Nine wins the first week of summer ratings

There was nothing of real interest at all on the commercial networks or the ABC.

The Winners: It was Nine’s night, easily.

Christmas with The Australian Women’s Weekly on Nine at 6.30pm, 994,000.

Upstairs Downstairs on the ABC at 8.30pm, 915,000.

It’s a Knockout on Ten at 7.30pm, 872,000. That’s down 15% or 157,000 on its debut figure of 1.029 million the week before.

And 730,000 watched the Test cricket yesterday.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.144 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.068 million
60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.047 million

The Losers: All of us, but, thankfully, not the Australian cricket team or its supporters.

News & CA: Nine won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven won the rest.

The morning chats have departed for another year.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.144 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.068 million
60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.047 million
ABC News (7pm) — 848,000
Ten News (5pm) — 492,000
SBS News (6.30pm) –189,000

In the morning:

Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 338,000
Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 259,000
Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 185,000 (+39,000 on News 24 simulcast)
Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 120,000
Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 120,000
The Bolt Report (Ten) (10am) — 115,000
Meet The Press (Ten) (10.30am) — 83,000

The Stats:

FTA: Nine (three channels) won with a share of 29.5% from Seven (three) on 24.5%, Ten (three) was on 21.2%, the ABC (four) was on 19.0% and SBS (two) was on 5.5%.
Main channel: Nine won with 20.3% from Seven on 17.8%, ABC 1 was on 15.6%, Ten was on 15.0% and SBS ONE was on 4.4%.
Digital: GO won with 5.3% from 7TWO on 4.2%, Gem was on 4.1%, Eleven was on 4.0%, 7mate was on 2.6%, ONE was on 2.4%, ABC 2 was on 1.8%, SBS TWO was on 1.1%, News 24 was on 0.9% and ABC 3 ended on 0.6%. That’s an FTA total last night of 27.0%

Pay TV: Nine (three channels) won with a share of 23.3% from pay TV (200-plus channels on 19.3% along with Seven (three). Ten (three) was on 26.8%, the ABC (four) was on 14.9% and SBS (two) was on 4.3%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of 80.7%. The 10 digital channels had a share of 21.3% and the five main channels, 59.4%.

The five top pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (2.84%)
Comedy Channel (2.67%)
Lifestyle (2.50%)
TV1 (2.22%)
Fox Sports 1 (1.68%)

The five top pay TV programs were:

Christmas Lights Spectacular (Lifestyle) — 157,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 104,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 93,000
A League: Sydney-Brisbane Roar (Fox Sports 1) — 93,000
The Big Bang Theory (Comedy Channel) — 89,000

Regional: WIN/NBN (three channels) won with a share of 28.4%, from Prime/7Qld on 27.5%, SC Ten (three), 20.8%, the ABC (four) 18.9% and SBS (two) on 4.5%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 20.5%, from WIN/NBN on 18.9%, ABC 1 was on 15.1% and SC Ten was 4th with 14.2%. GO won the digitals with 5.2%, with 7TWO on 4.2% and Gem on 4.1%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA total share last night of 28.0%.

The five most-watched programs on regional markets last night were:

Seven News — 549,000
60 Minutes — 449,000
Upstairs/Downstairs — 410,000
On Board Air Force One — 409,000
Nine News — 385,000

Major Markets: Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide overall and the main channels. Seven won them in Brisbane and Perth. Seven finished third overall in Melbourne, but did make the top three in the main channels. In Perth, Nine finished third overall but failed to make the top three in the main channels. The ABC (ABC 1) finished third in the main channels in Sydney (tied with Ten), Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Go won the digitals in all five markets.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: No wonder pay TV did well and ran second last night with Seven. There was nothing of real interest at all on the commercial networks or the ABC.

The five most-watched programs nationally were:

Seven News — 1.692 million
60 Minutes — 1.497 million
Nine News — 1.453 million
Christmas with The Australian Women’s Weekly — 1.365 million
Upstairs/Downstairs — 1.325 million.

Last week: Seven (27.8%) snuck home overall from Nine (27.6%), but tied with Nine in the main channels (19.1% each). That’s the first week of summer ratings done.

And a very special mention for the Nine Network for going to the 6pm News on Saturday evening in Sydney and Melbourne and not staying with the cricket. There was no need to take the news early, official ratings have ended, Nine has won the Sydney news battle. But cricket viewers were deprived on seeing a dramatic few minutes. No apology from Nine. No appreciation of keeping faith with fans. Lord help us if there’s a big event at next year’s Olympics and Nine has to go to the News or A Current Affair. It’s not the first time Nine has done this with the cricket in recent years after being flexible for a decade or more.

Tonight: The Hour on the ABC at 8.30. The Mentalist on Nine if you have a thing for good repeats. Offspring on Ten on the same basis. Ditto, Criminal Minds on Seven. A truly boring night.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports