Aunty steals audiences with its night of news

Seven won and won easily, helped by weak programming from Nine and Ten's weak line up after MasterChef

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven won and won easily, helped by weak programming from Nine and Ten’s weak line up after MasterChef. In fact, Nine and Ten were given a right whacking in some markets by the ABC and its hours of news and current affairs. Nine was weak in Brisbane, Adelaide and especially in Perth where its main channel could only manage a share of just 8.0%, which meant Nine actually finished last among the FTA networks in Perth in the main channels in prime time last night. That is an appalling result for a Nine which has battled for years in the Perth market for traction. It is close to the lowest share Nine has gotten for its main channel anywhere since the new OzTAM ratings system started.

Australian Story had its third million plus audience in a row last night with 1.079 million metro and 1.551 million national viewers. The story on the journalist/station owners in the southwest of Queensland was another excellent example of the gap between major ABC programs and the commercial networks insofar as long form story telling is concerned.

The Nine Network had to learned a tough lesson last night that Ten could have told them about.. That is, US versions of popular talent shows (and UK for that matter) do not do well. Local viewers want the local version, as Nine viewers showed with The Voice in April, May and June. Nine backs up with another US audition tonight. It’s two hours tonight, or supposed to be. Will Nine make a change between now and then?

Judging by the programming last night and tonight, Nine is running dead ahead of the Olympics. One could call it cost saving.

Tonight: Well, Race For London on ABC 1 at 8pm. Winners & Losers on Seven at 8.30pm. MasterChef comes to you from Tuscany. SBS has a documentary on drugs in sprinting, specifically based on the 1988 men’s 100 metres at the Seoul Olympics which saw Ben Johnson exposed as a drugs cheat, called The Race. It’s a rest day in the Tour de France. Nine? Well ignore — a very weak night is in the schedule.

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

Seven News — 1.990 million
Nine News — 1.902 million
Revenge (Seven) — 1.891 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.687 million
MasterChef (Ten) — 1.655 million
Australian Story (ABC 1) — 1.551 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.489 million
ABC News — 1.461 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.442 million
The Amazing Race Australia (Seven) — 1.438 million

The Metro Winners:

Seven News (6pm) — 1.379 million
Revenge (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.328 million
Nine News — 1.305 million
MasterChef (Ten) (8.10pm) — 1.259 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.167 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.122 million
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 1.079 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.065 million
The Amazing Race Australia (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.023 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.014 million

The Losers: The Voice on Nine. Spiderman 3 on Nine from 8pm (454,000). Ten’s NCIS repeat at 8.30pm, 583,000 — it beat Spiderman on Nine though!

Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. A Current Affair also won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven news and Today Tonighthad big win in Adelaide and Perth that were more than enough to offset the losses on the East Coast.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.379 million
Nine News — 1.305 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.167 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.122 million
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 1.079 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.065 million
Ten News (5pm) — 840,000
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 830,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 790,000
Media Watch (ABC) (9.20pm) — 747,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 627,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 662,000 (+75,000)*
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 534,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 238,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 174,000
Ten News (10.30pm) — 133,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 125,000
The Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 123,000
The Drum (News 24) (6pm) — 26,000

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: Ten’s Breakfast perked up a week after the loss of an anchor and executive producer. Holidays hit the audiences for Sunrise and Today.

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 320,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 260,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 221,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 139,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 56,000
News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 39,000 (+23,000)*
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 45,000

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 31.4% from Nine (3) on 21.3%, Ten (3) was on 20.4%, the ABC (4) was on 19.8% and SBS (2) ended with 7.0%. Seven new leads the week with 32.3% from Nine on 25.3% and Ten with 19.7%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 23.6% from ABC 1 on 15.4%, Nine was on 15.2%, Ten was on 14.9% and SBS ended with 6.5%. Seven leads the week with 24.7% from Nine on 19.1% and Ten on 14.5%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.7%, from 7mate and Gem on 3.1% each, GO and Eleven were on 3.0% each, ABC 2 and ONE were on 2.5% each, ABC 3 ended with 1.1%, News 24, 0.8% and SBS TWO, 0.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 24.8%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.2% from GO on 3.5% and 7mate on 3.4%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 25.8% from Nine (3) on 17.5, Ten (3) was on 16.8%, the ABC (4) was on 16.3%, pay TV (300 plus channels) ended with 15.6%, and SBS (2) ended with 5.8%. the 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 84.4%. The 10 digital channels share totalled 20.1%, the five main channels share was 64.3%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox Sports 2 (4.1%)
Fox 8 (3.8%)
TV 1 (1.9%)
Nickelodeon (1.8%)
Cartoon Network (1.7%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

NRL: Cronulla v Easts (Fox Sports 2) — 347,000
NRL: NRL XTRA (Fox Sports 2) — 245,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 112,000
AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 107,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 96,000

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 33.2%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 24.4%, The ABC (4) was on 17.9%, SC Ten (3) was on 17.0% and SBS (2) ended on 7.5%. The main channels were won by prime/7Qld with 22.6%, from WIN/NBN on 17.1%, ABC 1 was on 13.0% and SC Ten was on 11.1%. 7TWO won the digitals with 6.4% from 7mate on 4.2% and GO on 3.8%. The 10 digital channels FTA share last night was a high 29.5%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.9% from WIN/NBN on 28.1%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Seven News — 610,000
Nine News — 598,000.
A Current Affair — 565,000
Revenge — 562,000
Home and Away — 476,000

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep to Seven, both overall and the main channels, in all five metro markets something Nine found almost impossible to achieve with The Voice and The Block. The ABC finished third overall in Sydney and Melbourne, and second in Adelaide and Perth. In the main channels, ABC 1 was third in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and second in Adelaide and Perth where Nine was pushed to 4th or 5th. 7TWO had a rare clean sweep in the digitals in all five metro markets. Seven now leads the week in all five markets and will go on to win the week.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports