Seven has dropped its legal action in the federal court after Nine agreed to stop promoting Today as Australia’s No 1 breakfast show.
Seven had filed a misleading or deceptive conduct claim against Nine after Nine said its Today show had “triumphed in the 2016 ratings year to regain the crown as Australia’s favourite breakfast program”.
But last minute negotiations between the network lawyers on Thursday night led to the case being settled out of court.
“We are pleased Seven has seen fit to drop the case against the Today show,” Nine said in a statement on Friday morning. “We congratulate our Today show team on winning the most weeks across the five capital cities for 2016. We know they will power on for the rest of this year and into 2017.”
Sources told Guardian Australia that Nine agreed to drop all publicity, social media and on-air promotions that claimed Today was Australia’s No 1 breakfast program, the No 1 breakfast show in the country and Australia’s most watched breakfast program.
But that agreement didn’t stop Today co-host Lisa Wilkinson tweeting: “Channel 7 drops its court case & now concedes Today Show has won the official OZTAM breakfast show ratings for 2016”. She then clarified her statement, saying Today cannot be beaten.
OK, with so many having their knickers in a twist, let's clarify: TODAY can't be beaten in 2016 b/fast weeks won across 5 cap cities. #OZTAM
— Lisa Wilkinson (@Lisa_Wilkinson) October 27, 2016
The Nine news executive Mark Calvert reassured the Today crew that they were still No 1.
“You produce the greatest breakfast show on TV,” he said in an internal email on Thursday night. “No doubt.
“You’ve all seen the reports about our so-called rivals disputing our position. Tomorrow, they will spend money, and take up court time, arguing that we are ‘not number 1’.
“They are doing this because you have them rattled. They’re behaving like the narky kid who gets beaten in a kick-about on the oval ... so he takes his ball home. They’re Donald Trump, only accepting the result if he wins. They’re bad losers. They’ve forgotten that breakfast television is fun.
“And we’ll continue to celebrate, because as a wise man once said: “Winners have parties. Losers hire barristers.”
Nine agrees to settle court case and concedes @sunriseon7 is Australia's number one breakfast show
— Michael Pell (@MichaelPell) October 27, 2016
The argument was over who had bragging rights to be the No 1 show after Nine claimed it had won the year because it won 21 of the 35 weeks of official ratings in the metropolitan ratings.
But Seven said Sunrise was still Australia’s No 1 breakfast show because it had the highest ratings across city and regional centres. Nine had used ratings from only the five mainland cities.
Seven news director Craig McPherson said: “We’re pleased Nine has now admitted Sunrise is Australia’s No 1 and most-watched breakfast show. The truth was always going to prevail over premature elation.”
