You know you're in trouble when your channel loses to dead air

Raymond Chen

When Australian Channel Seven aired a blank screen for 41 minutes [indirect report], you’d think its competition would pick up some viewers. But it didn’t.

But the glitch did not result in a ratings boost for public broadcaster SBS, with figures showing viewers preferred Seven’s blank screen.

To Seven’s astonishment more than 900,000 viewers stayed tuned to the network after screens went blank 38 minutes into the nail-biting episode. “Around a million Australians hung in there for us and we thank them for their commitment,” Seven Sydney spokesman Simon Francis said last night.

(The Chaser, Australia’s response to The Onion, chimes in with their own coverage.)

Raymond Chen

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