Seven wins, but Aussies tune-out of local offerings

Tens of thousands of viewers are choosing not to return each week after running out of patience or being bored with what they have seen.

The Winners: Seven’s night, although Wild Boys shed another 173,000 viewers to take its loss so far since its debut to 440,000.

Meanwhile, Underbelly: Razor lost another 53,000 from last week to take its total loss to 1.17 million viewers since its debut. Underbelly: Razor is now a real battle of attrition for its fans.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.446 million
Underbelly: Razor (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.408 million
Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.318 million
Bones (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.264 million
Wild Boys (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.225 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.180 million
60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.170 million

The Losers: Ten was the loser, squeezed by Nine and Seven (and even the ABC in a couple of markets).

Ten’s The Renovators at 6.30pm had just 614,000 viewers. Aliens, the movie at 8.30pm on Ten, just 295,000.

Simply, simply appalling.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney, lost the rest comprehensively.

The Bolt Report‘s 10am broadcast; 86,000 was the lowest so far since the program started in May. The repeat at 4.30pm nearly doubled the morning audience.

The Bolt Report/Meet The Press combination are now back to the level of the canned Video Hits that Ten was showing previously in this slot. The program is boring and viewers are not engaged, at all.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.446 million
Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.318 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.180 million
60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.170 million
ABC News (7pm) — 848,000
Ten News (5pm) — 383,000
Nine News (5pm ) — 377,000
Ten Evening News (6pm) — 320,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 168,000
Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 165,000
The Bolt Report (Ten) (4.30pm) (repeat) — 135,000

In the morning:

Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 340,000
Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 314,000
Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 177,000 (+ 33,000 on News 24 simulcast)
Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 172,000
Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 142,000
Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 134,000
The Bolt Report (Ten) (10am) — 86,000
Meet The Press (Ten) (10.30am) — 79,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 33.2% from Nine (3) on 30.1%, Ten (3) was on 17.5%, the ABC finished with 15.1% and SBS was on 4.1%.
Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 26.4% from Nine on 24.3%, ABC 1 was on 12.0%, Ten was on 11.9% and SBS ONE was on 3.7%.
Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.0%, Gem and Eleven were on 3.3%, 7mate was on 2.8%, GO was on 2.5%, ONE was on 2.3%, ABC 2 was on 1.9%, News 24 was on 0.7%, and SBS TWO and ABC 3 finished with 0.4%, each. That’s a total FTA viewing share of 21.6%.
Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 34.7%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 32.0%, SC Ten (3) was on 15.4%, the ABC (4) was on 13.9% and SBS (2) 4.0%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 27.5% from WIN/NBN on 32.0%, ABC 1 was third with 10.3% and SC Ten was on 9.4%. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.4%, from Gem on 4.3% and GO on 3.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 24.9%.

Pay TV: Seen (3 channels) won with a share of 27.1%, from Nine (3) on 24.6%, from pay TV (200-plus channels) on 15.8%, Ten (3) was on 14.3%, the ABC (4) was on 12.3% and SBS (2) ended on 3.3%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share in prime time last night of 84.2%, made up on 17.% for the 10 digitals and 66.5% for the five main channels.

The top five pay TV channels last night were:

Fox Sports 3 (3.36%)
Fox 8 (2.92%)
Fox Sports 2 (2.69%)
Fox Sports 1 (2.27%)
TV 1 (2.26%)

The top five pay TV programs were:

RWC: Wales v Samoa (Fox Sports 3) — 121,000
RWC: France v Canada (Fox Sports 3) — 120,000
RWC: England v Georgia (Fox Sports 3) — 115,000
AFL: After The Bounce (Fox Sports 1) — 97,000
RWC: RWC 2011 Match Centre — (Fox Sports 3) — 87,000

Major Markets: A tight Sunday night. Nine won Sydney overall and shared the main channels with Seven. Ten and the ABC 1 tied for third in the main channels. In Melbourne, Seven won from Nine and the ABC, but in the main channels it was Seven and Nine tying the win, with ABC 1 third. Elsewhere, a more traditional night with Seven wining overall and in the main channels from Nine and Ten in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. In the digitals, 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Eleven won Brisbane.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week Seven won overall, the main channels and the digital channels in the metro markets, and through Prime/7Qld in regional areas. Nine won Sydney thanks to the NRL finals Friday and Saturday nights. But that didn’t work in Brisbane where Seven won. Seven also won the AFL markets (but had them won before Friday night’s game between Sydney and Hawthorn).

So last week there were nine programs with 2 million or more viewers nationally last week and a further 35 with a million or more viewers.

The top five programs nationally last week were all from Seven:

Packed to the Rafters — 2.404 million
Sunday Night — 2.175 million
Seven News (Sunday) — 2.172 million
The X Factor (Wednesday) — 2.164 million
The X Factor (Tuesday) — 2.162 million

A Current Affair didn’t top the one million audience on any night last week, for the first time in years. It may be winning in Sydney, but its struggling elsewhere. Tracy Grimshaw’s return though should give it a boost.

Ten confirmed this morning that its extended weekend News at Five bulletin will be fronted by Natarsha Belling and Matt Doran. The news set up starts next month.

A night to forget last night. Underbelly: Razor and Wild Boys are similar in one respect: they are fictionalised dramas about Australian history. Audiences are treating them in similar fashion, tens of thousands of viewers are choosing not to return each week after running out of patience or being bored with what they have seen.

The national top five programs last night were:

Seven News (6pm) –2.017 million
Underbelly: Razor — 1.980 million
Wild Boys — 1.914 million
Sunday Night — 1.904 million
Bones — 1.881 million.

Tonight: The hours and hours of news and current affairs on the ABC. The first live The X Factor performance (down to the top 12) on Seven.

Ten has the losers: The Renovators and Undercover Boss Australia. Nine has The Farmer Wants A Wife followed by a movie at 8.30! SBS has Swift and Shift Couriers at 8.30.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports