The Winners

  1. Seven News (6pm)– 1.108 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.085 million.
  3. Nine News — 1.038 million.

Ten’s AFL broadcast averaged 348,000 in Melbourne for the Carlton-Richmond fumbleathon, which was the biggest audience anywhere last night. Ten’s main channel coverage averaged 474,000 nationally, but there were a further 217,000 who watched on ONE (So 691,000 nationally). In Melbourne, 120,000 watched, making the total audience there a very solid 465,000.

But only 9,000 watched it live on ONE in Sydney. That’s bad news for the Western Sydney AFL team and for the AFL with the talks on the new contract reaching their conclusion. Which TV network really wants to spend millions reaching 9,000 hardcore AFL fans? The Swans would get more, but they can’t play every day and night for Sydney. Foxtel will be interested because it’s a niche market for them.

The Losers

Nine (especially the NRL Footy Show) and Ten (outside the AFL states). Getaway, Nine, 8pm, 673,000. The NRL Footy Show, 194,000 in total with just 120,000 in Sydney watching and 70,000 in Brisbane.

News and Current Affairs

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.108 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.085 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.038 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 955,000.
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 916,000.
  6. The 7PM Project (Ten, 7pm) — 731,000.
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 660,000.
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 632,000.
  9. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 379,000.
  10. 6PM With George Negus (Ten) — 319,000.
  11. Today (Nine, 7am) — 311,000.
  12. Ten evening News (6.30pm) — 274,000.
  13. 6PM With George Negus (Ten, 10.30pm, repeat) — 257,000.
  14. Lateline (ABC, 10.30pm) — 197,000.
  15. SBS late News (9.30pm) — 188,000.
  16. SBS News (SBS, 6.30pm) — 179,000.
  17. Lateline Business (ABC, 11.05pm, replay) — 100,000.
  18. Ten late News/Sports Tonight (Ten, 11pm in non-AFL markets only) — 88,000.

Nine News won Sydney and Brisbane, Seven won the rest. A Current Affair won Brisbane, drew Melbourne with Today Tonight and lost the rest to TT (Sydney by 1,000).

So what will 6PM With George Negus become when it moves to 6.30pm? All that time in effort gone into positioning it at 6pm!

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 28.1% from Nine (3) on 26.1%, Ten (3) was on 24.7%, the ABC (4) ended with 15.6% and SBS (2) was on 5.6%. Seven leads the week on 31.4% from Nine on 27.3% and Ten on 29.6%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 21.5%, from Nine on 18.5%, Ten was on 17.3%, ABC1, 11.9% and SBS ONE, 4.7%. Seven leads the week on 24.2% from Nine on 20.5% and Ten on 15.8%.
  • Digital: Ten’s ONE with its broadcast of the first AFL game of the year was the star, running equal second on the night with its stablemate, Eleven. GO won with 4.4%, from ONE and Eleven on 3.7% each, 7Mate was on 3.5%, Gem ended with 3.3%, 7TWO was on 3.0%, ABC2, finished with 2.3%, SBS TWO and ABC News 24 ended with 0.8% each and ABC3 was on 0.6%. That was a total FTA share of prime time viewing of a high 27.1%. GO leads the week with 4.0% from 7TWO on 3.8% and Eleven and 7Mate on 3.4% each.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 22.1% from Nine (3) on 20.6%, Ten (3) was on 19.4%, Foxtel (100 plus channels) finished with 18.4%, the ABC (4) was on 12.3% and SBS (2), was on 4.4%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of viewing last night in prime time of 81.6%, made up of 20.5% for the digital channels and 61.1% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 29.9%, from Prime/7Qld (3 channels) on 28.4%, SC Ten (3) was on 22.4%, the ABC (4 channels) ended with 14.0% and SBS (2), was on 5.3%. WIN/NBN won the main channels from Prime/7Qld. GO won the digitals with 5.1%, from Eleven on 4.8% and 7Mate on 4.3%. ONE averaged a high 3.4% with the AFL broadcast. That was a prime time FTA share for the digital channels of 29.3%. Prime/7Qld leads the week on 30.7% from WIN/NBN on 30.0%.
  • Major Markets: Seven won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Ten won overall and the main channels in Melbourne (natch!) with the AFL. GO won Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. ONE won Melbourne (with a 5.9% share) and 7TWO and 7Mate shared Adelaide. Seven leads the week in every market.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments It looked like a quiet night, but Seven’s female skewed programming simply blitzed the rest last night. Even programs like How I Met Your Mother topped the viewing in the male demos in 16 to 39, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54s.

I must apologise for misleading you all. CSI wasn’t on last night on Nine. I should have consulted a more up-to-date guide. Nine ran the second episode of Million Dollar Drop up against Grey’s Anatomy on Seven and the AFL in most Southern markets on Ten’s main channel (and on ONE only in the north) With 493,000 in four markets Eddie out rated the AFL (474,000). But add in the AFL on ONE and it was an easy winner.

Why Nine decided to put Eddie up is beyond me. Why didn’t they run the cricket live from India? It was being played while Eddie’s dropping was going on. ABC Radio seemed to be taking the Sky coverage (which Nine took). Australia batted first, which would have given Nine a solid audience. Was that an admission that the cricketers don’t rate any more? Eddie didn’t run against the AFL in Melbourne, so the 493,000 people who watched drop in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth last night wasn’t an accurate reading. It is also an admission by Nine that despite what he might think, Eddie McGuire isn’t as big or bigger than the AFL game as a TV viewing experience. It seems a curious waste of a program that on Monday was the new white hope for Nine, but by Thursday was ratings filler.

The first delayed session of the ODI on Nine from 11 pm averaged 231,000. Should have been on earlier where it would have also run up against the broadcast on Fox Sports 3 which was watched by nearly 228,000 people from around 8 pm.

Nine was also constrained in northern markets by the NRL Footy Show at 9.30pm which went all but unwatched. Why wasn’t it run on Wednesday night, with the AFL Show?

SBS Update: SBS’s board committee looking for a new CEO to replace Shaun Brown started its main interviews yesterday and will finish up today. Five internal candidates are on the list and five external candidates as well. The interviews are being done at SBS’s HQ at Artarmon in northern Sydney.

Seven-Ten update: A quiet whisper that departed Seven ad chief, James Warburton will be calling on his former employees at Seven’s RED integration group (which sell ads and work out cross promotional ideas on Seven’s TV channels, magazines and digital businesses such as Yahoo7. Many are experienced young women with considerable experience in this most difficult of media businesses. Two year contracts with a pay rise, David Leckie. Otherwise Ten will swoop, cross platform stuff has been Ten’s most glaring weakness.

TONIGHT: Seven has Better Homes and Gardens and then the AFL in Southern markets. Nine has the NRL in northern markets. Ten has The 7PM Project and then The Biggest Loser. The ABC has the new series of WhiteChapel and New Tricks an hour earlier.

Saturday: Ten has the AFL, Foxtel has NRL and AFL. The rest…..well the ABC might be worth watching, but make your mind up about Doc Martin outside NSW. The NSW election in Sydney and NSW on the ABC and Seven, the others have fitful coverage.

Sunday: Seven has Sunday Night with an interview with the survivors of the Pike River mine disaster in NZ (NZ’s first and forgotten disaster of 2010). Seven also has Bones. Nine has 60 Minutes and The Mentalist. Ten has The Biggest Loser and Bondi Rescue. The noisy car race aka the Grand Prix is in Melbourne this day on Ten at 5pm. The ABC has another Midsomer Murder, record and use as a sedative for later in the week.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports