The Winners: Ten’s new shows (The Biggest Loser: Families, Modern Family and Hawaii Five-O) all did very well against the sport on Seven and Nine, which had the disadvantage of finishing earlier than scheduled (and not being all that interesting, in the case of the tennis on Seven).

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.641 million
  2. ODI cricket, 2nd session (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.412 million
  3. Australian Open, Men’s Final (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.380 million
  4. The Biggest Loser: Families (Ten) (6.30pm) — 1.356 million
  5. Seven News (6pm) — 1.326 million
  6. Hawaii Five-O (Ten) (8.30pm — 1.250 million
  7. Modern Family (Ten) (8pm) — 1.201 million
  8. ODI cricket, 1st session (Nine) (2pm) — 1.188 million
  9. Modern Family (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.187 million
  10. Australian Open, Men’s Final presentation (Seven) — 1.100 million

The Losers: Andy Murray and the English cricket team, a rare moment for a gloat this summer for Australian sports fans.

News & CA: Cricket won it for Nine News. Tonight its back to the usual trench warfare.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.641 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.326 million
  3. ABC News (7pm) — 749,000
  4. Ten Evening News (6pm) — 447,000
  5. SBS News (6.30pm) — 158,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 333,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 280,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 32.1% from Seven (3 channels) on 28.9%, Ten (3), on 24.0%, the ABC (4), 11.2% and SBS (2), 3.8%.
  • Main Channel: Nine more narrowly with a share of 24.0%, from Seven on 23.6%, Ten was on 21.3%, ABC 1, 9.6% and SBS ONE, 3.0%.
  • Digital: GO won with a share of 4.8%, from Gem on 3.3%, 7TWO on 2.7%, 7Mate was on 2.6%, Eleven was on 2.1%, SBS TWO was on 0.8%, ONE and ABC 2, 0.7% each, News 24, 0.5% and ABC 3, 0.4%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 18.6% in prime time last night. The digital shares last night ranged from 14.9% of FTA viewing in Sydney to 23% in Adelaide and 21.7% in Brisbane.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 27.2%, from Seven (3), on 24.5%, Ten (3), 20.4%, pay TV (100 plus channels), 11.8%, the ABC, 9.5% (4 channels) and SBS (2), 3.2%. That left the 15 FTA channels with a total share of 88.2% last night, made up of 15.5% with the 100 digital channels and 72.7% for the five main channels. Foxtel’s share was the lowest it has been for months. Its peak was in Perth with 13.4% and then 12.8% in Sydney.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 36.0%, from Prime/7Qld (3) on 28.3%, SC Ten on 20.4%, the ABC (4), on 11.0% and SBS (2), 3.8%. WIN/NBN won the main channels from Prime/7Qld. GO won the digitals with 5.9% from 7Mate on 3.3% and 7TWO on 3.1%. the 10 digital channels had a total FTA prime time share of 21.3%.

Major Markets: Nine won overall and in the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. In Brisbane Nine won overall, but Ten got up in the main channels as the sport on Seven and Nine were not attractive. In Perth, Ten won overall and in the main channels as its non-sports programming wasn’t constrained by the live timing of the cricket on Nine and the tennis on Seven. The time difference from the east and good programming played into Ten’s programming strength. GO won the digitals in every market bar Perth where 7Mate won.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week saw the end of summer ratings with Seven’s tennis broadcast finally getting traction (especially on Friday and Saturday nights), giving the network a solid win overall and in the main channels. Seven also won the digitals.

Sport vs. entertainment. Sport might have got the headlines and the numbers, but Ten’s raft of new ratings fodder got the demos, 16 to 39, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54s. End of story. Nine has got two more One Day internationals to play this week and on Sunday.

And women sports nuts, stand and take a bow because of a great breakthrough on the weekend. For years male sports nuts, male sports writers and others who don’t know any better, have bagged women’s tennis for being boring, predictable, all grunt and shriek and not that interesting. There are still some idiots who believe women shouldn’t be paid as much as the men.

Well the TV audiences for the Australian Men’s and women’s singles finals provide an answer to that deluded thinking: As we have just seen, the Men’s final between Djokovic and Murray averaged 1.380 million viewers from around 7.30pm to around 9.30pm last night. The presentation averaged 1.1 million.

On Saturday night the Cljisters-Na women’s final was watched by 1.677 million, most of whom (1.642 million) stayed around to watch the presentation. The women’s final was a classic three setter with a well known foreign player in Australia. Both played entertaining and at times heroically. The men’s final was one-sided.

And in regional Australia a similar result, the women’s final averaging 635,000 on Saturday night (national figure, 2.31 million viewers) against 514,000 for the men’s final last night (total national audience, 1.894 million). The margin was 418,000 viewers more viewers for the women’s final nationally than for the men.

So it is now official, the women’s singles final easily beat the men’s final in terms of TV viewers watching (which must please advertisers), which is always the best test of all for the final accounting of the Open broadcast on Seven

One further point, the women’s audience will turn out to be one of the largest for any sporting event this year, especially taking into account the night it was played (Saturday night, the lowest viewing night of the year). It will also prove to be one of the best for TV advertisers. Sunday night is a bigger night for TV viewing. That’s why the men’s final is scheduled for broadcast. Should that be changed in 2012?

TONIGHT: Lateline returns on the ABC, as does Lateline Business. Drive, a doco at 9.30pm, should be required viewing by all people under the age of 30.

On Seven, My Kitchen Rules and Fat Family Diet. Seven also has Brothers and Sisters and Bones. Nine has a new Two and a Half Men and then a rotten American sitcom called $#*! My Dad Says. Much better is the return of fresh episodes of Glee on Ten at 7.30pm, after The 7pm Project.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports