2004 Conference Archives

Lauren Sidler
Director, Daytime Programming
Nine Network Australia

Having been appointed to her current position as Director of Daytime Programming for Nine Network Australia just over a year ago, Lauren Sidler believes, "NATPE is going to be a great experience, both for the educational value and for the access to program producers and distributors." As a NATPE virgin, Sidler's expectations for the market are balanced between fact finding - what new programming is being developed by syndicators and what stations in the US are doing in daytime -- acquiring programming and attending NATPE's seminars, particularly those dealing with audience research, brand integration and other general programming topics.

Although Nine Network hasn't been represented at NATPE for a few years, Sidler says, "I've often looked at the NATPE schedule and have felt that it offers a more well-rounded experience for programmers then markets like MIP or MIPCOM, which seem to be wholly focused on sales. NATPE is part program market and part educational conference and I'm also thinking that NATPE is about strolling the floor, seeing what's available and hooking up with people as you go along, rather than tying up all of your time with scheduled meetings."

While Nine Network's new Director of Programming Michael Healey focuses on primetime programming, Sidler is responsible for daytime and off-peak programming. Both handle their own acquisitions as well as scheduling, which Sidler believes gives them greater ownership and a better understanding of their audience. Sidler also revealed that the network is relaunching its daytime schedule, so there are a couple of holes she hopes to fill while at NATPE.

"Like America, our daytime audiences are in decline, eroded by pay cable and we really need to try and revive our audience, which is all part of my brief," says Sidler. "I'm interested in looking at one off specials from some of the smaller suppliers. Those one-hour doco specials or sports specials or even comedy specials are really useful. A lot of the one-hour specials are fantastic for us in late night or odds and slods slots, and that's the kind of stuff that we love picking up. The World's Worse this or Extreme that, which are usually available through the smaller independents."

Sidler is also looking for half-hours for daytime. "I've got two slots in particular that I'm shopping for, one for mid-morning and one in late afternoon. I've got opportunities there for a sort of magazine style talk or variety program. We've got Dr. Phil, Days of Our Lives and The Young & The Restless which takes up our 12noon to 3 p.m. period, but I've got a half hour slot at 3:30 and one in the late morning around 10:30 that I'm quite interested in trying to get some ideas for. Maybe it'll even be a format."

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