Games keep delivering for Nine

Nine's audience has steadied and the big fall on Monday night was largely absent last night.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Nine’s night again. Foxtel also had a good night. They finished first and second, again.

Seven’s Winners & Losers held up well with 843,000 metro viewers and 1.232 million nationally from 8.30 pm. Ten’s MasterChef All Stars faded a bit, to average 771,000 metro viewers and 1.054 million nationally, which is still OK. Seven’s Once Upon a Time also held up again nicely at 7.30pm with 807,000 metro viewers and 1.206 million nationally.

Being Lara Bingle sank to average 463,000 metro viewers and 610,000 nationally for Ten at 8pm. Hurrah!

Games update: Nine’s audience has steadied and the big fall on Monday night was largely absent last night. Nationally, the key evening session averaged 2.652 million for the early evening and 2.264 million for the evening session, for an average of 2.458 million.

The average of last night in metro markets was just over 1.65 million people (1.790 million for the early session and 1.539 million for the evening session). That’s steady on the night before. In regional markets the averages were 862,000 for the early evening and 726,000 for the evening session, and 794,000 for the coverage from 6.30pm to 11.30pm. Nine’s metro audiences are down on those for Beijing (understandable given the more favourable time difference in 2008) and on Athens. The 10 digital channels are having an impact as well as social media and the more extensive coverage on Foxtel (and its higher penetration).

A Current Affair was again pre-empted in Adelaide and Perth and in regional markets, except northern NSW (and shortened in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tasmania). In Brisbane, Nine News thought so much of the gold medal won by the women’s 4 x 100 metres team on the first night, that it was repeated for a while last night until it was realised it was a repeat and Nine crashed out of it.

Commentary: James Tomkins on the rowing was spot on. The British voices in the show jumping were, well very horsey, but also insightful, which is what you want. The swimming finals this morning featured tremendous racing from the US, France, China and Australia. Grant Hackett has emerged as perhaps the best swimming technical commentator (i.e. a former top swimmer), since Duncan Armstrong. Well worth Nine keeping on. Ray Warren continues to use his best NRL calling style, which is what some of these 100 metre events are like these days in the closeness of the racing.

Frustration keeps emerging from the Pay TV industry about how Foxtel is keeping a lid on the figures for its Games channels. It’s a good story and some see the reluctance to release data as a holdover from the bunker mentality from Kim Williams’ time as CEO of the Pay TV business. Is it time for Richard Freudenstein to step up and make his mark by releasing the data?

At Nine, Gem continues to be a lost opportunity. The Hockeyroos game against Germany was a thriller from all accounts and could have easily been seen live on Gem (but was on one of the Foxtel channels).

Tonight: Games on Nine and Pay TV. Gruen Sweat on ABC 1. MasterChef All Stars on Ten. Seven has a mixed bag, including a behind the scenes episode of Downton Abbey. Ten also has double new episodes of House for those who need a bit of medicine. Contrary to newspaper and one major online guide, Ten has snuck The Shire into the schedule tonight at 8pm. That means The Shire is dead because Ten is using up the episodes while the games are on.

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

The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) — 2.652 million
The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) — 2.264 million
Nine News — 2.023 million
Seven News — 1.734 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.397 million
Winners & Losers (Seven) — 1.232 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.227 million
Once Upon a Time (Seven) — 1.206 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.151 million
ABC News — 1.146 million

The Metro Winners:

The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) (6.50pm) — 1.790 million
The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.539 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.362 million
Seven News (pm) — 1.136 million

The Losers: No one really, well those who watched Being Lara Bingle at 8pm on Ten.

Metro News & CA: Nine News was again boosted by the Games, but not in Perth, where Seven News won by just 9000 viewers.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.362 million
Seven News (pm) — 1.136 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 985,000
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 970,000
ABC News (7pm) — 793,000
Ten News (5pm) — 700,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 640,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 525,000
Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 445,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 443,000
Insight (SBS) (8.30pm) — 261,000
Ten News (10.30pm) — 197,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 151,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 144,000
Dateline (SBS) (9.30pm) — 103,000
The Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 103,000
SBS News (10.30pm) — 56,000
The Drum (News 24) (10pm) — 40,000

In the morning: Today and Mornings on Nine are pre-empted by the Games coverage. Ten’s Breakfast‘s boost on Monday was reversed yesterday. Perhaps viewers thought it was being axed (as it should be). The Circle was again supported towards its death on Friday by loyal viewers.

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 372,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 177,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 54,000
News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 46,000 (+28,000)*
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 34,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 40.4%, from Seven (3) on 23.4%, Ten (3) was on 18.1%, the ABC (4) ended on 13.4% and SBS (2) was on 4.7%. Nine leads the week with 42.1% from Seven on 22.7% and Ten on 16.8%. Main Channels: Nine won with a share of 36.7% from Seven on 17.9%, Ten was on 13.1%, ABC 1 was on 9.6% and SBS ONE ended on 3.7%. Nine leads the week with 38.4% from Seven on 17.4% and Ten with 11.9%.

Metro Digital: GO won with a share of 3.2%, from 7TWO on 3.1%, Eleven was on 2.7%, ABC 2 was on 2.6%, 7mate and ONE ended on 2.3% each, SBS TWO was on 1.0%, ABC 3 was on 0.78% and Gem and News 24 finished on 0.6% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 19.1%. 7TWO still lead with 3.2% from GO on 3.1% and ONE and Eleven on 2.4% each.

Metro including Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 31.7%, from Seven (3) on 18.4%, Ten (3) was on 14.2%, the ABC (4) ended on 10.5% and SBS (2) was on 3.7%. Pay TV (200 plus channels) finished second on the night with a share of 19.1%. The 15 FTA channels share last night was 80.9% with the five main channels share on 66.1% and the 10 digital channels share totalling 14.85%. No separate figures for the 8 channels covering the games on Foxtel (either combined or broken down). But looking at the share figures and the audience data for other programs, the Games coverage is sucking viewers away from other Pay TV channels and programs.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Other Subscription Channels (Includes the 8 Foxtel Games Channels) (26.5%)
Fox 8 (2.4%)
TV1 (1.9%)
W & Fox Classic (1.3%)
Lifestyle (1.2%)

Regional: WIN/NBN (3) won with a share of 40.1%, from Prime/7Qld on 25.5%, with SC Ten (3) on 16.4%, the ABC (4) was on 13.5% and SBS (2) ended on 4.5%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 37.3%, from Prime/7Qld on 18.1%. 7TWO won the digital channels with 3.9%, from 7mate on 3.4%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 21.0%. WIN/NBN lead the week with 42.7% and Prime/7Qld on 24.8%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) — 862,000
The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine)– 726,000
Nine News — 660,000
Seven News — 597,000
WIN News — 457,000

Major Metro Markets: Nine had a good night, but viewers in Perth aren’t so enamoured with the Games and Nine’s winning margin continues to narrow as its nightly share eases lower. Anyway, it was a clean sweep for Nine, overall and the main channels, with Seven second and Ten third. GO won the digitals in Sydney and Perth, Eleven won Brisbane and Adelaide, 7TWO won Melbourne. Nine leads the week from Seven and Ten.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports