The Winners: We survived Saturday and Saturday night especially. Some of us tuned in for more political stuff yesterday morning, a bit more last night, but most of us wanted something else. So Seven lead from 6pm through to 10.30pm in All People, while Ten mopped up the demos. Offspring a bit weaker on its second outing than Ten may have wanted to see.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.731 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.609 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.377 million
  4. Dancing with the Stars (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.365 million
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.291 million
  6. RBT (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.237 million
  7. Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.226 million
  8. Send in the Dogs (Nine) (7pm) — 1.162 million
  9. Offspring (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.084 million
  10. ABC News (7pm) — 1.075 million
  11. CSI (Nine) (8.30pm ) — 1.003 million

The Losers: Nothing really, perhaps Nine’s Cold Case at 9.30pm, 641,000 put it well behind the repeat of Bones on Seven with 772,000.

News & CA: Every chat show got a boost yesterday morning, which was the morning after the day Australia failed to decide.

Insiders did very well and have been the big winner from the campaign of any program on any channel. Its core audience stuck and others were added. Yesterday morning’s panel was solid, in fact spot on.

And Seven reaped the benefit of bringing Sunday Night back early last night.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.731 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.609 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.377 million
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.291 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 1.075 million
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 719,000
  7. SBS News (6.30pm) –212,000
  8. Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 202,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 470,000
  2. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 444,000
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 376,000
  4. Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 237,000
  5. Inside Business (ABC) (10.30am) — 221,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) (11am ) — 184,000
  7. Meet the Press (Ten) (8am) 78,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven won with a share of 31.7%, from Nine on 28.6%, Ten on 20.1%, the ABC with 15.1% and SBS on 4.5%. Ten won the demos.
  • Main Channel: Seven with a share of 27.8%, from Nine on 22.8%, Ten with 19.3%, ABC 1, 13.2% and SBS ONE, 3.9%.
  • Digital: GO won easily with a share of 5.8%, from 7TWO on 3.8%, ABC News 24 with 1.0%, ONE on 0.8%, SBS TWO with 0.6%, ABC 3 with 0.5% and ABC 2 on 0.4%. Since News 24 started, it seems as though ABC 2’s audience has been shrinking. The seven FTA digital channels had a total share last night of a solid 12.9%, with Melbourne on 14.4% and Sydney with 14.2%, proving unusually supportive, instead of the usual market of Adelaide and Perth.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with a share of 26.3%, from Nine on 23.8%, Ten with 16.7%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels had a total share of 14.3%, the ABC finished with 12.6% and SBS was on 3.7%. The 12 FTA channels had a total share of 85.3%, made up of 10.9% for the seven digital channels and 74.8% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: A win to WIN/NBN with 31.6%, from Prime/7Qld on 29.0%, SC Ten on 19.7%, the ABC on 14.8% and SBS with 4.8%. But prime/7Qld won the main channel with 26.4%, from WIN/NBN with 25.7%. GO won the digitals with 5.9% from 7TWO on 2.7% and News 24 on 0.9% in third.

Major Markets: Seven, Nine and Ten was the order across the country except Perth in the overall and main channels. In the west it was Seven from ten and Nine. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ANC News 24 in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. ONE was third in Melbourne and Adelaide. It was a clean sweep for Seven.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won last week overall and on the main channels in the main metro markets. GO won the digitals. In regional areas it was WIN/NBN in front with Go winning the digitals. Across the 16 to 54 demos, Nine won the week.

Election night on Saturday saw some interesting results: the most fascinating was the way the ABC’s coverage completely blew apart Seven and Nine and their more expensive sets, bigger casts and inadequate computer systems. The ABC seemed to be on the ball.

Ten’s coverage was half and half with the Saturday night AFL plonked in the middle. Foxtel didn’t do well on Saturday night as viewers stayed with FTA TV. Foxtel had easily won the previous Saturday night, thanks to its evening coverage of NRL games in Sydney and Brisbane. It even lost those centres on Saturday night.

The ABC’s coverage had 1.017 million viewers. Nine and Seven split their coverage into the start at 5pm for an hour, then the news, then the chat and count and then the verdict or reaction. Nine’s reaction was the peak for its coverage with 761,000. Seven’s peak was First Results (i.e., early in the evening from 6.30pm) which averaged 663,000 viewers. That’s a very poor return for the two big commercial networks.

The digital channels were the real alternatives on Saturday night. Including Pay TV, the combined total of the seven FTA digitals exceeded the share of Pay TV and its 100 plus channels for the first time since the digitals started broadcasting last year.

According of OzTAM figures, the seven FTA digital channels averaged a total share of 17.4% to 16.9% for Pay TV. Foxtel should have done better with the NRL and a host of other channels offering non-political content. The ABC won Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Ten got one of the lowest FTA shares in Brisbane of 6.6% on Saturday evening and 6.8% in Sydney.

The election coverage on Nine (but not Seven) even out-rated the Collingwood game in Melbourne. Melbourne viewing levels of the election on Nine were higher in Melbourne. On the ABC and Seven they were higher in Sydney.

From 6pm to midnight Saturday, Sky News with 65,000 viewers on average easily out-rated News 24 with an average of 39,000 viewers

TONIGHT: Wall to wall current affairs and recriminations on the ABC starting with The 7.30 Report. Australian Story has a profile on Paul Howes, Four Corners and Media Watch aren’t election focused and Q&A will be full of it at 9.35pm, as will Lateline.

So time for some non-political entertainment.

Ten has Undercover Boss, and then Good News Week. They are after The 7pm Project. Nine has Rescue Special Ops. Seven has fresh Criminal Minds and Covert Affairs. SBS has Man vs. Wild.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports