Cricket wins the night for Nine

A mixed night, with the cricket pushing Nine to a win in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: The first ODI final from Brisbane did the job for Nine last night, but only in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. In Brisbane and Perth, Seven prevailed, even up against the cricket. Seven’s Border Security at 7.30pm had more viewers in Brisbane than the cricket did.

Sunday Night lost more than 300,000 viewers from the week before at 6.30pm for Seven. And speaking of Sunday Night, where was the Jamie Oliver interview? On Thursday of last week, Seven trumpeted: “The world’s most popular chef and food campaigner gives Sunday Night an exclusive interview as he touches down in Australia.” Also making a non-appearance, the promoted Peter Fitzsimons report on sugar.

Ten was squeezed by the cricket on Nine and Seven’s normal programming. Homeland at 9.30pm dipped to 901,000. Modern Family and New Girl did OK.

Last week: Another clean sweep for Seven in all five metro markets (although Nine closed the gap with Thursday and Friday’s NRL games, plus the ODI game on Friday). But Seven proved too good, with the first eight programs in the most watched list in metro markets (and eight of the top 10).

Nationally, Seven had the first seven most watched program and eight of the top 10. A comprehensive win with Seven averaging 33.5% in the five metro markets to Nine’s 27.0%. A week earlier it was Seven, 33.2% and Nine, 25.6%.

Nine is very, very weak in Adelaide and Perth (which is owned by Bruce Gordon’s WIN Corp). Nine also lost badly in Brisbane to Seven.

Pay TV had its seasonal boost with the NRL back on air on Saturday night and the share for pay TV of 24.7% was second only to Seven on the night with 25.8%. The start of the NRL season helped Pay TV, with the Penrith v Bulldogs game on Friday night watched by the biggest Pay TV audience of the week, 343,000. The Canberra v Melbourne game on Saturday night averaged 337,000 and the North Qld v Gold Coast match the same night was watched by 229,000.

The biggest audience for yesterday was the NRL match between Balmain and Cronulla which attracted 239,100 people. Pay TV certainly needs the NRL. Nine’s NRL game yesterday at Noon (Auckland v Manly) averaged 410,000 and was broadcast live ahead of the first ODI final at 2.30 pm.

Tonight: The ABC’s hours of News and current affairs. Seven has My Kitchen Rules and Revenge. Nine has The Big Bang Theory and Alcatraz, which is struggling. Ten hasn’t much at all except The Biggest Loser.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

Nine News — 1.968 million
Cricket: Australia versus Sri Lanka (session 2) (Nine) — 1.918 million
Seven News — 1.823 million
Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.716 million
Border Security (Seven) — 1.715 million
The Force (Seven) — 1.709 million
Cricket: Australia versus Sri Lanka (session 1) (Nine) — 1.510 million
New Girl (Ten) — 1.492 million
Modern Family (Ten) — 1.471 million
Bones (Seven) — 1.448 million.

Metro Winners: The Midsomer Murders final episode for the current series pushed ABC 1 into second from 8.30pm to 10pm.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.422 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.303 million.
Cricket: Australia versus Sri Lanka (session 2) — 1.285 million
Border Security (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.203 million
The Force (Seven) (8pm) — 1.181 million
Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.175 million
Modern Family (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.079 million
New Girl (Ten) (8pm) — 1.075 million
Midsomer Murders (ABC) (8.30pm) — 1.004 million

The Losers: Young Talent Time on Ten at 6.30pm – 655,000. Not really good enough.

Metro News & CA:

Nine News (6pm) — 1.422 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.303 million.
Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.175 million
ABC News (7pm) — 776,000
Ten News (5pm) — 463,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 323,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 205,000
The Bolt Report (Ten) (4.30pm) — 107,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro morning:

Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 415,000
Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 281,000
Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 210,000
Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 201,000
The Bolt Report (Ten) (10am) — 163,000
Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 130,000
Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 126,000
Meet The Press (Ten) (10.30am) — 105,000

Metro FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 31.6% from Seven (3) on 29.3%, Ten (3) was on 18.6%, the ABC (4) ended on 16.2% and SBS (2) finished with 4.4%. Main Channels: Nine won with 25.2% from Seven on 22.5%, Ten was on 13.8%, ABC 1 was on 13.2% and SBS ONE ended with 3.5%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with 3.5%, from 7mate, Go and Gem on 3.2% each. ONE was 2.4%, Eleven was on 2.3%, ABC 2 ended on 1.7%, SBS TWO was on 0.9% and ABC 3 and News 24 ended with 0.6% each. The 10 digital channels had a low FTA share last night of 20.6%.

Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 26.6% from Seven (3) on 24.7%, Ten (3) was on 15.6%, the ABC (4) ended on 13.6%, Pay TV ended on 13.2% for its 200 plus channels and SBS (2) finished with 3.7%. The 15 FTA channels had an 86.8% share of total TV viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a low 18.2% share and the five main channels, 68.6%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox Sports 2 (3.23%)
Fox Footy (2.34%)
TV 1 (2.07%)
Lifestyle (2.06%)
Fox 8 (2.04%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

NRL: Balmain v Wests v Cronulla (Fox Sports 2) — 239,100
AFL: Footscray v Carlton (Fox Footy) — 118,800
NRL: Auckland v Manly (Fox Sports 2) — 94,000
AFL: Fremantle v Richmond (Fox Footy) — 91,400
Modern Family (Fox 8) — 85,000

Major Markets: A mixed night, with the cricket pushing Nine to a win in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (overall and the main channels). Seven won Brisbane and Perth overall and the main channels . In Adelaide and Perth, The ABC and ABC 1 were third overall and the main channels, pushing Ten to 4th spot. 7TWO won the digitals in Melbourne, Perth and shared Adelaide with 7mate, which won Brisbane. Gem won Sydney.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports