The men’s final last night at the Australian Open Tennis on Seven match was a thrilling end to a great competition and Roger Federer was a worthy winner. But so far as Australian TV viewers were concerned, it didn’t have have the attraction of last year’s Federer-Nadal final which attracted 3.59 million national viewers for the game and 3.69 million for the presentation. Last night’s game attracted 2.3 million national viewers (can’t give you the national figure for the presentation because once again not enough data was received to give a most watched list nationally and for breakfast/mornings). Tennis Australia had better make sure Roger Federer continues in good health because without him,  last night’s lower figures will end up the best they can hope for.

Ten started I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here last night, as it did a year ago. It did better than a year ago — the first night averaged 1.68 million against 1.54 million a year ago. And Nine showed the fifth and final One Day International cricket game between Australia and England from Perth — it did OK and probably soaked up quite a view viewers who would have watched the tennis. That they preferred to watch Australia being walloped at the hands of England after another batting collapse says a lot about the stoicism of Australian cricket fans at the moment. The ODI averaged 1.39 million nationally for the second session (up against the tennis and I’m A Celebrity) and 1.362 million for the first session

Ten’s hiring of Lisa Wilkinson for the Sunday Project worked — the first night saw a near 90% jump in audience numbers from late last year. Now to hold them.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (42.8%)
  2. Nine (23.4%)
  3. Ten (19.4%)
  4. ABC (9.5%)
  5. SBS (4.8%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (36.7%)
  2. Nine (19.1%)
  3. Ten (16.8%)
  4. ABC (6.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (2.7%)
  2. 7mate (2.0%)
  3. GO (1.8%)
  4. ABC 2, 9Life (1.7%)

Top metro programs:

    1. Men’s Open Tennis Final (Seven ) — 1.730 million
    2. Men’s Open Tennis Final Presentation (Seven ) — 1.293 million
    3. Nine News — 1.289 million
    4. I’m A Celebrity Opening Night (Ten) — 1.275 million
    5. I’m A Celebrity Jungle (Ten) — 1.108 million

Losers:  No one, except the Australian cricket team and the ABC.

Metro news and current affairs:

    1. Nine News — 1.289 million
    2. Seven News —888,000
    3. The Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 583,000
    4. 7pm ABC News — 500,000
    5. The Sunday Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 481,000
    6. Ten Eyewitness News — 362,000
    7. SBS World News — 147,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Kong: Skull Island (Foxtel Movies ) — 61,000
  2. SWAT (Fox8) — 46,000
  3. Women’s World Rugby Sevens Series (Fox Sports) — 46,000
  4. Avatar (Foxtel Movies) — 43,000
  5. NCIS (TVHITS) — 43,000