The Winners: Seven’s tennis audience from 7pm jumped from a low 489,000 average on Monday to 984,000 last night with Leyton Hewitt on deck, and losing in fighting style. The end result, a big win for Seven. A five setter involving a key Australian player always means a big audience for Seven. The late session (after 11pm) averaged a high 793,000.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.285 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.215 million
  3. Nine News (6pm)  — 1.198 million

The Losers: No one really, not even Leyton Hewitt who was gallant in his five set loss.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Brisbane, Seven won the rest. Today Tonight won all markets bar Sydney. In the morning Sunrise lost Melbourne and Brisbane but won the rest.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.285 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.215 million
  3. Nine News (6pm)  — 1.198 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 988,000
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 948,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 863,000
  7. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 772,000
  8. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 702,000
  9. Late News (Ten) (10.30pm) — 296,000
  10. SBS News (6.30pm) — 194,000
  11. ABC News Update (10.30pm) — 152,000
  12. SBS News (9.30pm) — 147,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 401,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 348,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven won with a share (3 channels) on 37.4%, from Nine (3) on 25.7%, Ten (3), on 19.1%, the ABC (4), on 12.9% and SBS (2), 5.0%. Nine leads the week with 32.5%, from Seven on 31.2% and Ten on 17.4%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won easily with a share of 28.9%, from Nine on 18.0%, Ten on 14.2%, ABC 1, 10.1% and SBS ONE, 4.2%. Nine leads the week with 25.2% from Seven on 22.5% and Ten on 12.4%.
  • Digital: A quarter of the FTA audience watched the 10 digital channels last night in prime time (25.8% actually). Eleven won with a share of 4.5%, from 7Mate and GO on 4.3% each, 7TWO with 4.2%, Gem on 3.4%, ABC 2, 1.6%, SBS TWO with 0.8%, News 24 with 0.7% and ABC 3 and ONE with 0.5% each. The channels FTA shares ranged from a low in Sydney of 23.1% to a high in Perth of 28.7%.
  • Pay TV: Seven won (3 channels) with 30.2%, from Nine (3) on 20.8%, Pay TV (100 plus channels), 16.1%, Ten (3 channels), 15.5%, the ABC (4), 10.4% and SBS (2), 4.0%. That left 83.9% for the FTA channels, and that was split 19.7% for the 10 digitals and 62.2% for the five main channels. Foxtel’s share was the highest in Perth with 19.9% and Sydney with 19.4%. The lowest was 10.8% in Adelaide (as usual).

Major Markets: With Leyton Hewitt in prime time last night, the big audiences the night before for the digital channels in all markets was reduced. Seven won easily overall and on the main channels Nine still leads in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but Seven now leads the week in Adelaide and Perth. Eleven won the digitals with 7TWO and 7Mate and GO also popular.

The digital shares were not quite as high as on Monday night, but 20% of the FTA audience tuned in last night and overall, 19.7% watched, when Pay TV is included. In fact with Pay TV included, nearly 38% of the audience were not on the main channels last night. In Sydney where Foxtel is strongest, its share and that of the 10 FTA digitals added up to a high 40.6% in prime time. In Perth, Foxtel (19.9% and the 10 FTA channels (21.9%) had nearly 42% of the audience last night.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: An Australian (Leyton Hewitt) in prime time on Seven boosted the audience and saw Seven easily win the night, but Hewitt’s run stopped last night, so Seven is now depending on Sam Stosur, Alicia Molik, Jelena Dokic and Bernard Tomic for ratings glory in the next 10 days, plus a final between Nadal/Andy Murray or Roger Federer.

TONIGHT: More tennis (Jelena Dokic, then Roger Federer), various repeats on Nine, The 7pm Project on Ten and then, gasp, the first part of Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure. Ogee, golly gosh! Watch the repeats on digital TV or on Foxtel. Read a book, or go out. Get a life.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports