Channel Nine’s latest contribution to the airwaves, Extra, will make its debut tomorrow at 6am. Your television will know it better as “94” (or “84” for those in the sticks), as will the buttons on your remote. Those of you hoping for more reruns of reruns of Big Bang Theory, try not to let your disappointment show — Extra’s all about shopping. Lots and lots of shopping.
Well, not shopping exactly. The only entity that will actually us the word to describe Extra is Nine itself — Mumbrella has no qualms about labelling it as “ad-based”. Aren’t ads the annoying part of television? Why would you want a channel dedicated to the things?
Perhaps it won’t always be trying to sell you stuff. According to Mumbrella, the channel will also feature “religious, community, educational and multi-cultural programming created by advertisers.” In other words: Nope, it’ll just try to pitch to you using vectors beyond the usual infomercial.
Even managing director of Nine Jeffrey Browne isn’t beating around the revenue bush:
Direct Response advertising is proving to be of more and more interest to our clients and by launching this new channel, Extra, we can provide advertisers with opportunities to specifically target their audience.
I’m not sure why I thought a station might be remotely interested in making a channel for viewers.
How silly of me.
That said, Nine must be convinced there’s a strong enough market to sustain Extra, though I know I won’t be counting myself among that group. The internet works just fine for me when I want to buy something, but thanks anyway. [Mumbrella]