The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Nine was always going to win with the NRL grand final (and the presentations) on from 5.20pm, which went into primetime to finish about 7.40 (10 minutes was added by Nine late in the week). Compared to Seven’s coverage of the AFL  grand final on Saturday, Nine seemed flat, and the callers were not in the same class as Seven’s (especially Dennis Cometti). But both were great games and the audiences were close to record levels, especially in Melbourne for the NRL win by the Melbourne Storm.

Curiously, the presentations for the AFL has more and interest than for the NRL, which seemed a “shuffle the players on, get them off quickly and go to 60 Minutes” from Nine. The free concert after the grand final at the MCG seemed a very good idea. But there won’t be a chance for that with the NRL returning to Sunday night grand final (8pm kick off) from next year.

The other networks couldn’t match that 2.42 million audience in metro markets nor the 1.3 million plus for regional markets. The regional markets proved were collectively the biggest audience for the NRL grand final. Melbourne was of course the biggest audience for the AFL with 1.33 million viewers (609,000 in Sydney). The win by the Storm was watched by 751,000 in Melbourne (957,000 in Sydney) which swelled to a huge 960,000 for the presentations.

Tonight: the The ABC has the usual four and more hours of news and current affairs on 1. Seven has The X Factor and GCB. Nine has Big Brother and the final Underbelly for this series (which will be the lowest rating of them all so far). Ten has two new eps of New Girl at 7.30 and 8 o’clock and then Can of Worms. SBS has Mythbusters on ONE.

Last Week: Seven won, easily in the metro and regional markets. The AFL grand final on Saturday provided the icing on the cake, Seven had the week won after the end of ratings on Thursday night.

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

  1. NRL Presentation (Nine) — 3.711 million.
  2. NRL grand final (Nine) — 3.680 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 2.146 million.
  4. NRL grand final entertainment (Nine) — 2.020 million.
  5. Nine News — 1.767 million.
  6. House Husbands (Nine) — 1.686 million.
  7. Seven News — 1.588 million.
  8. Border Security (Seven) — 1.447 million.
  9. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.381 million.
  10. Call The Midwife (ABC 1) — 1.376 million.

The metro winners:

  1. NRL presentations (Nine after 7pm) — 2.424 million.
  2. NRL grand final (Nine, 5pm) — 2.401 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.444 million.
  4. NRL grand final entertainment (Nine, 4.30pm) — 1.297 million.
  5. Nine 6pm News — 1.212 million.
  6. Seven 6pm News — 1.150 million.
  7. House Husbands (Nine, 8.40pm) — 1.133 million.

The losers: No one really, the NRL grand final completely upset the night, that’s except Ten, which was weak regardless of the grand final on Nine. Its regional main channel share was 5.6%, a low.

Metro news and current affairs: No surprise, the NRL grand final was the big influence. The 6pm News broadcasts didn’t happen last night. Nine’s went from around 4.05-4.30 pm.

  1. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.444 million.
  2. Nine 6pm News — 1.212 million.
  3. Seven 6pm News — 1.150 million.
  4. 7pm ABC 1 News — 641,000.
  5. Ten News At Five (Ten, 5pm) — 336,000.
  6. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 269,000.
  7. World News Australia (SBS ONE, 6.30pm) — 115,000.

In the morning: Inside Business’ audience collapsed yesterday to what was close to, if not its lowest audience figure for years.

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 355,000.
  2. Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 277,000.
  3. Landline (ABC 1, noon) — 191,000.
  4. Insiders (ABC 1, 9am) — 167,000 + 56,000 on News 24*.
  5. The Bolt Report (Ten, 10pm) — 146,000.
  6. Offsiders (ABC 1, 10.30am) — 121,000.
  7. The Bolt Report Encore (Ten, 4.30pm) 117,000.
  8. Meet The Press (Ten, 10.30am) — 97,000.
  9. Inside Business (ABC 1, 10am) — 75,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Nine (three) won with a share of 40.8% from Seven (three) on 25.2%, the ABC (four) was on 17.2%, Ten (three) ended on 12.9% and SBS (two) was on 3.9%.

Main channels: Nine won with a share of 34.2% from Seven on 18.3%, ABC 1 on 14.4%, Ten was back on just 8.1% and SBS ONE ended on 3.4%.

Metro Digital: GO won with 4.3%, from 7TWO on 3.7%, 7mate was on 3.2%, Eleven was on 2.9%, Gem was on 2.3%, ONE, 1.9%, ABC 2, 1.3%, News 24, 0.8%, ABC 3, 0.7% and SBS TWO ended with 0.4%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 22.5%.

Metro including pay TV: Nine (three) won with a share of 33.6% from Seven (three) on 20.7%, the ABC (four) was on 14.1%, Ten (three) ended on 10.6% and SBS (two) was on 3.2%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.3% share of viewing last night with the five main channels share on 66.4% and the 10 digital channels share totalling 17.9%. The 200-plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a 15.7% share of viewing last night.

Regional: WIN/NBN (three) won with a share of 46.1% from Prime/7Qld (three) on 23.3%, the ABC (four) was on 16.9%, SC Ten (three) ended on 9.9% and SBS (two) was on 3.7%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 38.6%, from Prime/7Qld on 16.3%, ABC 1 on 13.2% and SC Ten on 5.6%. (An all-time low for Ten). The digitals were won by GO with 4.1%, 7TWO on 3.9% and 7mate and Gem on 3.1% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 23.0%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. NRL grand final — 1.366 million.
  2. NRL presentations — 1.022 million.
  3. Grand final entertainment — 824,000.
  4. 60 Minutes — 701,000.
  5. Nine News — 542,000.

Major metro markets: Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane overall and the main channels with the NRL grand final. Seven was second and the ABC/ABC 1 were third. Seven won Adelaide and Perth. Nine was second overall and in the main channels in Perth. the ABC was third and ABC 1 was second in the main channels in Adelaide and third in Perth. GO win the digitals in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. 7TWO won Melbourne and Eleven won Perth.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data