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A power failure at Seven’s Melbourne headquarters last Wednesday left the station broadcasting half an hour of black—out-rating both state-run television channels.
Seven had been broadcasting the popular soap Blue Heelers when the power failure replaced the denoument with about 30 minutes of soundless black. Ratings data showed that during the break in transmission, Seven drew 23.2 per cent of the audience, ahead of public broadcasters ABC (15.2 per cent) and SBS (4.5 per cent).
Although Seven lost over half a million dollars in advertising revenue during the interruption, industry insiders point to the black screen’s low production costs.
Seven executives would not respond to Daily Grind questions as to whether the station remained in the black.
The ABC and SBS hit back at Seven’s broadcasting black offensive with new series of Message Stick and ICAM.
This week, Seven plans to re-air the interrupted Blue Heelers episode, promoting the country-cop drama as “the new black”.
