The Winners

  1. MasterChef (Ten) (7.30pm) — 2.513 million (new season high).
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.380 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm ) — 1.280 million.
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.246 million.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.131 million.
  6. The 7PM Project (Ten) — 1.120 million.
  7. Rush (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.070 million.
  8. ABC News (7pm) — 1.053 million.
  9. Sea Patrol (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.025 million.

The 7PM Project won the 7pm slot. MasterChef helped, of course, but the program itself helped mightily.

608,000 people watched the introduction of the new ABC news 24 channel at 7.30 pm on ABC1. That’s about the same sized audience that watch a boring Thursday night episode for The 7.30 Report. Kerry O’Brien was suitably Bruce Gyngell in his historic moment. There won’t be figures for ABC News 24, though until the week starting August 1.

Now, did any one at the ABC give any thought to launching News 24 at a different time? After all, more than 1.9 million viewers were otherwise engaged from 7.30 to 8.30pm in events at Government House in Canberra on Ten. The ABC says ratings don’t matter. But ABC programmers or management do have a history of ignoring the audience this year. For example, they brought back The Gruen Transfer (probably the  most watched and popular program on the ABC so far this year) on the same night as the second Rugby League State Of Origin football game. It’s fine not to be driven by ratings, but to ignore your audience… that’s the real crime. So why wasn’t 24 launched at 7pm with the news at 7.30pm, just this once and just to show as many ABC viewers as possible your new product? After all, 445,000 viewers of the 7pm News didn’t stay around to watch the intro to News 24, they had a cooking show to watch!

The Losers

Seven of course. Rush returned with 1.07 million for Ten and Sea Patrol averaged 1.025 million for Nine. Clearly many of the people who watched MasterChef had better things to do than watch TV afterwards. Getaway was particularly squeezed by MasterChef, just 739,000 on Nine at 7.30-8.30pm. Cougar Town, Seven, 9.30om, 321,000. Is Seven mad? That’s a hit, put it on earlier!

News & CA

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.380 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm ), 1.280 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.246 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.131 million.
  5. The 7PM Project (Ten) (7pm) — 1.120 million.
  6. ABC News (7pm) — 1.053 million.
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 864,000.
  8. ABC News 24 launch (7.30pm ) — 608,000 (See above comments).
  9. Ten late News/Sports Tonight (10.30pm ) — 289,000.
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) –212,000.
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 180,000.
  12. SBS late News (9.30pm) –149,000.
  13. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) 111,000.

Mornings:

  1. Sunrise, (Seven) (7am) — 386,000.
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 351,000.

Seven won the 6 – 7pm national battle, but not in Melbourne where Seven News and Today Tonight both lost to Nine News and A Current Affair. But in Sydney, Nine News and ACA were again weak on a Thursday night. ACA’s 293,000 was unusually low again. The 7pm ABC News had 294,000 viewers in Sydney and The 7Pm Project on Ten had 284,000. ACA should be getting well over 300,000 in Sydney Monday to Thursday nights. The gap between Sunrise and Today narrowed yesterday.

The Stats:

  • FTA: Ten won with 28.6%, from Nine’s 28.5% (which was made better by the success of GO). Seven couldn’t beat daylight for third and settled on 21.1%, the ABC was on 16.0% and SBS, 5.9%. Ten leads the week with 28.7%, from Nine with 25.7% and Seven with 24.6%.
  • Main Channel: The paucity of Nine’s offering against MasterChef was exposed here. Ten won with a share of 27.9%, from Nine on 23.3%, Seven on 19.0%, ABC1, 13.6% and SBS ONE, 5.5%
  • Digital: GO won dominantly with a share of 5.2%, from 7TWO with 2.1%, ABC2, 1.6%, ABC 3 and One, each with 0.7% and SBS TWO on 0.4%. Nine continues to program GO on Thursdays especially as an adjunct to its main channel, so lots of repeats of The Big Bang Theory and Top Gear which seemed to be almost pre-historic. The six FTA digital channels had a total share of 10.7%. GO leads the week on 3.4%, from 7TWO on 2.4%. Adelaide again was the best market with a total share of around 14%.
  • Pay TV: Ten won with 23.6%, from Nine with 23.5%, Seven with 17.4%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 14.5%, the ABC was on 13.2% and SBS, 4.9%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 85.5% last night in prime time.
  • Regional: A win for Nine through WIN/NBN with 29.3%, from SC Ten on 24.8%, Prime/7Qld with 23.1%, the ABC was on 16.8% and SBS was on 6.0%. SC Ten won the prime channels with 24.0%, WIN/NBN was second with 23.8% and Prime/7Qld was on 21.4%. GO won the digitals with 5.5%, from 7TWO with 1.7% and ABC2, also with 1.7%. WIN/NBN leads the week with 27.9% from Prime/7Qld with 26.3% and SC Ten on 25.7%.

Major Markets:

  • Sydney: Ten, Nine and Seven, overall and in the main channels. GO won the digitals from ABC2 and 7TWO tied for second. Ten leads the week from Seven and Nine.
  • Melbourne: A win to Nine (thanks to GO), from Ten and Seven. In the main channels it was Ten, from Nine and Seven. GO won the digitals from, 7TWO and ABC2, Nine leads the week from Ten and Seven.
  • Brisbane: Ten won from Nine and Seven and in the main channels it was Ten from Seven and Nine. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC2. In the week its Nine from Ten and Seven.
  • Adelaide: It was Nine from Ten and Seven, but in the main channels, it was Ten from Nine and Seven. the digitals were won by GO from 7TWO and the ABC tied in second. Ten leads the week from Seven and Nine.
  • Perth: Nine won from Ten and Seven, but in the main channels, it was Ten from Seven and Nine. GO won the digitals from ABC 2 and 7TWO. Ten leads the week from Seven and Nine.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6 pm to midnight All People)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The ABC’s new 24 hours news channel started OK, a bit duller than Sky News which has a solid commercial background. But a worthy, free opponent. But why was it still flogging its Chris Uhlman story on Rudd and the National Security Committee of Cabinet from last night this morning? Did nothing else happen overnight?

MasterChef’s second last elimination was pretty good last night. And Claire’s departure was really well handled by the judges. Their sensitivity ranks this program above all other reality style contest programs we have seen in this country. With 830,000 people watching in regional areas, the program averaged more than 3.34 million people nationally.

The 7PM Project showed last night why its cooler, smarter and streets ahead of TT and ACA, which are more and more resembling plodders.

The ABC’s 7pm News Bulletin showed off its new look last night and had a shocker, graphics wrong, camera shots wrong…the graphics are nice looking, but too cold and not enough warmth.

The AFL Footy Show on Nine saw its audience jump to 453,000 because of the presence of that serial narcissist, Jason Akermanis. The NRL program averaged 126,000 people in Sydney and 78,000 in Brisbane. It did beat Cougar Town in both markets on Seven. The Matty Johns Show on Seven averaged 235,000 in Sydney at 7.30 pm and 119,000 in Brisbane.

TONIGHT: Well, the last MasterChef Masterclass on Ten where all 22 losers are reunited with the two finalists, Adam and Callum and their tormentors, Matt, George and Gary. The Tour de France  tonight. After last night’s last stage in the Pyrenees, you would want both Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador to both be winners on Sunday. Nine has NRL, Seven has AFL (both in some markets, not all). The ABC has another Trial and Retribution. Test cricket on Foxtel.

SATURDAY: NRL and AFL on Foxtel, Ten. Rugby Union (Australia vs. South Africa) on Seven and Foxtel. Test cricket on Foxtel Seven and Nine has movies. SBS has the time trial in the Tour de France where the winner will be decided. the ABC has nothing except Doc Martin.

SUNDAY: The MasterChef final on Ten (Modern Family is on at 6.30pm) Dancing with the Stars at 7.30pm. The leaders’ debate is at 6.30pm (but not Ten). NRL, AFL on Seven, Nine and Foxtel. Maybe cricket on Foxtel. The final stage of the Tour de France, the ride to Paris.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports