KEY POINTS:
TVNZ claims the latest part of its One News marketing campaign is a hit with viewers but that popularity has yet to show up in ratings.
The state broadcaster canned its Your View campaign - in which newsreaders hit the streets to canvass public opinion on various topics
- after an outburst from presenter Simon Dallow.
Dallow said on his Viva talk-radio show in September that a listener who emailed that the opinion polls were not news made "a really valid point".
"We have to face and present them but, at the same time, I'm not certain either," he said at the time.
TVNZ maintained the opinion poll campaign was a success that generated more than 100,000 text message responses from viewers, but pulled it early after negative publicity.
It started the next component of its One News Your News promotion - advertisements showing the network's on-air performance involving events such as 9/11 and the death of the Maori Queen - "slightly sooner than anticipated", said TVNZ spokesman Robin Field.
The advertisements screen on TV One and TV2 and were popular with focus groups but have not reversed One News' ratings slide.
"Our ratings have dropped from September to October," said Mr Field. "At this time of year, we actually do expect a decline in the audience.
"PUTs [the measure of people using television] tend to decrease at this time of year, once daylight savings kicks in."
New Zealand Broadcasting School head Paul Norris said the new proof-of-performance campaign was a "great deal better" than the newsreader-fronted opinion polls.
He said the advertisements highlighted the programme's strengths without boasting.
"They are fairly matter-of-fact as to the strong points of One News' coverage in recent times," said Mr Norris.
Producing new advertisements with new material would be the key to continuing the momentum.
"You have to keep changing them, of course; they get stale very quickly."
One News has remained the most watched news bulletin but has lost ground to rival 3 News over the past two years, particularly in the advertiser-attractive urban 18- to 49-year-old audience.
AGB Nielsen Media Research figures for October show One News' share of the national audience aged 5 and over remained steady from September at 44 per cent, compared with 28 per cent for 3 News.
Of Aucklanders in the 18 to 49-year-old bracket, One News' share dropped one percentage point to 25 per cent compared with 41 per cent for 3 News.