Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings: home-grown content finds favour

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A close night, Seven and Nine did well, Ten’s super Sunday again struggled, but showed some signs of improvement and the ABC did well. It was in fact an action replay of last Sunday night. Seven was also stronger in regional markets through Prime/7Qld.

Seven’s Sunday Night with more than 1.3 million metro and 2.1 million national viewers was again the most watched program across the country last night, followed by 60 Minutes.

ABC1’s Jack Irish telemovie (the second and last of this series) averaged 851,000 and more than 1.236 million national viewers and was a very satisfying watch from 8.30pm to 10.10pm. Nine’s House Husbands averaged 944,000 metro viewers and nearly 1.4 million national viewers. Its audiences are down from its debut, but it is still well supported.

Meaning, 1.8 million metro and more than 2.6 million viewers watched these two Australian programs from 8.30pm to at least 9.30pm, so it is no wonder Homeland was squashed, even though it did add viewers.

It’s not the rampant downloading that hurts programs like Homeland (contrary to what some bright sparks in the mainstream media ramble on about), it’s strong local content like Jack Irish and House Husbands that are the big factors.

Nine’s Big Brother Eviction was a live ho-hum for the audience: 911,000 watched from 6.30 to 7.30pm in metro markets and 1.184 million nationally. That was up from the previous Sunday, but down from when the series started. Speaking of Ten while Homeland did well  (see below), Modern Family was the star for the network again with 908,000 metro and 1.273 million national viewers. Both were up on a week ago, so much for downloaders!

Tonight: The hours of news and current affairs on ABC1. They will struggle to match last week’s high point. The X Factor on Seven. Nine has Big Brother, The Mentalist. Ten hasn’t much at all, perhaps Can of Worms.

Last Week: Seven won the metro and regional markets, thanks to The X Factor and Sunday Night, with help from Surveillance Oz and Home and Away. Ten was again fourth behind the ABC and Nine.

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

1. Sunday Night (Seven) — 2.100 million.
2. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.770 million.
3. Seven News — 1.741 million.
4. Border Security (Seven) — 1.589 million.
5. Air Ways (Seven) — 1.578 million.
6. David Attenborough: Kingdom of Plants (ABC1) — 1.469 million.
7. Nine News — 1.423 million.
8. House Husbands (Nine) — 1.397 million.
9. The Making of Kingdom of Plants (ABC1) — 1.367 million
10. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.469 million.

The Metro Winners:

1. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.377 million.
2. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.237 million.
3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.163 million.
4. Air Ways (Seven, 8pm) — 1.066 million.
5. Border Security (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.052 million.
6. Nine News (6pm) — 1.012 million.

The Losers: Ten, again, though Homeland‘s audience of 712,000 jumped from the 633,000 a week earlier. It had 956,000 national viewers, against 858,000 a week ago. Better figures all around. So does that mean fewer people didn’t download and waited until it appeared on Ten? Hardly. I bet not one of the experts in Fairfax and other media point to the rise in audiences for Homeland last night. Ratings moves like this for fast-tracked offshore programs make a mockery of the claims by the downloading set/media writers who concoct stories to fit narratives that are wide of the mark. Ten’s New Normal averaged 522,000 metro viewers at 8pm and 739,000 nationally. Merlin at 6.30pm averaged 561,000 metro and 845,000 national viewers. Both were also up from last week, but are past their use-by date (New Normal after 3 episodes) so far as viewers are concerned. It has little to do with downloading.Metro News & CA:

1. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.377 million.
2. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.237 million.
3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.163 million.
4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.012 million.
5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 875,000.
6. Ten News (5pm) — 499,000.
7. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 300,000.
8. SBS News 6.30pm) — 156,000.

In the morning:

1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 315,000.
2. Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 276,000.
3. Landline (ABC1, 12pm) — 201,000.
4. Insiders (ABC1, 9am) — 152,000 + 60,000 on News 24..
5. The Bolt Report (Ten, 10am) — 138,000
6. The Bolt Report repeat (Ten, 4.30pm) — 130,000.
7. Offsiders (ABC1, 10.30am) — 129,000.
8. Meet The Press (Ten, 10.30am) — 103,000.
9. Inside Business (ABC1, 10am) — 96,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 29.6%, from Nine (3) on 28.6%, the ABC (4) was on 19.2%, Ten (3) was on 18.4% and SBS (2) ended on 4.3%. Main Channels. Seven won with a share of 22.4%, from Nine on 21.6%, ABC1 was on 15.0%, Ten was on 12.5 % and SBS ONE ended on 3.8%.

Metro Digital: GO won with a share of 4.1%, from 7TWO on 3.8%, 7mate on 3.4%, ONE was on 3.0%, Eleven was on 2.9%, Gem was on 2.8%, ABC2, 2.4%, News 24, 0.9%, ABC 3, 0.8% and SBS TWO, 0.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 24.7%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 24.4%, from Nine (3) on 23.6%, the ABC (4) was on 15.8%, Ten (3) was on 15.2% and SBS (2) ended on 3.5%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of 84.7%. The five main channels’ share was 64.3%, the 10 digital’s share totalled 20.4%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave Pay TV a combined total share of 15.3%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

1. Fox 8 — 3.0%.
2. TV 1 — 2.7%
3. Fox Sports 3 — 2.5%.
4. Fox Sports 1 — 2.2%.
5. Fox Sports 2 — 2.1%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

1. Modern Family (Fox 8) — 138,000.
2. Modern Family (Fox 8) — 95,000.
3. NCIS (TV1) — 76,000.
4. Golf; Perth International (FS 2) — 72,000.
5. A-League: Perth v Melbourne Heart (FS 1) — 67,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 33.2%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 26.1%, the ABC (4) was on 19.6%, SC Ten (3) was on 17.2%, and SBS (2) ended on 3.9%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 23.2%, from WIN/NBN on 18.7%, ABC 1 on 15.2%, and SC Ten on 10.8%. 7YWO won the digitals with 5.5%, from 7mate on 4.5% and GO, Gem and One all ended with 3.7% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 28.7%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

1. Sunday Night — 723,000.
2. Seven News — 578,000.
3. Border Security — 538,000.
4. 60 Minutes — 532,000.
5. Air Ways — 512,000.

Major Metro Markets: A mixed night to start the week, with Nine winning Sydney and Melbourne (overall and the main channels), from Seven in second. Ten was third overall in Sydney. But the ABC was third overall in Melbourne and ABC1 was third in the main channels, as it was in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Seven won Brisbane and Adelaide and Perth. Ten was third overall in Brisbane and Adelaide. The ABC was third overall in Perth. 7TWO won the digitals in Melbourne and Adelaide, 7mate won Brisbane and Perth. GO won Sydney.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data