Phoenix rising?

After a pre-recorded cinema upfront in 2022, and a year in which its share price has fallen by a third, Seven has embraced its technology-led rebuild – both performatively at SxSW and with its new tech, literally called Phoenix, which the network claims is the world's most advanced total TV trading system. As with most things total TV, there's no firm launch date. But Seven has committed to going live in 2024.

The network also announced new data and insights partnerships with View Media Group and Raiz Invest, beefing up its advertising and viewer experience strategy and audience intelligence platform 7REDiQ.

Phoenix brings together the reach and audience of Seven content across linear and streaming, and means brands can invest across capital cities, regional Australia and digital in one go. As well as de-siloing buys, Total TV campaigns bought through Phoenix will include real-time effectiveness reports to “give transparency and scalable insights for action” per the firm.

Seven West Media Chief Revenue Officer Kurt Burnette described it – alongside a concerted push into personalisation – as an “absolute game changer for marketers and media agencies”.

"We've created Phoenix...the most advanced total TV video trading proposition ever created, but with easy access to the largest audience on the screens of Seven across metro, regional and digital using imagery optimisation and AI audience prediction to deliver a guaranteed outcome any way you want it on every channel and in every market to do more with your budgets and reach more people more effectively with more accountability," he said.

“It is our vision that by 2030, every ad and integration served by Seven West Media will be personalised, optimised and addressable. We are well and truly on that journey.”

Personalisation powering

When Seven’s CMO Mel Hopkins lured Optus' tech and innovation director Lucio Ribeiro to join the media company in July, one of his first tasks was to use AI and tech smarts to make its user experience more sticky, enticing audiences to stay with Seven beyond destination viewing, on other words sports and tentpole shows.

Hopkins previously told Mi3 that when she joined Seven, “The world of AI, VR and digital engagement just really wasn't a focus because [Seven] was too executional and not strategic enough.”

Hence bringing in Ribeiro – a highly-regarded digital marketing and innovation – to the fold. While he's now under the hood, Seven West Media Chief Digital Officer Gereurd Roberts suggested its earlier tech bets are already helping drive an upturn in fortunes. “AI has been embedded in our business for the past 18 months. It’s at the heart of our entire user experience on 7plus, powering the personalisation engine we have implemented with AWS," said Roberts.

“AI-driven personalisation is live across the entire 7plus ecosystem on every device and every screen. It has redefined the AVOD experience in Australia, putting us on a different level to our competitors and on par with the best global SVOD platforms.” 

Rivals may scoff at those claims – but media buyers on the night backed them – even those for whom Netflix is a client.

Killing make-goods

Advertisers can now buy audiences across Seven with a 7REDiQ data overlay and real-time reporting. Burnette said this takes the firm "beyond traditional metrics" and means "an increase of effectiveness and the death of make-goods”, touting “real-time effectiveness reports to give transparency and scalable insights for action”.

Phoenix uses audience prediction tools from data and AI firm Databricks to “enhance accuracy and consistency” of Seven’s prediction capabilities.

The Databricks partnership follows Seven’s launch of a personalisation engine – built with Amazon Web Services (AWS) – to provide 7plus viewers with “customised recommendations and content discovery”, i.e. serving them stuff they are more likely to watch, keeping them watching longer and being able to serve more ads.

BVOD booster

While all networks slice the numbers to suit their narrative, Seven has undeniably had a better year. The network has claimed a 42.2 per cent commercial share nationally in all people during the ratings survey year, which began in February. The crown in its ratings season has been the Women’s World Cup, notching the highest TV audience in more than two decades when 7.32 million total TV viewers (broadcast and BVOD) tuned in to watch the Matildas lose to England in the FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-final – more than double the TV audience of this year’s AFL grand final (which delivered an impressive average total TV audience of 3.75 million).

Perhaps the more telling result, as audiences transition away from linear to streaming services, is that nearly a million viewers watched the Matildas' loss to the Lionesses on its BVOD 7plus – comfortably Seven’s largest audience on BVOD to date.

In the year ahead, Seven will be running its tentpole sports – AFL and cricket – live on 7plus, likely driving an accelerated shift to BVOD both in audience and dollar terms.

The slate

Across the broader slate, shows for 2024 include Dream Home, Stranded On Honeymoon Island, Made In Bondi, Once In A Lifetime and all-new First Dates. Other programs next year are Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story, The Wave, Australia’s Most Dangerous Prisoners, The Hunters, The Rise And Fall Of Kings Cross, King Con: The Life And Crimes Of Hamish McLaren and The Australian Roast Of John Cleese. 

This builds on Seven’s current rating hits such as Farmer Wants A Wife, The Voice, Dancing With The Stars, Australian Idol, My Kitchen Rules, Big Brother and 7News.