What was 60 Minutes thinking?

60 Minutes may have had 1.3 million viewers but teh damage to it's credibility in the wake of Mark Latham's appearance will haunt it.

The Winners: Ten had a decent offering last night which enabled it to win all the demos.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.626 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.489 million
Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.438 million
Dancing with the Stars (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.362 million
Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.331 million
60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.310 million
Offspring (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.124 million
RBT (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.089 million
Send in the Dogs (Nine) (7pm) — 1.071 million
Modern Family (Ten) (6.30pm) — 1.015 million

The Losers: The Nine Network last night, for the loss on the night and the damage to the credibility of the network and whatever credibility 60 Minutes still had. So will those responsible for Mark Latham take a walk?

It’s not that 60 Minutes didn’t rate OK, 1.3 million isn’t to be sneezed at, but viewers preferred Dancing with the Stars and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation on Seven and Ten respectively. In other words, the idea of getting Mark Latham to do a report on the campaign (which told us nothing what we didn’t know already), was a commercial ratings failure, given that the whole idea of stunts like this is to win.

Nine will claim that it did well in all the demos, especially in the 16 to 39, 18 to 49s.

News & CA: Nine won Sydney with a great NRL game as a lead in. Seven won Melbourne with AFL. Seven won Brisbane, without the NRL hurting ratings. Seven won Adelaide closely and won Perth well.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.626 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.489 million
Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.331 million
60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.310 million
ABC News (7pm) — 925,000
Ten News (5pm) — 524,000
Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 274,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 239,000
Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 214,000
Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 191,000
Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 177,000
Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 137,000
Meet the Press (Ten) (8am) — 42,000

In the morning:

Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 384,000
Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 245,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven won with a share of 31.2%, from Nine with 26.5%, Ten on 24.2%, the ABC 13.0% and SBS, 5.2%.
Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 27.1%, from Ten with 22.6%, Nine on 21.9%, ABC 1, 11.8% and SBS ONE, 4.6%.
Digital: The seven FTA digital channels had a total share of 12.1%, with GO winning with 4.6%, from 7TWO on 4.1%, ONE on 1.6%, SBS TWO on 0.6%, ABC 2 and News 24 on 0.5% and ABC 3 on 0.2%. Perth saw the highest share for the digital channels of 15.1%, followed by Adelaide in 14.6%. ONE was high because of the Moto GP, GO was programmed like Nine’s main channels with repeats of programs like Top Gear.
Pay TV: Seven won with a share of 25.9%, from Nine with 22.0%, Ten on 20.1%, Pay TV and its 100 plus channels, 14.5%, the ABC, 10.8% and SBS, 4.3%. The 12 FTA channels had a total share of 85.5%, made up of 10.1% for the seven digital channels and 75.4% for the five main channels.
Regional: A win to Nine through WIN/NBN with 30.4%, from Prime/7Qld with 28.1%, SC Ten on 22.8%, the ABC 14.0% and SBS, 4.6%. In the main channels it was Prime/7Qld from WIN/NBN and SC Ten. GO won the digitals from 7TWO. News 24 averaged 0.6% in regional areas.

Major Markets: Seven won all five metro markets from Nine and Ten third in all but Perth, where it was Seven from Ten and Nine. In the main channels it was Seven from Nine and Ten tied in Sydney, Ten was second in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, with Nine third. Nine was second in Brisbane and Adelaide with Ten third. GO won Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide with 7TWO second and ONE third. In Sydney 7TWO and GO tied with ONE third.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won overall from Nine and the main channels in the metro markets. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC 2. In regional areas, WIN/NBN won for Nine. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven won Adelaide and Perth.

But the real story was Saturday night and the absolutely appalling effort by the FTA Networks, especially the way they programmed their main channels. They were swamped by Foxtel, which won the night easily thanks to big wins in Sydney (a share of over 33%) and Brisbane (a share of over 25%), because of NRL replays and live games on Fox Sports which rate highly in both Sydney and Melbourne.

In Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth Foxtel, with its 100 plus channels, was beaten by the combined ratings of the seven FTA digital channels. Foxtel will argue that it is not in every home like FTA TV. The Digital channels are in around 63% in the five metro markets, Foxtel in around 30% of homes in the metro markets. Sydney is higher than anywhere else. The digital channels had shares boosted to a small extent by the simulcasting of the Saturday night AFL game on Ten’s ONE (But GO and 7TWO out rated ONE by a considerable margin)

Including Pay TV, the seven FTA channels had a total share of 17.1% nationally, against the 22.2% of Pay TV. But that was boosted by shares of 33.2% in Sydney and 25.9% in Brisbane. In Melbourne, Pay TV had a share of 14.2%, but the FTA digital channels had a total share of 18.3%. In Adelaide, Pay had a share of 23.1%, the seven FTA channels had a total share of 23.1%. In Perth Pay TV had a total share of 19.0%, the seven FTA digital channels had a share of 21.3%. Pay TV’s Saturday night share will fall at the end of the NRL season in early September, when the finals. The AFL also finishes about then as well.

TONIGHT: Wall to wall current affairs on the ABC with election content on The 7.30 Report, Four Corners, Q&A and Lateline. Australian Story as well. A viewing free zone for many jaded viewers.

Seven has RSPCA Animal Rescue and Criminal Minds. SBS has Man vs. Wild. Ten has Good News Week and The 7pm Project. Nine has Rescue Special Ops.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports