The Winners: Enough said. The rest of the night has been forgotten. Rex in Rome, 210,000 for the fresh episode, woof.

  1. Seven News (6pm)  — 1.289 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.118 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.090 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 1.017 million

The Losers: Us, all of us, again. The Trophy Room on the ABC at 8.30pm, 461,000. Poor, below par, weak, not funny, off the pace, slow. In need of a wit transfer. Worse than the Australian cricket team. Any more need be said?

News & CA: Seven News/Today Tonight had a clean sweep last night. In the mornings, Sunrise up to 452,000 viewers, Nine’s Today, 323,000. The 129,000 gap was very large by recent mornings. Sunrise is much stronger than Today which seems to be marking time.

  1. Seven News (6pm)  — 1.289 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.118 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.090 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 1.017 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 907,000
  6. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 805,000
  7. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 777,000
  8. Ten News (Ten) (5pm) — 765,000
  9. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 279,000
  10. SBS News (6.30pm ) — 176,000
  11. SBS News (9.30pm) — 156,000
  12. News update (ABC) (10.30pm) — 113,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 452,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 323,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels), with 33.6%, Nine (3) with 27.0%, the ABC (4), was on 17.5%, Ten was on 17.0% (2), and SBS (2), 4.9%. Seven leads the week with 31.3% from Nine on 27.8% and Ten was on 18.2%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 23.8% from Nine on 19.6%, Ten was on 16.4%, ABC 1 was 12.7% and SBS, 4.1%. Seven leads the week with 22.5% from Nine on 20.8% and Ten with 17.4%.
  • Digital: The nine FTA digital channels had a total share of 23.5%, one of the highest ever outside the Commonwealth Games. 7TWO won with a share of 5.8%, from GO on 4.9%, 7Mate on 4.1%, ABC 2 was on 2.8%, Gem on 2.4%, ABC 3, 1.1%, News 24 and SBS TWO, 0.9% each and ONE was on 0.6%. The digital channels had an FTA share that peaked at 26.4% in Adelaide, 25.3% in Perth and 24.1% in Melbourne. Sydney’s share was the lowest on 19.7%, in Brisbane it was 21.3%. 7TWO leads the week with 5.3% from GO on 4.5% and 7Mate on 3.5%.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with a share of 26.7% (3 channels), from Nine (3), 21.5%, from Pay TV (100 plus channels) with 17.7%, the ABC (4), 13.9%, Ten (2) on 13.5% and SBS, (2), 3.9%. That left the 14 FTA channels with a total share of 82.3%, made up of 18.6% for the nine digital channels and 63.7% for the five main channels. Foxtel’s metro shares ranged from the second placing of 22.8% in Sydney to 12.8% in Adelaide and More than 15% in the other markets. It was a solid night for Pay TV, again.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a share of 34.2%, from WIN/NBN on 32.7%, from SC Ten with 16.0%, the ABC with 12.9% and SBS on 4.2%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with a share of 25.3%, from WIN/NBN on 24.0%. GO won the digitals with 6.4%, from 7TWO on 4.7% and 7Mate on 4.1%. The nine digital channels had a share of 23.0% in prime time last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week with a share of 32.2%, from WIN/NBN on 30.0%.

Major Markets: Seven won everywhere, Nine was second and the ABC and Ten swapped for third in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Seven won the main channels from Nine and Ten and the ABC swapped third place in some markets. 7TWO won Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. 7Mate won Melbourne, GO won Perth. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten in all five metro markets.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: What can be really said? When a show about a dog in Rome is the freshest show in prime time … No wonder no programs in Sydney had more than 300,000 viewers last night. But six did in Melbourne. What’s wrong down south, do they turn the street lights off at night to keep you all at home and watching some of the worse TV of the year?

No wonder the digital channels had such a high share, as did Foxtel. A total of 36% of the audience last night wasn’t watching the main channels but were either inside the tent on the FTA digitals, or had bolted for the enemy. I wonder what how the advertisers on the main channels feel about the terrible programming?

News: Ten confirmed today that its new multi-channel called Eleven (or 11) will start on January 11 (ha!) and will target 13 to 29s, which means most of the Crikey readership will be too old or too grown up. Ten also admitted that the Commonwealth games was a flop and was causing the network some “pain”. That means financial pain and free ads and make-ups to keep advertisers who sponsored the Games happy and content. That this is happened in the lead up to the big Christmas season is even more “paining”.

TONIGHT: The 7.30 Report on the ABC, a must watch. Rake on the ABC at 8.30pm because it is the only living, breathing non-news program on TV tonight. Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is there, but for foodies. Rush and Recruits on Ten. Snore. The repeat of Bondi Vet at 7.30pm, after the Oprah PR program (AKA The 7PM Project).

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports