The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A clean sweep for Seven last night, although there were a couple of close results in some markets. This is the last week of official ratings, but don’t expect any blockbusters.

Seven won metro and regional markets with another solid effort by Sunday Night at 6.30pm (1.3 million metro and a very strong 2.1 million national viewers). The cricket boosted Nine News, but that didn’t extend to the weak Women’s Weekly Summer Special at 6.30pm. Nine’s audience in metro markets halved from more than 1.3 million metro viewers (1.9 million nationally) for the 6pm News to 674,000 for the Weekly special. It was rating spak filla at its worst, hammy (no pun intended) and not very informative. A “special” for TV for the sake of filling an hour. No imagination at all.

When 60 Minutes started at 7.30pm, Nine viewers returned in their hundreds of thousands as the audience all but doubled from the Weekly rubbish to more than 1.3 million metro and over 1.8 million nationally. Nationally the Weekly special had 1 million viewers, or 900,000 less than the 6pm news and more than 880,000 less than 60 Minutes, a real thumbs down for the idea from viewers and a warning to programmers. And who paid for the program now that the Weekly is owned outside of Nine by Bauer Media? Was it contra — meaning no income from the Weekly‘s ads in the hour?

The afternoon session of the Test cricket had more than 1.1 million metro and over 1.7 million national viewers. Very good figures. The afternoon session on Saturday had 988,000 metro and 1.117 million national viewers. Nine will be happy to have the Australian cricket team performing well and someone like Michael Clark dominating with the bat. Now to get a couple of fit fast bowlers for three tests!

Tonight: The second night of the last week of official ratings. The ABC ends Media Watch and Q&A have their final efforts for the year tonight. Both have had very solid years and Media Watch has, in particular, answered its critics (that is News Limited and some internally at the ABC), with good analysis. It’s a pity the program won’t be around next Monday to give it’s take on the Leveson report which is due for release Friday morning, Australian time.

Q&A has proven its worth, even with all those politicians. Next year will be big for it with an election (and also important for Media Watch, not to mention 7.30, Four Corners and Lateline). Nine has the last day of the second cricket test from Adelaide (as you read, I hope!). It then has The Mentalist at 8.30pm. Seven has Castle, also at 8.30pm, after a tribute to Whitney Houston. Ten has Can of Worms.

Moan: When will the Ten Network really get real? It’s had a rotten year, all of which has been its own making, but the one thing it was doing well was broadcasting each night. The managerial and staffing problems wasn’t affecting the Network’s most basic function. But did that change last night? For whatever reason the Intelligent Recording application on the PVR stopped recording Homeland before the end at around 9.30pm (as it was supposed to do). But that was a few minutes before the program had actually ended, so we missed the climax! I estimate the recording stopped around four to five minutes short of the program’s end. There seemed to be no reason for the early end other than either Ten got the timings wrong on the EPG or it allowed programs in front of Homeland to overrun. So what use is is a record and watch function on the PVR and the ratings if this is happening? This is not the first time it has happened, but last night was very annoying.

Last Week: Seven won easily, both in metro and regional markets thanks especially to the two finals of The X Factor. That also meant Seven won the important demos. According to Oztam data, Seven is now the most watched of the networks in the main channels, in All people, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54s and can’t be be beaten with a week of ratings left. With the digital channels included, Nine is still ahead in 25 to 54’s. Seven though is ahead in All People, which is only good for bragging rights these days. The main channels is where around 80% of ad dollars are spent these days and remains the battleground between the networks. And, when you take into account regional markets. Seven is again the clear national winner across main channels, digital channels and overall in All People and 25 to 54s.

Finally, Seven has another reason to be happy. A key part of its 2014 prime time ratings line up is now in place after ITV in the UK committed to a fourth season of Downton Abbey. There will be eight instalments, in addition to another Christmas special. Filming starts in February and the new episodes are expected to start airing in Britain September-October of 2013, with another two hour Christmas special being shown on Christmas Day next year. The first episode will also be two hours in duration. The 2012 Christmas special will air in Britain on Christmas Day at 9pm. Seven will tack that onto the end of series three which is due to start next February. Series three had consolidated UK ratings (live, overnight and seven day record and watch) of 11.9 million viewers an episode (around a 40% share in UK markets). The final episode of the series averaged more than 12 million viewers.

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

  1. Sunday Night (Seven) — 2.108 million.
  2. Nine News — 1.925 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.884 million.
  4. Seven News — 1.772 million.
  5. Test Cricket, Session 2 (Nine) — 1.720 million.
  6. Air Ways (Seven) — 1.375 million.
  7. Border Security (Seven) — 1.352 million.
  8. Bones (Seven) — 1.272 million.
  9. The Cricket Show (Nine) — 1.113 million.
  10. Michael Palin’s Brazil (ABC 1) — 1.100 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.378 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.332 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.302 million.
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.167 million.
  5. Test cricket, Session 2 (Nine, afternoon) — 1.135 million.

The Losers: No one really. Not the strongest of nights, but have seen worse in recent weeks on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.Metro News & CA: Big wins in Sydney (82,000) and Melbourne (229,000) because of the test cricket, pushed Nine to a national win, though Seven News won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

  1. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.378 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.332 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.302 million.
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.167 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 732,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 421,000.
  7. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 341,000.
  8. SBS News (6.30pm) — 148,000.

In the morning: The afternoon session of the test cricket on nine seems to have flattened the audience for the 4.30pm repeat of The Bolt Report. Inside Business slumped again and dragged down Offsiders after Insiders on ABC1 in the morning.

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 341,000.
  2. Weekend Today (Nine, 9am) — 278,000.
  3. Best of Landline Summer (ABC1, 12pm) — 158,000.
  4. Insiders (ABC1, 9am) — 154,000 + 66,000 on News 24.
  5. The Bolt Report (Ten, 10am) — 151,000.
  6. Inside Business (ABC1, 10am) — 98,000.
  7. Offsiders (ABC1, 10.30am) — 95,000.
  8. Meet The Press (Ten, 10.30am) — 87,000.
  9. The Bolt Report (Ten, 4.30pm, repeat) — 75,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 33.5%, from Nine (three) on 29.0%, Ten (three) was on 17.8%, the ABC (four) was on 15.5% and SBS (two) ended with 4.5%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 23.2% from Nine on 20.6%, Ten on 13.0%, ABC1 was on 11.7% and SBS ONE on 4.0%.

Metro Digital: Meanwhile, 7mate won with 6.1% from GO with 5.1%, 7TWO on 3.9%, Gem was on 3.3%, Eleven was on 2.6%, ABC2, 2.3%, ONE was on 2.2%, News 24 ended on 0.7%, ABC 3, 0.6% and SBS TWO, 0.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 28.3%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 27.0%, from Nine (three) on 23.5%, Ten (three) was on 14.4%, the ABC (four) was on 12.5% and SBS (two) ended with 3.7%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 83.2%. The five main channels’ share was 61.1% after the 10 digital channels’ share of 23.2%. Pay TV had a share of 16.8% for the 200 plus channels on Foxtel.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. TV1 – 2.0%.
  2. Fox8, showtime premiere, Fox Sports 1 — 1.8%
  3. LifeStyle — 1.6%.
  4. 111 Hits, Nick — 1.5%.
  5. Fox Classics, Movie ONE — 1.4%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Modern Family (Fox8 ) — 81,000.
  2. A League: Cent. Coast v Brisbane (Fox Sports 1) — 77,000.
  3. Top Gear: Bond Cars (BBC Knowledge) — 72,000.
  4. Tower Heist (Showtime Premiere) — 66,000/
  5. NCIS (TV1) — 65,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 36.0%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 29.7%, SC Ten (three) was on 15.3%, the ABC (four) was on 15.2% and SBS (two) ended with 3.8%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 24.9% from WIN/NBN on 20.5%, ABC1 was on 11.4%, SC Ten ended on 10.3%. The digitals were won by 7mate with 6.4% from GO with 5.4% and 7mate on 4.7%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share last night of 29.5%

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Sunday Night — 732,000.
  2. Nine News — 595,000.
  3. Test Cricket Session 2 — 585,000.
  4. 60 Minutes — 581,000.
  5. Seven News — 566,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven won all five metro markets (overall and main channels) with Nine second and Ten third everywhere by Adelaide where ABC1 slipped into third in the main channels. Meanwhile, 7mate won the digitals in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and shared Sydney with GO.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data