A near thing but Nine denies Seven

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A close night, but Nine really won even though Seven was just ahead in All People. It was in fact a very good night to be doing something else. Not even the “charm” of Rake on ABC 1 could light up such a dull night that was devoid of choice. The high share for the 10 digital channels in metro markets of more than 30% also told us that most viewers thought along the same lines. It was a similar story in regional markets where the digital channels had one of their highest shares of more than 34%.

The night had a real late-season feel about it with the networks tired and hanging on until the end of the footy season.

Rake had 821,000 metro and 1.105 million national viewers (on its debut last week it had 798,000 and 1.081 million), so there was a small improvement, which is more than you can say for most dramas and other TV programs this year. It was a solitary beacon of originality last night.

The Footy Show (AFL) boosted Nine in Melbourne with 303,000 metro and national viewers from 9.30 pm. That in turn helped boost Nine nationally. The Footy Shows had a total metro audience of 704,000 and nationally. The NRL version had 173,000 in Sydney and only 81,000 in Brisbane in the second week of finals. Ten’s The Game Plan (AFL and NRL) were well behind on 452,000 metro and national viewers. The AFL version had 199,000 viewers in Melbourne from 8.30pm. It was Ten’s most-watched program in Melbourne last night.

Tonight: An AFL final on Seven and Foxtel. An NRL final on Nine. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven in NRL markets. Ten has The Living Room. Nine also has Big Brother. The ABC has another Scott & Bailey. And the Taggart repeats end tonight from 9.30pm. SBS has David Suchet: In the Footsteps of St Paul. Davis Cup tennis on 7TWO from Germany for diehard fans.

Saturday: NRL and AFL finals on the usual channels. Davis Cup on 7TWO. And that’s about it.

Sunday: Morning chats. No football today. Sunday Night on Seven and Border Security, 60 Minutes on Nine plus Big Brother and House Husbands. Ten has nothing. The ABC has Call The Midwife and then a Miss Marple repeat. Last day of the Davis Cup on 7TWO. That wonderfully miserable movie, Misery (Kathy Bates and a sledgehammer) is on Gem at 8.30pm.

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

Seven News — 1.752 million
Nine News — 1.632 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.434 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.413 million
7pm ABC 1 News — 1.405 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.287 million
Big Brother (Nine) — 1.255 million
7.30 (ABC) — 1.191 million
Criminal Minds (Seven) — 1.121 million
Big Brother Confidential (Nine) — 1.108 million

The metro winners:

Seven News (6pm) — 1.188 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.100 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.061 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.042 million

The losers: Ten, again. Plus Nine and its repeats of The Big Bang Theory and Seven for the weak doco Empire at 7.30pm in NRL markets.

Metro news & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne (by 76,000. Seven won Brisbane (by 65,000), Adelaide and Perth (by 112,0000). TT had a rare clean sweep over a weak ACA.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.188 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.100 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.061 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.042 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 865,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 853,000
Ten News (5pm) — 694,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 561,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 430,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 141,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 139,000
Ten News (Ten) (10.30pm) — 108,000
The Business (ABC 1) (11.05pm, repeat) — 106.000
SBS News (10. 30pm) — 56,000
The Drum (News 24) (10pm) — 44,000

In the morning: Sunrise opened up a gap on Today, again.

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 371,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 321,000
The Morning Shown (Seven) (9am) — 157,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 95,000
News Breakfast (ABC 1) (7am) — 40,000 (+28,000)*
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 38,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 30.6% from Nine (three) on 29.5%, the ABC (four) was on 18.3%, Ten (three) on 16.8% and SBS (two) ended on 4.8%. Seven now leads the week with 32.3% from Nine on 26.9%, the ABC on 19.3% and Ten on 16.4%.

Main channels: Nine won narrowly with 21.3% from Seven on 21.0%, ABC 1 was third with 13.8%, Ten was next with 10.4% and SBS ONE was on 3.9%. Seven leads the week with 23.7% from Nine on 20.3%, ABC 1 on 14.5% and Ten on 10.5%.

Metro digital: 7TWO won with 5.5%, from GO on 5.0%, Eleven on 4.2%, 7mate on 4.1%, Gem on 3.3%, ABC 2 was on 2.8%, ONE, 2.1%, SBS TWO, 1.0%, News 24, 0.9% and ABC 3, 0.8%. the 10 digital channels had a high FTA share last night of 30.7%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.6%, from 7mate on 4.0% and GO on 3.8%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 25.2% from Nine (three) on 24.2%, the ABC (four) was on 15.0%, Ten (three) on 13.8% and SBS (two) ended on 4.0%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 84.2%. The 10 digital channels share was a high 24.5%, the give main channels share was a low 59.7%. the 200-plus channels on Foxtel had a total pay TV share last night of 15.8%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

LifeStyle (3.2%)
Fox 8 (2.9%)
TV1 (2.1%)
A&E (1.9%)
Discovery & UKTV (1.6%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

AFL: AFL 360 (FF) — 96,000
AFL: AFL League Teams (FF) — 79,000
Family Guy (F8) — 69,000
Storage Wars (A&E) — 68,000
SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon) — 66,000

Regional: Prime/7Qld leads the week with 35.6% from WIN/NBN on 26.7%, the ABC was on 18.2% and Ten was back in 4th on 14.5%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

A Current Affair — 570,000
Seven News — 554,000
Nine News — 532,000
Home and Away — 483,000
ABC News — 463,000

Major metro markets: Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth (overall and the main channels). Nine won Sydney and Melbourne (overall and the main channels) thanks to Big Brother and The Footy Show. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and in Perth shared the night with Eleven. 7mate won Adelaide. Nine leads Melbourne from Seven and the ABC, but will fall behind tonight and tomorrow with the AFL finals. Nine will get closer in Sydney and Brisbane with the NRL finals tonight and tomorrow night. But the AFL finals will see Seven go further ahead in Adelaide and Perth and get the national win for the week.

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

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports