The Winners: When a repeat of a very popular episode of a program(The Vicar of Dibley) that has already screened on the ABC and Pay TV gets more than a million viewers you know audience is desperate for anything but pap.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.189 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.044 million
  3. The Vicar of Dibley (Seven) (6.30pm) (repeat) — 1.006 million

The Losers: Arghhhhh. All the pap on TV last night. But nothing could top the Seven program at 4pm yesterday called Focus On Christmas.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven News won the rest. Summer’s here.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.189 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.044 million
  3. ABC News (7pm) — 825,000
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 781,000.
  5. Ten News (5pm) — 529,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 316,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 273,000
  3. Landline (ABC) (noon) –185,000
  4. SBS News (6.30pm) — 184,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 31.7% from Nine (2) with 29.6%, the ABC (4), 16.0%, Ten (2), 13.4% and SBS (2), 7.3%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 23.3%, from Nine on 19.6%, Ten with 14.3%, ABC 1 was on 13.1% and SBS ONE, 6.5%.
  • Digital: The digital channels had a total prime time FTA share last night of 23.7%, with GO on top with 6.8%, followed by 7TWO with 4.3%, 7Mate on 4.1%, Gem on 3.6%, ABC 2, 1.6%, ONE, 1.1%, SBS TWO, 0.9%, News 24, 0.7% and ABC 3, 0.6%. The digital channels had FTA shares ranging from 21.3% in Sydney (a sign of how bad the night was on the main channels), to more than 26% in Perth and 27% in Adelaide.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels), won with 24.6%, from Nine (3) on 23.0%, Pay TV (100-plus channels), 19.6%, the ABC (4), 12.4%, Ten (2), 12.0%, and SBS (2), 5.7%. the FTA channels had a total of 80.4%, made up of 18.4% between the nine digitals and 62.0% for the five main channels. Foxtel had a big win in Sydney with a dominant 26.0% share for its plethora of offerings. Its shares were more modest elsewhere, ranging from 18.1% in Melbourne to the low of 13.4% in Adelaide.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won the night with a share of 32.0% from WIN/NBN on 29.6%, SC Ten was on 16.5%, the ABC, 15.9% and SBS, 6.1%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 23.4% from WIN/NBN on 18.3%. GO won the digitals with 8.3%, from 7Mate on 5.7% and 7TWO with 3.2%. The nine digital channels had a total FTA share of 25.0% in prime time last night.

Major Markets: With such weak offerings on the main channels, it was no wonder the digitals and Foxtel did well last night. Seven won overall in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine won Sydney and Melbourne overall. Seven won the main channels in every market with Nine and Ten in the minors, except in Sydney and Perth where the ABC was third. The ABC was also third overall in Sydney. GO won the digitals everywhere with 7TWO, 7Mate and Gem fighting for the minor placings.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won, everyone lost viewers. It’s summer. Pay TV had more viewers in the 16 to 54 group in prime time across the week than did the FTA Networks, 405,000 on average to 380,000 for Seven, according to figures from Fusion Strategy in Sydney.

Yesterday afternoon I happened come across the most egregious bit of TV screened on Australian TV this year. Called Focus on Christmas it was on Seven at 4pm. It was obviously an idea from the geniuses at the network’s ad sales department and/or a ad agency for Sony.

The focus was on the Sony product, the rest was a clunky, disjointed production, completely devoid of any pretence of quality. The talent was hammy, unlike the only real product in the whole hour, the baked ham prepared by the obligatory New Idea chef. That wasn’t a Sony-branded ham, thankfully and looked enjoyable.

Everything else was on sale. A Sony TV was advertised at 55 inches, no centimetres were given which is not only misleading, but wrong. Aren’t we supposed to advertise every measurement in metric? There was naturally a plug for New Idea.

173,000 other people stumbled across this pap yesterday, unfortunately. If this was in a newspaper, each page would have had to carry a word, “advertisement”.

TONIGHT: Go to bed, there’s nothing on TV for anyone.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports