The Winners: No more needs to be said except to remind you that if no program after 7 pm gets a million or more viewers (except news), then it’s a rotten night.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.444 million
  2. Today Tonight (6.30pm) — 1.317 million
  3. Nine  News (6pm) — 1.268 million
  4. A Current Affair (6.30pm) — 1.061 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 1.004 million

The Losers: Us, all. Nine’s hopes for Ashes glory, just 505,000 watched yesterday’s action, if we can call it that. Audiences are down on the 2006-07 tour and are down on the first Test. Ashes ignominy awaits Australia, ratings and revenue disappointments are ahead of Nine.

News & CA: Nine News won Adelaide, ACA won Melbourne, Seven News and TT won the rest. The cricket just ain’t helping Nine, thanks to the Australian slide and the weather interruptions Sunday and yesterday afternoon. Kerry O’Brien returned for his swansong week, the interview with Julia Gillard was a trademark, some good questions, but long ones.

In the morning Sunrise back over 400,000, Today lagged it by just over 110,000 viewers nationally. Sunrise won Sydney and Melbourne.

Lateline and Lateline Business went AWOL for the holidays, just as Australia loomed large in WikiLeaks’ latest drop and we had the resignation of Fairfax CEO, Brian McCarthy. Great timing.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.444 million
  2. Today Tonight (6.30pm) — 1.317 million
  3. Nine  News (6pm) — 1.268 million
  4. A Current Affair (6.30pm) — 1.061 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 1.004 million
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 856,000
  7. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 787,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 711,000
  9. SBS News (6.30pm) — 213,000
  10. SBS News (9.30pm) — 157,000
  11. Late News/Sports Tonight (11.30pm) — 157,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 432,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 320,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 30.6% from Nine (3 channels) on 26.7%, Ten (2), 18.7%, the ABC (4), 17.4% and SBS (6.7% (2 channels). Seven leads the week with 31.6% from Nine on 28.7% and Ten with 17.1%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 22.2% from Nine on 21.0%, Ten on 18.0%, ABC 1, 14.6% and SBS ONE, 5.8%. Seven leads the week with 23.3% from Nine on 21.1% and Ten on 16.3%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 5.7% from GO on 3.5%, 7Mate was third with 2.7%, Gem was on 2.1%, ABC 2 was on 2.0%, SBS TWO was on 0.9%, ONE was on 0.7% and ABC 3 and News 24 were on 0.6% each. The nine digital channels had an FTA total share of 19.9%. The digital channels ranged in FTA share from 19.0% in Sydney (very high for the worst market), to highs of 22.5% in Adelaide and 21.3% in Perth. Sydney’s share was higher than the digitals shares in Melbourne and Brisbane, a rare event. GO leads the week with 5.3%, from 7TWO on 5.1% and 7Mate on 3.2%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with 24.5%, from Nine (3) on 21.3%, Pay TV (100 plus channels), 17.2%, Ten (2), 14.9%, the ABC, (4), 13.9% and SBS, (2), 5.4%. That saw the 14 FTA channels share a total share in prime time last night of 82.8% of the audience, made up of 15.0% for the digital channels and 67.8% for the five main channels. Foxtel finished second in Sydney with a share of 21.7%, the national high. The low was again in Adelaide, this time with 11.3%. Readings above 15% were recorded in the other metro markets.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with 31.4% from WIN/NBN on 28.5%, SC Ten was on 17.9%, the ABC, 15.8% and SBS, 6.4%. The main channels were won by Prime/7Qld from WIN/NBN . 7TWO won the digitals with 4.2%, from 7Mate on 3.5% and GO on 3.4%. the nine digital channels had an FTA share of 17.2%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.1% from WIN/NBN on 29.1%.

Major Markets: Another solid night for the FTA digitals and Foxtel in all markets, although not as solid as Sunday night. Seven won all five metro markets overall from Nine and Ten. Seven won the main channels from Nine and Ten in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Nine beat Seven and Ten in Melbourne and Brisbane. The digital battle was won by 7TWO in every market with ABC 2, 7Mate and Gem sharing the minors. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten in every market.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Viewing by attrition is not a pretty sight, especially if you happen to turn on the beast in the room and actually see what is on the screen. Glee was still good in repeat and pushed Ten to a solid night in the demos.

TONIGHT: Sorry, can’t or won’t help. The 7.30 Report on the off chance Kerry O’Brien has one last chance to brawl with Tony Abbott. Don’t forget to keep in touch with the day’s news events either. For the rest, go out, go Christmas shopping, sleep. Don’t watch, it only encourages the buggers. And if you want to channel surf, do it among the digital channels, there are some programs of interest there, even if they are repeats.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports