State of Origin 3 has a record 3.967 million viewers

A record audience nationally, in the metro markets and Sydney for the third and deciding NRL State of Origin game last night.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A record audience nationally, in the metro markets and Sydney for the third and deciding NRL State of Origin game saw Nine score a big win last night, as expected.

The game was watched by record 2.626 million metro viewers (2.495 million for Game 2 and 2.515 million for Game 1) and 3.967 million nationally (3.843 million for Game 2 and 3.865 million for Game 1). Over the series, the audience was up more than 10% and was a record.

The Sydney audience was a record 1.186 million, bettering the previous record of 1.185 million for Game 1 (Game 2 was 1.153 million). The Brisbane audience was the third highest at 866,000 (after the 908,000 for Game 1 and Game 3 last year). The Melbourne audience of 406,000 was a record (366,000 for Game 1 and 317,000 for Game 2) and helped Nine win Melbourne last night by a clear margin.

The regional audience of 1.349 million was the lowest of the three games, after the 1.371 million for Game 2 and 1.445 million for Game 1. 684,000 watched in regional NSW and 537,000 watched in regional Queensland. The audience for Adelaide was 67,000, against 57,000 for Game 2 and 68,000 for Game 1. In Perth the audience was the highest for the series at 99,000 (80,000 for Game 2 and 79,000 for Game 1).

Tonight: The Footy Shows and Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year on Nine. Better Homes and Gardens in AFL markets on Seven’s main channel, repeats in NRL markets. Tennis on Seven’s main channel and 7TWO. The Tour de France on SBS’s main channel from 10pm. Silk on ABC 1. MasterChef on Ten.

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

State of Origin (game) (Nine) — 3.967 million
State of Origin (post-game) (Nine) — 3.446 million
State of Origin (pre-game) (Nine) — 2.474 million
Seven News — 1.940 million
Nine News — 1.854 million
MasterChef (Ten) — 1.628 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.438 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.432 million
ABC News — 1.309 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.214 million*

* Pre-empted in some regional markets by the State of Origin coverage from 7pm.

The Metro Winners:

State of Origin (game) (Nine) (8pm) — 2.626 million
State of Origin (post-game) (Nine) (9.50pm) — 2.328 million
State of Origin (pre-game) (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.568 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.339 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.260 million
MasterChef (Ten) (7pm) — 1.255 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.176 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.073 million

The Losers: Nothing, the 3rd Origin game on Nine distorted the night.

Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven News won the rest. A Current Affair won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Today Tonight won Adelaide and Perth by the usual big margins.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.339 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.260 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.176 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.073 million
ABC News (7pm) — 907,000
Ten News (5pm) — 774,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 658,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 644,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 453,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 214,000
SBS News (6.30pm) –206,000
Ten News (10.30pm) — 165,000
The Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 114,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 84,000
The Drum (Ness 24) (6pm) — 40,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 331,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 323,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 208,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 164,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 59,000
News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 37,000 (+25,000)*
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 35,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 38.3% from Seven (3) on 23.5%, Ten (3) was on 19.6%, the ABC (4) was on 12.3% and SBS (2) ended on 6.2%. Nine leads the week with 31.1% from Seven on 27.3% and Ten on 20.5%. Main Channels: Nine won with a share of 33.7% from Seven on 16.8%, Ten was on 15.2%, ABC 1, 8.1% and SBS ONE, 5.4%. Nine leads the week with 25.0% from Seven on 20.4% and Ten on 15.4%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won the night with 3.8%, from Eleven on 3.0%, 7mate was on 2.9%, ABC 2, 2.7%, GO was on 2.6%, Gem was on 2.0%, ONE was on 1.4%, ABC 3, was on 1.9%, SBS TWO ended on 0.8% and News 24 finished with 0.6%. the 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 20.8%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.7%, from GO with 3.4% and 7mate on 3.2%.

Metro including Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 33.1% from Seven (3) on 20.3%, Ten (3) was on 17.0%, the ABC (4) was on 10.6% and SBS (2) ended on 5.4%. Pay TV finished with a share of 10.9% for its 200 plus channels. That was depressed by the size of the audience watching Nine.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (2.7%)
TV 1 (2.1%)
Fox Sports 3 (1.9%)
Lifestyle (1.7%)
Nickelodeon (1.5%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Futurama (Fox 8) — 81,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 80,000
Eastenders (UKTV) — 77,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 71,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 63,000

Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 44.6%, from Prime/7Qld (3) on 24.3%, SC Ten (3) was on 14.9%, the ABC (4) was on 10.5% and SBS (2) ended on 5.7%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 39.7%, Prime/7Qld was second a long way back on 14.2%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.1% from, 7mate on 5.0%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a high 24.5% (given that the third Origin game was on live). WIN/NBN lead the week on 34.0% from Prime/7Qld on 28.8%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

State of Origin (game) — 1.349 million
State of Origin (post-game) — 914,000
State of Origin (pre-game) — 740,000
Seven News — 637,000
Nine News — 558,000

Major Metro Markets: Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with the NRL State of Origin (overall and the main channels). Seven was second overall, and in the main channels, Ten took second in Sydney and Melbourne and Seven was third. In Adelaide and Perth Seven was the winner, with Ten second and Nine third. In the digitals. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and shared Perth with Eleven, which won Brisbane. Nine leads the week in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and will win the week. Seven leads Adelaide and Perth.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports