Seven wins, continues to pile on viewers

The first four weeks of the 2012 ratings have seen easy wins for the Seven Network. Seven has lifted its audience numbers and share.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night, and after tonight, it will be Seven’s week, again.

Ten’s The Biggest Loser continues to creep higher — its 942,000 viewers last night was its best so far — and within sight of Home and Away on Seven with 977,000 last night. But that was the end of the good news for Ten. From 8pm onwards it was a wasteland, as was Nine from 8.30pm. From 9.30pm the ABC was in the lead.

The first four weeks of the 2012 ratings have seen easy wins for the Seven Network. Seven has lifted its audience numbers and share, as have Nine, but it remains far behind. But it’s doing better than in 2011. Ten, however, is in a wretched position.

In prime time audience figures Nine is around 21% behind Seven and 42% behind Ten, according to Fusion Strategy in Sydney. The ABC, SBS and Pay TV have all lost viewers this year compared with the first four weeks of 2011. Seven has added 48,000 viewers and nearly two share points. Nine has added 33,000 viewers and 1 share point. Fusion said SBS has lost a nasty 22,000 viewers, the ABC, 23,000 and Pay TV, 28,000.

In WA, WIN has let go 15 journalists and other staff and ended its regional-based bulletins as the network starts cost cutting after a terrible start to 2012. WIN’s stations in Perth and Adelaide have been lagging behind the stronger performances of the Nine stations in Sydney and Melbourne. Brisbane has also been weak for Nine so far in 2012. WIN’s Nine News in Perth lost last night to Seven, 67,000 to 220,000. It’s not a game, it’s a shame.

Tonight: Seven has My Kitchen Rules and Packed to the Rafters. The ABC has Foreign Correspondent. Ten has The Biggest Loser and NCIS, Nine has not much at all — the wooden Two and a Half Men and the fading Top Gear. Ten will lift tonight.

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

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 2.665 million
Revenge (Seven) — 2.450 million
Seven News — 1.847 million
The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (8pm) — 1.817 million
Nine News — 1.619 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.414 million
The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.478 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.468 million
Nine News — 1.431 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.402 million

Metro Winners:

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.921 million
Revenge (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.715 million
The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (8pm) — 1.312 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.295 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.198 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.100 million
ABC News (6pm) — 1.043 million
The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.031 million

The Losers: Nine’s Alcatraz at 8.30pm, 711,000. The series is gone so far as Nine’s audience is concerned — past the point of no return. A reasonably interesting but not earth shattering Four Corners (740,000) and Media Watch (750,000), beat Alcatraz and pushed it down to third. Alcatraz at least beat NCIS Los Angeles on Ten at 8.30pm which had 525,000 viewers.

Hawaii Five O on Ten at 9.30 pm, 353,000. Miserable. Ten’s The Bold and The Beautiful soapie at 4.30pm had more viewers: 425,000!

Person of Interest on Nine at 9.30pm, 454,000.

Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Brisbane. Seven News had a big win in Melbourne and the usual wide margins in Adelaide and Perth. ACA won Brisbane, TT won the rest, with solid wins in Sydney and Melbourne.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.295 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.198 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.100 million
ABC News (6pm) — 1.043 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 967,000
Media Watch (ABC) (9.20pm) — 750,000
Ten News (5pm) — 742,000
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 740,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 720,000
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 718,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 659,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 486,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 259,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 146,000
The Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 139,000
SBS News (10.30pm) — 52,000
The Drum (News 24) (6pm) — 44,000

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: Ten’s Breakfast remains stuck while the ABC’s News Breakfast is doing better. It has more viewers on ABC 1 than Ten does over the three hours from 6am.

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 370,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 286,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 216,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 117,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 60,000
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 44,000
ABC News Breakfast (ABC) — 37,000 (+22,000)*

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels won with a share of 36.6% from Nine (3) on 23.7%, Ten (3) was on 18.1%, the same as the ABC (4). SBS (2) was on 3.4%. Seven leads the week with 34.8% from Nine on 26.6% and Ten on 19.0%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 30.8% from Nine on 18.3%, ABC 1 on 13.7%, Ten on 12.7% and SBS ONE on 2.7%. Seven leads the week with 28.4% from Nine on 21.5% and Ten on 13.9%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 3.8% from ONE and GO on 2.9%, ABC 2 was on 2.7%, Gem was on 2.6%, Eleven ended on 2.5%, 7mate was on 2.0%, News 24 was on 1.0% (and boosted by the Q&A simulcast) and ABC 3 and SBS TWO finished with 0.7% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a low 20.8%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.6% from GO on 3.0% and 7mate on 2.8%.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels won with a share of 30.7% from Nine (3) on 19.9%, Ten (3) was on 15.2%, the same as the ABC (4). Pay TV (200 plus channels) ended with 13.9% and SBS (2) was on 2.8%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 86.1%. The 10 digitals had a total share of a low 18.0%, the five main channels share was 66.1%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox Sports 2 (3.36%)
Fox 8 (2.79%)
TV 1 (1.86%)
111 Hits (1.64%)
Crime & Investigation (1.63%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

NRL: Parramatta v Auckland (Fox Sports 2) — 307,500
NRL: Parramatta v Auckland (post game) (Fox Sports 2) 00 95,900
AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 71,300
Eastenders (UKTV) — 62,000
Coronation Street (UKTV) — 60,900

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 35.5%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 25.9%, with SC Ten (3) on 18.4%, the ABC (4) on 16.4%, and SBS (2) was left with 3.9%. The main channels were won by Prime/7Qld with 28.5% from WIN/NBN on 19.8%, SC Ten on 12.0% and ABC 1 on 11.9%. 7TWO won the main channels with 4.7% from ONE with 3.5% and GO on 3.1%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 23.9%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 35.4% from WIN/NBN on 28.7%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

My Kitchen Rules — 744,000
Revenge — 734,000
Seven News — 551,000
Nine News — 519,000
The Big Bang Theory (8 pm) — 505,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep for Seven, overall and the main channels. The ABC was third overall in Sydney and Perth. ABC 1 was third in the main channels in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne. 7TWO won the digitals everywhere bar Perth where ONE was on top. Seven leads the week everywhere.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports