Seven chases female ratings and wins the demos

The Winners: Nothing after 7pm grabbed the attention of viewers on what is a low viewing night anyway. Seven’s female appealing programming gave them the night, again. The Footy Shows on Nine had a poor night.

The AFL program in Melbourne slumped from 414,000 for the first episode last week (when they had a paid interview with Brendan Fevola) to 282,000 last night. The Melbourne audience a week ago was the biggest in Melbourne and the nation, last night it was just the 9th most watched program in Melbourne and well down nationally. But it was enough to give Nine a big win in Melbourne.

The NRL program averaged 144,000 in Sydney (160,000 last week) and 70,000 in Brisbane (73,000 a week ago). The program as a whole had 631,000 viewers against 806,000. Audiences in Adelaide and Perth were again weak for the AFL program which needs the season to start to help maintain interest, although that hasn’t helped the NRL version.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.142 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.056 million

The Losers: Ten. And Getaway on Nine at 8pm, 736,000. Not really good enough.

News & CA: Nine News and ACA won Melbourne, lost the rest.

On Wednesday TT ran a story on Abigail, the former well-known TV start from Number 96 (Google it) and said she was a squatter. That sparked a squawk of indignation from Tracy Grimshaw and ACA last night, who did a “how dare they” story without naming Today Tonight (although they pinched vision, again). Both programs are obviously feeling the strains of the intense competition for viewers at 6.30pm.

Ten’s 6PM With George Negus and the 6.30pm News held up well on what has been a weak night for them. Only 2000 people turned off from 6PM to the News, meaning they had an average 378,000 watching for the hour, which for Ten and both programs was encouraging. If the News is starting to hold viewers from the Negus program, then they are both starting to make an impression on viewers.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.142 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.056 million
Nine News (6pm) — 978,000
A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 899,000
ABC News (7 pm) — 872,000
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 747,000
Ten News (5pm) –793,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 689,000
6PM With George Negus (Ten) (6pm) — 379,000
Evening News (Ten) (6.30pm) — 377,000
6PM With George Negus (Ten) (10.30pm) (repeat) 238,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 198,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 191,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 171,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 163,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 104,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 383,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 332,000

The Stats:

FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with 29.0% from Seven (3) on 28.0%, with Ten back on 21.2% for its three channels, the ABC (4) was on 16.3% and SBS (2) finished with 5.6%. Seven still leads the week with 31.2% from Nine on 26.6% and Ten on 20.9%.
Main Channel: Seven and Nine tied with 21.0% each. Ten was next with 16.5%, ABC 1 was on 12.1% and SBS ONE, 5.1%. Seven leads the week on 23.8%, with Nine on 20.1% and Ten on 16.0%.
Digital: GO and Gem won with a share of 4.0% each, from Eleven on 3.9%, 7Mate on 3.8%, 7TWO on 3.1%, ABC 2 was on 2.3%, News 24, 1.1%, ONE and ABC 3 were on 0.7% each and ABS TWO finished with 0.6%. That’s a total prime time FTA share of 24.9%. Eleven and 7TWO lead the week on 3.7% each, from 7Mate on 3.6% and GO on 3.5%.
Pay TV: Nine won (3 channels) with a share of 23.2% from Seven (3) on 22.4%, with Ten (3) on 17.0%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) finished with 16.7%, the ABC, (4) ended with 13.0% and SBS (2) was on 4.5%. The 15 FTA channels had a total prime time viewing share last night of 83.3%, made up of 19.6% for the digital channels and 63.7% for the five main channels.
Regional: WIN/NBN won with a share of 32.8% (3 channels) from Prime/7Qld (3) on 29.1%, with SC Ten (3) on 18.6%, the ABC (4) was on 14.1% and SBS (2) finished with 5.3%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 24.4% from Prime/7Qld on 21.5%. GO won the digitals with 5.0%, from 7Mate on 4.2% and Eleven on 3.9%. Prime/7Qld lead the week on 32.0% from WIN/NBN on 28.8%.

Major Markets: A big win in Melbourne helped Nine the national win all people and enabled it to draw the main channels with Seven. Apart from that it was weak everywhere else, especially in Sydney and Brisbane where the NRL Footy Show has no impact at all. Nine won Melbourne overall and in the main channels. Seven won Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth both overall and the main channels (Ten was second in Perth on the main channels). Eleven won Sydney and Perth. GO shared Melbourne with Gem. Gem won Brisbane. 7Mate and Gem shared Adelaide. Seven leads the week in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Seven and Nine share the lead in Melbourne.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine might have got home in All People, because of the higher ratings for its digital channels and a big win in Melbourne, but Seven again snatched the demos because of its stronger female skewing programs from Home and Away at 7pm to Private Practice at 10.30pm. In the 16 to 54 group, Seven was in front, daylight was second and Nine and Ten brought up the rear.

Suddenly Seven has turned Thursday night from being its weakest night of the year for the past four years or more, to one where it wins dominantly. How long that can last for is another thing, but there is clearly a lot of female viewers wanting programs to watch on a Thursday night and not sport.

TONIGHT: New Tricks and the final Whitechapel on the ABC. Nine has NRL in Brisbane and Sydney and not much elsewhere. Seven has Better Homes and Gardens and then rotten repeats. Ten has The 7pm Project and The Biggest Loser and forget the rest. Likewise with SBS.

SATURDAY: A new Rockwiz on SBS (series 8), ignore Seven and Ten, doubtful or appalling movie repeats. Nine has Australia playing Pakistan in the cricket World Cup. Foxtel has NRL if you are interested. The ABC has another Doc Martin repeat (an annoying series) and then the second episode of Strike Back.

SUNDAY: NRL on Nine, then 60 Minutes and maybe The Mentalist. Sunday Night on Seven and Bones, perhaps. Midsomer Murders is back on the ABC. Ten has a fresh Modern Family after The Biggest Loser and then it has Bondi Rescue. SBS has Dateline. Don’t forget the morning chats if you want to learn more about carbon emissions, that’s a guarantee.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports