Ashes opener guides Nine News to a win

The Winners: If anyone is wondering, the cricket averaged 601,000 from around 10am to 6pm, much higher from 5pm onwards. It’s why Nine News was tops. Getaway at 7.30pm on Nine averaged 897,00. The Amazing Race on Seven at 7.30pm, 797,000, Keeping Up with the Joneses on Ten at 8pm, 905,000.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.271 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.237 million
Beauty and the Geek Australia, winner (Seven) (9.30pm) — 1.224 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.153 million
Beauty and the Geek Australia (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.100 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.037 million

The Losers: All of us, it wasn’t very inspiring last night. Cricket lovers when Nine abandoned the cricket in Sydney and Melbourne for the 6pm News.

News & CA: The Test cricket helped Nine as a lead in at 6pm. That allowed Nine to win Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Seven won Perth. ACA turned the tables in Sydney over TT, thanks to the cricket. But there was no halo effect in Melbourne, Brisbane or Adelaide and ACA. If Australia is still batting at 6pm tonight, will Nine bail again for the News?

Nine News (6pm) — 1.271 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.237 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.153 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.037 million
ABC News (7pm) — 948,000
The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 720,000
Ten News (5pm) — 640,000
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 609,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 289,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.15pm) — 213,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 165,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 126,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (10.50pm) — 110,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 431,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 319,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 30.5%, from Nine (3) on 30.3%, Ten (2) with 19.3%, the ABC, 15.9% (4) and SBS (2), 4.1%. Seven leads the week with 32.1% from Nine on 21.9% and Ten on 20.3%.
Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 25.4% from Nine on 23.5%, Ten on 17.9%, ABC 1, 12.6% and SBS ONE, 3.3%. Seven leads the week with 25.6% from Nine with 21.9% and Ten on 19.6%.
Digital: The nine digital channels had an FTA share of 17.3% in prime time last night. GO won with 4.4%, from 7TWO on 2.7% and Gem and 7Mate on 2.4%. ABC 2 was on 1.9%, ONE, 1.4%, SBS TWO, 0.8%, News 24, 0.7% and ABC 3, 0.6%. The digital channels FTA shares ranged from 12.1% in Sydney to more than 24% in Perth and 19.1% in Adelaide. GO leads the week with 3.9%, from 7TWO on 2.4% and 7Mate on 3.1%
Pay TV: Seven won (3 channels) with a share of 24.4%, from Nine (3) on 24.3%, Pay TV (100 plus channels), 16.8%, the ABC (4), on 12.7% and SBS (2), 3.3%). The 14 FTA channels had a total prime time share last night of 83.2%, made up of 13.6% for the nine digitals and 69.7% for the five main channels. Pay TV’s shares ranged from the usual Sydney high, last night it was 20.3%, which put it third in market, to the Adelaide low of 12.1%. In Brisbane Pay had a share of 17.1%.
Regional: WIN/NBN won with a share of 33.3%, from Prime/7Qld with 27.5%, SC Ten on 22/.%, the ABC, 13.6% and SBS, 3.0%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 25.4% from Prime/7Qld on 22.8%. GO won the digitals with 5.3%, with Gem and 7TWO on 2.6%,. The nine digitals had an FTA share of 17.6% in prime time last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.2%, from WIN/NBN on 29.5%.

Major Markets: A close night, but lots of viewers liked their Pay TV and FTA digital channels more.

Sydney: Seven won overall from Nine and the ABC, but won the main channels from Nine and Ten. GO won the digitals from ABC 2 with 7Mate third. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.
Melbourne: Nine won overall and the main channels from Seven and Ten. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and Gem. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.
Brisbane: Nine won overall from Seven and Nine, but Seven won the main channels from Nine and Ten. GO won the digitals from Gem and 7TWO. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.
Adelaide: Nine won the overall from Seven and Nine, but Seven won the main channels from Nine and Ten. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC 2. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.
Perth: Seven won both from Nine and Ten and leads the week from Nine and Ten. Go beat 7Mate and Gem to win the digitals.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Beauty and the Geek Australia was again the unheralded reality program of the year. It’s not very tasteful, but a good end of year boost for Seven. Nothing else did well last night as we drift towards the end of the ratings year.

TONIGHT: Cricket today. Will Australia go the distance? Tonight, Better Homes and Gardens on Seven, and then Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The Silence starts on the ABC at 8.30pm and after that Identity.

Saturday: More cricket. Perhaps the final Hey Hey it’s Saturday on Nine at 7.30pm, a farewell to Bendigo Street in Melbourne at 9.40pm. Movies on Ten, the final New Tricks on the ABC, plus another Spooks. Seven has movie after movie.

Sunday: Welcome to summer and the boredom. Nothing on the ABC, Magda Szubanski on Who Do You Think You Are? on SBS at 7.30pm looks a highlight. Ignore 60 Minutes on Nine, it’s all the stories they gave us in 2010 at 7.30pm for an. Should be shorter. Ten has repeats, Seven has repeats and NZ programs, Coastwatch and Border Patrol. Ignore as well.

News: OzTAM has named Ten’s research boss, Doug Peiffer as its new CEO. He replaces Kate Inglis-Clark who departs after seven successful years as OzTAM’s chief executive. She started with OzTam measuring 5 channels now it’s over 100 FTA and Pay channels, and time shifts as well. Mr Peiffer starts next Monday.

Ten will be looking for a top line number cruncher at a time when it needs the best there is to handle the expected boardroom angst and brawls over the new hour news and Channel Eleven changes from early 2011. Is it a co-incidence that he is the first senior Ten executive to jump ship since the boardroom machinations involving Messrs Packer, Gordon. Murdoch and this week, Ms Rinehart?

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports