The Winners: First night of summer ratings and it was a quiet night.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.070 million.
  2. It’s A Knockout (Ten, 7.30pm) — 1.029 million.

Terra Nova on Ten at 8.30pm, 681,000. Restoration Home on the ABC at 7.30pm, 765,000. CSI on Nine at 8.30pm, 682,000. Brideshead Revisited on the ABC at 8.30pm to 10.40pm, 559,000. ARIA Awards on GO at 7.30 to 10.30pm, 369,000. Australian PGA Golf on Ten from midday to after 5pm because of the playoff, 329,000.

The Losers: It’s now summer ratings, so strictly there can be no losers, except people who watch too much TV at this time of the year. True?

News & CA:

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.070 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 917,000.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 886,000.
  4. ABC 1 News (7pm) — 779,000.
  5. Ten News (5pm) — 465,000.
  6. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 340,000.
  7. Nine News (5pm) — 275,000.
  8. Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 262,000.
  9. Insiders (ABC 1, 9am) — 225,000 + 55,000 on News 24 simulcast.
  10. SBS News 6.30pm) — 169,000.
  11. Inside Business (ABC1, 10am) — 155,000.
  12. Offsiders (ABC1, 10.30am) — 140,000.
  13. The Bolt Report (Ten, 10am) — 119,000.
  14. Meet the Press (Ten, 10.30am) — 97,000.

No change at 6pm in Sydney and Melbourne where Nine beat Seven. No change either in Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth where Seven beat Nine. The Bolt Report‘s repeat was pre-empted by the golf on Ten in the afternoon.

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with 27.8% from Seven (3) on 25.3%), Ten (3) was on 23.5%, the ABC (4) was on 17.7% and SBS (2) ended with 5.7%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 17.7% from Nine on 16.4%, Ten was on 15.0%, ABC 1 was on 13.6% and SBS ONE ended with 4.7%.
  • Digital: GO won with 7.7% from Eleven on 5.7%, 7TWO on 5.0%, Gem on 3.7%, ONE with 3.2%, 7mate was on 2.6%, ABC 2 ended with 2.7%, SBS TWO was on 1.0%, News 24 was on 0.8% and ABC 3 ended with 0.6%. That’s an FTA share last night of a very high 32.6%.

Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with 22.2% from Seven (3) on 20.2%, Ten (3) was on 28.8%, Pay TV was on 17.7% for its 200 plus channels, the ABC (4) was on 14.1% and SBS (2) ended with 4.6%. The 15 FTA channels had a share of viewing last night of 82.3%, with a very high 26.0% total for the 10 digital channels and a very low 56.3% share for the five main channels.

The five top pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox 8, 3.25%
  2. Fox Sports 2, 3.10%
  3. TV1, 2.37%
  4. Lifestyle; 2.29%
  5. Fox Sports 1, 2.20%

The five top pay TV Programs were:

  1. A League Football, Melb. V Gold Coast (Fox Sports 1), 81,000
  2. Vicar of Dibley (Comedy Channel), 80,000
  3. The Tourist (showtime premiere), 77,000
  4. One Day Domestic Cricket (Fox Sports 2), 75,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox 8), 71,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 29.1%, from WIN/NBN (30 on 27.4%, SC Ten (3) was on 22.6%, the ABC (4) was on 15.7% and SBS (2) ended with 5.1%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 19.5%, from WIN/NBN on 17.6%. 7TWO and GO tied the digitals with 6.1% apiece. Eleven was on 5.1%. The 10 digital channels had a high FTA share last night of 34.2%.

The five most watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Seven News, 502,000
  2. It’s A Knockout, 405,000
  3. 60 Minutes, 401,000
  4. Mighty Ships, 398,000
  5. Nine News, 363,000.

Major Markets: Nine won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Seven won Brisbane and Perth. The ABC shared third place overall and was outright third in the main channels in Melbourne. GO won all five metro markets and without its broadcast of the Aria Awards last night, Nine would have lost the night.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last night was the first night of summer ratings and viewers voted with their remotes. Off they went to the digital channels, where the Arias did well for GO and Nine at 7.30pm, or to Pay TV. As a result, the 10 digital channels had their biggest night since starting with nearly a third of the FTA audience last night and over a quarter of the total audience with Pay TV included. The digital channels and Pay TV had their highest ever combined share last night of 43.7%.

We will see more of the flight from the networks;’ main channels, to the digitals especially, and Pay TV, over summer. The digital channels are not cannibalising the main channels audiences, they are in fact holding viewers inside the orbits of the five FTA networks, which is the benefit of the digital channels (Hard to believe they were feared so much by the commercial networks, isn’t it?).

The five top programs nationally last night were:

  1. Seven News, 1.571 million
  2. It’s A Knockout (10), 1.435 million
  3. 60 Minutes, 1.326 million
  4. Nine News, 1.278 million
  5. Mighty Ships (Seven), 1.221 million.

Tonight: The Hour on the ABC at 8.30pm, followed by a repeat of Kevin McCloud’s Grand Tour of Europe. Tour of Duty: Australia’s Secret War on Ten at 7.30pm … why couldn’t this be shown in prime time in official ratings? Answer, after the disaster with the 6 to 7pm news and current affairs experiments this year, Ten no longer has the guts or gumption to be adventurous where news-based programming is concerned. Nine has a repeat of The Mentalist.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports