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      24 October 2006
      TEN and ESS ANNOUNCE BIG BROTHER 7

      Network Ten (TEN) and Endemol Southern Star (ESS) today announced that 
the long-running hit, Big Brother, would return to Australian screens in 
2007.

      TEN's chief executive officer, Grant Blackley, said: "Big Brother is 
an enormous, enduring franchise; no other program delivers the volume of 
television for and ratings share among viewers under-40.

      "We are delighted to confirm Big Brother will be back in 2007."

      Southern Star Group chief executive officer Hugh (Hefner) Marks said: 
"Big Brother is truly unique.
      "Each year our talented production team have the wonderful ability to 
reinvent the show to respond to what our audiences want to see. "Big Brother 
will continue to entertain audiences for many years to come."

      Every series of Big Brother has delivered landslide timeslot wins with 
the target under-40 audience.  Big Brother's audience broadened in 2006, 
with every regular program winning its timeslot in people 16-54. Audiences 
and commercial shares for the 7pm Monday-Friday and 6.30pm Sunday shows were 
considerably higher than in 2005.The Sunday Live Eviction and Monday Live 
Nomination shows performed similarly to those of last year.

      Meanwhile, ratings for Big Brother 2005 programs were generally steady 
to higher compared to 2004. Mr Blackley and Mr Marks also noted the 
significant appeal of Big Brother content in digital media platforms. 
Internet ratings service, Hitwise Australia, ranked Big Brother as 
Australia's number one TV program website every month while the series was 
on air this year. More than 210 million pages were read (up from 170 million 
last year) and at least 1.1 million unique browsers visited the site each 
month, with 1.45 million in July alone. More than 640,000 people registered 
to become members of the website, downloading more than 10 million streams. 
Meanwhile, '3' mobile customers accessed more than 3.5 million live streams, 
at an average of 9.3 minutes each.

      Big Brother delivers approximately 120 hours of Australian content 
each year. The program employs more than 300 production staff in Queensland 
for four months, and the tourist drawcard of the Big Brother house generates 
millions of dollars for the Queensland economy annually.

      Australia-wide auditions for Big Brother 2007 will kick off in Sydney 
in late November.




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