Seven's night as Packed To The Rafters dominates

Packed to the Rafters and My Kitchen Rules ruled the roost last night and so did the Seven Network.

The Winners: Seven won all people and all the demos. And will win the week for the 4th week in a row. Packed To The Rafters shed a few more viewers last night, but remains solid. it will pick up another 100,000 or so viewers in the record and watch ratings in a week’s time. Seven’s Conviction Kitchen faded last night to 757,000 at 9.30pm. Seven’s hesitation in shifting it to Monday nights seems to have been supported by the loss of viewers.

Packed To The Rafters (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.748 million
My Kitchen Rules (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.595 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.197 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) –1.134 million
NCIS (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.122 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) –0 1.028 million

The Losers: Nine and Ten.

News & CA: Nine’s 6pm News joined A Current Affair in falling under the million viewer mark. But that didn’t stop them doing well in the two most important markets. Nine News and ACA beat Seven News and TT in Sydney and ACA won Melbourne. But Seven News and TT won by a good margin in Brisbane, and by bigger margins in Adelaide and Perth where the WIN-owned Nine stations continue to fall further behind.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.197 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) –1.134 million
Nine News 6 pm — 994,000
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 959,000
ABC News (7pm) — 940,000
Ten News (5pm) — 753,000
The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 644,000
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 615,000
Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 611,000
6PM With George Negus (Ten) (6pm) — 377,000
Ten Evening News (6.30pm) — 282,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 200,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 195,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11.10pm) — 189,000
Insight (SBS) (7.30pm) — 151,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 149,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 84,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 374,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 340,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 34.3% from Nine (3) on 24.7%, Ten (3), was on 21.4%, the ABC (4), 13.99 and SBS (2), finished with 5.6%. Seven leads the week with 32.1% from Nine on 26.7% and Ten with 20.2%.
Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 28.4% from Nine on 19.1%, Ten with 17.3%, ABC 1, with 11.1% and SBS ONE with 4.7%. Seven leads the week on 24.6% from Nine on 20.6% and Ten with 20.2%.
Digital: A very close night. 7Mate won with 3.0%, from 7TWO, GO and Eleven with 2.9% each, Gem was on 2.8%, ABC 2, 1.6%, ONE was on 1.2%,, SBS TWO was on 0.9% and News 24 and ABC 3 were on 0.6% each. That’s a total FTA prime time share of 19.4%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.8% from 7Mate on 3.7% and GO on 3.3%.
Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won a share of 28.4%, from Nine on 22.0% (3 channels), with Ten (3) on 17.7%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 14.2%, the ABC (4) finished with 11.5% and SBS (2), was on 4.7%. The 15 FTA channels had a total prime time viewing share last night of 85.8%, made up of 15.0% for the digital channels and 70.8% for the five main channels.
Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 35.4%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 24.2%, SC Ten (3) was on 20.9%, the ABC (4), finished with 14.0% and SBS (2) was on 5.2%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels easily because of Packed To The Rafters. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.1%, from 7Mate on 3.3% and Eleven on 2.9%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.6% from WIN/NBN on 27.4%.

Major Markets: Seven won overall and in the main channels in every market. In Adelaide and Perth Ten slipped into second, pushing a weak Nine to third, again underlining how badly the WIN-owned Nine stations have started the year. GO won Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. 7Mate won Melbourne, 7TWO won Adelaide. Seven leads Nine and Ten in the week.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Packed to the Rafters and My Kitchen Rules ruled the roost last night and so did the Seven Network.

Nine’s weak start to the year is obvious in Perth and Adelaide where the weak nightly performance is hurting the network and especially the national figures for the 6pm News and ACA.

Despite extra digital channels this year, Seven’s main channel audience in Perth has actually risen (to 111,577 in prime time, 6pm to midnight, from 111,391) in the first three weeks of official ratings compared with a year ago.

Nine’s audience in Perth has slumped to 70,211 from 82,341. The extra digital channels this year are not the reason for that fall if the Seven audience is actually higher. In Adelaide Nine’s average audience is down to 73,446 from 87,042. Seven’s audience is down to 99,286 from 101, 675.

But there is a real surprise in Sydney where Nine’s audience overall is down sharply from a year ago where as Seven’s is up a touch.

Despite the extra channels, Seven’s average prime time audience is up in Sydney in the first three weeks of this year from a year ago, to just over 229,600 from just over 224,700.

Nine’s Sydney prime time audience has fallen to 199,542 from 250,102. That’s a surprisingly large loss of 20% of the 2010 audience from a year ago, and it’s not all down to the digital channels which have their lowest penetration in the Sydney market (and Foxtel has its highest).

It is only three and a bit weeks into ratings, but Seven has started much more strongly. Ten’s woes and change of management has overshadowed the big story, the sharp fall in Nine’s Sydney audience. It’s the biggest TV market and headquarters where scrutiny from management, shareholders, rivals and advertisers is the keenest.

TONIGHT: Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight and then Laid on the ABC. Seven has My Kitchen Rules and Criminal Minds. Nine has Mike & Molly on tonight at 8pm. Then The Farmer Wants A Wife at 9.30pm. It has fresh The Big Bang Theory at 7.30pm. Nine also has RPA – Where Are They Now? at 9.30pm which is running out of steam. Tonight’s Rex in Rome is the finale of this series. Ten has The 7PM project and The Biggest Loser.