The Winners: That very short list of programs with a million or more viewers says it all about the dearth of anything watchable on TV last night. Only one program in Sydney was over 300,000 viewers, six in Melbourne had 300,000 plus, including 411,000 audience for Seven’s 6pm News.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.394 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.200 million
  3. Border Patrol (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.033 million

The Losers: The Australian cricket team fans, watchers of TV last night. 60 Minutes last night, tragic and a fallen program.

News & CA: No cricket as a lead in and Nine’s news fades away, especially in Melbourne and Brisbane. But Nine won Sydney. A special note for yesterday, Insiders, Inside Business and Offsiders finished up for the year. All excellent programs. For all its faults, Insiders still the best political chat program around. Why Four Corners and Media Watch can’t continue for another month each year remains beyond me.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.394 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.200 million
  3. ABC News (7pm) — 801,000
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 759,000
  5. Ten News (5pm) — 588,000
  6. SBS News (6.30pm) — 214,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 373,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 258,000
  3. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 158,000
  4. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 106,000
  5. Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 100,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 32.6% from Nine (3) on 30.8%, Ten (2), 15.6%, the ABC (4), 12.8% and SBS, 8.3% (2 channels).
  • Main Channel: Seven won easily with a share of 24.4%, from Nine on 21.2%, Ten on 14.6%, ABC 1, 10.7% and SBS ONE, 7.4%.
  • Digital: GO won with 7.2%, from 7TWO on 4.4%, 7Mate with 3.7%, Gem on 2.4%, ONE and ABC 2 on 1.0% each, SBS TWO on 0.9%, News 24, 0.7% and ABC 3, 0.3%. that’s a total FTA share of 21.3%. the FTA shares for the digital channels ranged from a high of 25.1% in Adelaide to a sort of solid 18.3% in Sydney and near 22% in Melbourne and Brisbane.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 25.4%, from Nine (3), on 24.0%, Pay TV (100 plus channels), 18.9%, Ten on 12.2%, the ABC, 10.0% and SBS, 6.5%. The 14 FTA channels had a share of 81.1%, made up of 16.9% for the nine digitals and 64.2% for the five main channels. Foxtel won Sydney with a share of 23.7%, the low was in Adelaide with 13.5%.

Major Markets: Seven won overall and in the main channels everywhere bar Sydney where Nine won both. Go won the digital channels in all five metro markets with 7TWO and 7Mate in the minors. Overall Pay TV (which won Sydney) and the digital channels had more than 35% of the national TV audience last night in prime time.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won last week, week one of summer. Ten won the demos. Audiences down on a year ago. A long long summer awaits. Cost cutting TV across the board. Viewers suffer. Pay TV at least still trying.

TONIGHT: Leave it off. If you have to watch, The 7pm Project on Ten, The 7.30 Report on the ABC and the repeat of Glee on Ten at 7.30pm. The rest is just too appalling to consider. There is also a cricket test on Adelaide for all those still interested.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports