The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Nine’s night in a close win in metro markets, Ten faded, the ABC was solid. In regional markets it was the usual story with Seven winning. Nine won the metro markets thanks to a solid win in Sydney and a bigger victory in Melbourne where Seven’s still on the nose a bit at times. The Test cricket running over past 6pm helped of course, and launched Nine’s night with a solid bunch of extra viewers.

The last session of the Test cricket had 715,000 metro and 1.090 million national viewers. But that was only the preliminary figures. The cricket running past 6pm boosted the metro and national audience of Nine News over 1.3 million and 2 million respectively. At around 6pm Sydney time (5pm in Brisbane, 5.30pm in Adelaide and 3pm in Perth), close to 1.5 million people were watching the final minutes of the test on Nine. With a similar boost in regional markets, the average audience for Nine News topped the 2 million mark, but fell away once the drawn Test was over.

Nothing happened, of course, results wise, but it again reminded us that a draw can be gripping either if you are at the ground or watching on TV. Although some of the Nine commentators attempted to tell us, too long and loud (Messrs Healy, Taylor and Slater) that the action was indeed thrilling and that Australian fast bowler, Peter Siddle was as tired as he looked! Have a quiet word Richie and tell them it’s TV and viewers have eyes and can often see what is happening.

Tonight: Seven has Once Upon A Time on Tuesday nights from tonight (7.30pm), as well as Thursdays. The final Winners & Losers for 2012 then follows at 8.30pm. Nine has the Top Gear special on Bond cars which aired on Foxtel on Sunday night. A new episode of The Big Bang Theory has been scheduled for 9pm (at this stage). ABC1 has the final Foreign Correspondent for 2012. It also has had a good year, but has been seen all-too-infrequently thanks to the silly policy to run the program in groups of episodes. That still sounds like a cost cut/saving to me. Ten has more Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals and a repeat of NCIS.

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

  1. Nine News — 2.010 million.
  2. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.7779 million.
  3. Seven News — 1.742 million.
  4. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.508 million.
  5. RBT (Nine) — 1.450 million.
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.435 million.
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.254 million.
  8. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.219 million.
  9. Family Confidential (ABC1) — 1.173 million.
  10. The Mentalist (Nine) — 1.146 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.389 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.198 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.147 million.
  4. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.047 million.
  5. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.005 million.

The Losers: Viewers of the Whitney Houston tribute program on Seven at 7.30pm: 795,000 metro and national viewers. Ruined the rest of the night for the network. To see Britney Spears staring down the camera reading an autocue tribute to Houston with all the sincerity of well, Britney Spears, was just too much for me and no doubt thousands of other people. I was shocked by the spontaneity shown by Spears and others. Ten’s line up, Hawaii Five-0 at 9.30pm, 311,000 metro and national viewers. That’s a joke.Metro News & CA: Media Watch signed off for the year and reminded us again why it’s valuable. Actually Media Watch could have half an hour or an hour from either 8.30 or 9pm for the last program of the year. It has deserved it. Q&A signed off for 2012 and reminded us that occasionally it is a good watch, other times it can be tiresome. The difference between last night and the week before was quite telling.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.389 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.198 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.147 million.
  4. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.047 million.
  5. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.005 million.
  6. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 825,000.
  7. Media Watch (ABC1, 9.20pm) — 661,000.
  8. Q&A (ABC1, 9.35pm) — 620,000 + 77,000 on News 24.
  9. Ten News (5pm) — 592,000.
  10. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 517,000.
  11. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 356,000.
  12. Lateline (10.35pm) — 336,000.
  13. Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 187,000.
  14. The Business (ABC1, 11.10pm, repeat) — 164,000.
  15. SBS News (6.30pm) — 126,000.
  16. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 43,000.
  17. The Drum (News 24, 6pm) — 39,000.

In the morning: Today mustered visiting popette, Taylor Swift into the studio for a ratings boost.

  1. Today (Nine, 7am) — 390,000.
  2. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 374,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 188,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 109,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 41,000 + 37,000 on News 24.
  6. Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 47,000.

Metro FTA: Nine (three channels) won with a share of 28.5% from Seven (three) on 27.5%, the ABC (four) was third with 22.0%. Ten (three) ended with 17.9% and SBS (two) was on 4.0%. Seven leads the week with 30.4%, from Nine on 28.7%, the ABC is on 18.7% and Ten is on 17.9%. Main Channels: Nine won with a share of 20.6% from Seven on 19.2%, ABC1 was on 15.9%, Ten was on 11.7% and SBS ONE was on 3.2%. Seven leads the week with 21.2% from Nine on 20.6%, ABC 1 is on 13.8% and Ten is on 12.3%.

Metro Digital: GO won with a share of 4.7%, from 7mate on 4.2%, 7TWO was on 4.1%, ABC2 ended on 3.9%, Eleven was on 3.6%, Gem was on 3.2%, ONE was on 2.7%, News 24 ended with 1.2%, ABC3, 0.9% and SBS TWO was on 0.8%. The 10 digital channels FTA viewing share last night was a high 29.3%. 7mate leads the week with 5.2% from GO with 4.9% and 7TWO on 4.0%.

Metro including pay TV: Nine (three channels) won with a share of 23.6% from Seven (three) on 22.8%, the ABC (four) was third with 28.2%. Ten (three) ended with 14.9% and SBS (two) was on 3.4%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 84.7%. The 10 digital channels share totalled a high 24.3%, the five main channels had a share of 60.4%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a share of 15.3% last night.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. TV 1 — 2.6%
  2. Fox8 — 2.4%.
  3. UKTV — 2.1%.
  4. LifeStyle — 2.0%.
  5. A&E, Cartoon Network — 1.5%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. New Tricks (UKTV) — 78,000.
  2. Family Guy (Fox8) — 68,000.
  3. Graham Norton Show (UKTV) — 58,000.
  4. Eastenders (UKTV) — 56,000.
  5. Pawnstars (A&E) — 57,000.

Regional: WIN/NBN (three channels) won with a share of 31.9% from Prime/7Qld (three) on 29.7%, the ABC (four) was third with 19.2%. SC Ten (three) ended with 15.1% and SBS (two) was on 4.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 23.5%, from Prime/7Qld on 18.0%, ABC1 on 13.8% and SC Ten on 9.4%. Meanwhile, 7mate won the digitals with 6.0% from 7TWO on 5.7% and GO on 5.4%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of a very high 31.6%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.8% from WIN/NBN on 30.8%, the ABC on 17.2% and SC Ten on 15.2%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. A Current Affair — 631,000.
  2. Nine News — 621,000.
  3. Seven News — 534,000.
  4. RBT — 522,000.
  5. Home and Away — 451,000.

Major Metro Markets: Nine won (overall and main channels) in Melbourne and Sydney with Seven second and the ABC/ABC1 third. Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth (overall and the main channels) from Nine and the ABC/ABC1 in Brisbane and Adelaide, and the ABC/ABC1 second in Perth, with Nine third. GO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and shared Brisbane with Eleven. Meanwhile, 7TWO won Adelaide. Nine leads the week from Seven and the ABC in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven leads the week in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. In Brisbane Ten and the ABC are equal third, in Perth, the ABC is third.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data