The Winners: Seven’s night, but Nine was more competitive and Ten had MasterChef. Ten said its three-channel line-up of Ten, One and Eleven was “No. 1 in Sunday night prime-time across the key buying demographics of 18-49 (34.2%) and 16-39 (37.0%) and is No. 2 in 25-54 (32.8%).”

Yesterday’s Rugby Union lesson from Samoa (they taught Australia), averaged 289,000 in the afternoon on Nine. Not the strongest of results, but better than much of the other stuff Nine has shown on Sunday afternoons before the 4pm NRL game in winter.

Seven’s AFL broadcast was split. In Sydney it was the Swans vs. Fremantle (also shown in Perth), 51,000 people watched the Swans on a wet afternoon. Brisbane vs. Geelong was shown in Sydney and Melbourne where 262,000 watched, nearly the size of the audience on Nine for the Rugby Union test. Nine’s NRL game was shown in Sydney (322,000) and Brisbane, 169,000 in Brisbane for a total audience of 492,000. But based on just two markets, proportionately better figures than for the AFL.

  1. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.725 million
  2. Downton Abbey (Seven) (8.40pm) — 1.589 million
  3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.589 million
  4. The Block (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.586 million
  5. Nine News (6pm) — 1.460 million
  6. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.326 million
  7. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.308 million
  8. Great Migrations (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.037 million

The Losers: A solid night of choice, so no real losers. Ten’s 8.30pm movie, Die Hard 4.0, did better with 736,000 than did Hawaii Five O.

News & CA: Insiders celebrated its 10th anniversary, the audience was lower than it has been in recent weeks. Perhaps some viewers took fright as seeing john Howard interviewed and thought it was 2007? Sunday Night returned and was full of pictures.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.589 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.460 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.326 million
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.308 million
  5. ABC News (7pm)  — 714,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 445,000
  7. Ten News (6pm) — 441,000
  8. SBS News (6.30pm) — 242,000
  9. Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 141,000
  10. The Bolt Report (Ten) (4.30pm) — 124,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 330,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 271,000
  3. Landline (ABC) (noon) –207,000
  4. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 188,000
  5. The Bolt Report (Ten) (10am) — 147,000
  6. Inside Business (ABC) (10pm) — 118,000
  7. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 115,000
  8. Meet The Press (Ten) (10.30pm) — 107,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 30.0% from Nine (3) on 26.9%, Ten (3) on 24.6%, the ABC (4) on 12.2% and SBS (2) was on 6.2%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 25.1% from Nine on 21.0%, Ten was on 20.0%, ABC 1 was on 10.2% and SBS ONE ended with 5.3%.
  • Digital: GO won with a share of 3.6% from Eleven on 2.8%, 7mate was on 2.6%, with 7TWO and Gem on 2.3% each, ONE was on 1.9%, ABC 2 was on 1.2%, SBS TWO was on 0.9%, News 24 was on 0.5% and ABC 3 ended with 0.3. That’s a total FTA share of 18.4%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 24.9% from Nine (3) on 22.3%, Ten (3) was on 20.4%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) ended with 14.7%, the ABC (4) was on 10.1% and SBS (2) ended with 5.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of viewing of 85.3% in prime time last night. The 10 digitals were on 15.0% and the five main channels had a total share of 70.3%, one of the highest this year so far.
  • Regional: A win for Prime/7Qld (3 channels) with 32.0% from WIN/NBN (3) on 27.3%, SC Ten (3) was on 23.2%, the ABC (4) was on 12.2% and SBS (2) ended with 5.3%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 25.0% from WIN/NBN on 19.7% and SC Ten was on 17.3%. GO won the digitals with 4.7% from 7TWO on 4.1% and Eleven with 3.5%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share of 23.5% last night.

Major Markets: Nine won Sydney overall and the main channels, thanks to the 6pm News, The Block and 60 Minutes. Seven was second and Ten third. Seven won the rest, both overall and the main channels. In Melbourne, Ten and Nine tied in the main channels. In Adelaide and Perth it was Ten second and Nine third because MasterChef grabbed more viewers than The Block or 60 Minutes was in the eastern states. Nine News again bombed badly in Perth.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won last week in All People, but Ten did better in the demos. Seven won all five metro markets: Nine was second everywhere bar Perth where Ten got up. GO won the digitals. Prime/7Qld won the regionals, from WIN/NBN, with 7TWO beating GO in the digitals.

Seven won, Downton Abbey lost viewers because it was delayed a week and before The Block did very well as 6.30pm for Nine, and helped lift the ageing beauty, 60 Minutes. Sunday Night returned strongly. Seven’s Great Migrations is more nature p-rn. Its audience was over 300,000 less than for Dancing With The Stars.

  • MasterChef was the most watched program nationally with 2.297 million viewers, with 572,000 regional viewers on top of the 1.725 million in the metro markets.
  • Downton Abbey was watched by 2.196 million viewers nationally, thanks to 607,000 regional viewers and 1.589 million in the five metro markets.
  • The Block had a national audience of 2.153 million, made up of 564,000 in the regions and 1.589 million in the metro markets.

Three programs with an audience of more than two million viewers on the one night tells us that viewers responded to well made, interesting programming. Nine 6pm News and Seven 6pm News also had 2 million plus audiences, including regional figures.

TONIGHT: Wall To wall news and current affairs on the ABC from 7pm. The Tour de France is rested on SBS. Seven hasn’t much except for The Amazing Race Australia. Nine has The Block. Ten has MasterChef and Can of Worms.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports