If you don't think there's anything particularly exciting on free-to-air TV at the moment, you're in good company.
Nine boss David Gyngell says there's nothing out there that hasn't been done before and the industry needs to come up with new ideas.
"For me personally, television hasn't been overly exciting to start this year," he said.
"At the moment there's nothing really popping that hasn't popped before," he said.
He said the network would start trialling new programs this year in an effort to come up with a better schedule for 2016.
"There is an onus on us to evolve new content into next year with a different story and that'll sit across a variety of genres," he said.
"We've got a mature schedule and we've got to do something about it."
Mr Gyngell expressed disappointment at the poor ratings performance of Nine's heavily hyped Gallipoli mini-series.
"Gallipoli is my biggest disappointment for the year," he said.
"Everyone's research panels across the country said Gallipoli was going to be the biggest thing on television, and it hasn't been."
Mr Gyngell's comments came after the network announced a more than 11 per cent slide in pre-tax earnings, despite the network lifting its ratings share from 38.7 per cent to 39.2 per cent.
But parent company Nine Entertainment, which also owns ninemsn, Ticketek and part owns streaming business Stan, almost tripled its net profit to $91 million.
It also announced plans to buy back $150 million of its own shares, which saw its share price jump 18.5 cents, or 10 per cent, to $2.04 as of 1450 AEDT.
OptionsXpress market analyst Ben Le Brun said Nine was taking advantage of its weak share price, which many brokers believed undervalued the group.
"They've identified a bit of a bargain in their own share price," he said.
"Obviously the boardroom has got together and said `well, we can't find any better bargain or acquisition than our own shares so we're going to buy them back so that's exactly what they've done and it's having the desired effect on the market."
Nine is forecasting a 10 per cent increase in its full year profit and says advertising conditions in the TV market are improving.
Mr Gyngell also expressed hope of a pick-up in government advertising later in the second half as the Abbott government looks for ways to get its message out to the public.
"We're hoping for a little bit more destabilisation because it often means governments go out and spend money," he said.
"Their messaging hasn't been getting through to the consumer... we're optimistic about some government spend coming in the fourth quarter."
NINE TRIPLES NET PROFIT
* Net profit of $90.9m, up 187pct from $31.7m in 2013/14
* Revenue of $839m, up 5pct from $802m
* Dividend of 4.2 cents per share, up from no dividend
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