn’t they just promote it as a sophisticated,adult drama?

  2. It has been proven time and again that if an Australian show is good enough or manages to capture peoples attention then it will rate. Obviously the show has missed on some account with their audience, through either casting or writing and has failed to generate interest. It certainly has not lacked promotion, having just seen a massive billboard advertising it whilst out last night.

    Though I still don’t fathom why anybody would actually pay a subscription to watch television. The fare is not much different on Cable.

  3. The answer is simple, they don’t make shows people want to watch. The aim to make shows to get good reviews, but that doesn’t mean they’re shows that the general public want to watch.

  4. The show only debut last week,so it’s only very early stages.I for one will be recording tonight,after prevoiusly recording it in the early hours of the morning.I have yet to watch any of it yet,but looks quite promising

  5. Forever the cynic,I can’t help but think of the subscription money I’ve forked out over the years going towards paying has been actors. I guessing Foxtel pay them.

  6. I watch our FTA content of City Homicide, PTTR, Rush & All Saints along with all the half hour shows Border Security, Highway Patrol etc, and enjoy them all, and I note they rate well too.
    So as Australians I think the message is clear that if local content is done well then we will be watching.
    Tangle is pretty good and as mentioned earlier Ep1 was slow but picked up in EP2. It’s not in the same league as PTTR however….

  7. In the US, the HBO package of 7 channels (inc. 2 HD) is A$17 on DirecTV

    Starting Nov 15, the Showtime and Movie Network packages of 12 channels (inc. 3 in HD) is A$16

    I don’t see how that is a rip off

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