The Winners

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.341 million.
  2. The Force (Seven, 8pm) — 1.284 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.242 million.
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.190 million.
  5. Midsomer Murders (ABC, 8.30pm) — 1.143 million.
  6. Border Security (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.138 million.
  7. Modern Family (Ten, 8pm) — 1.086 million.
  8. Bondi Rescue (Ten, 8.30pm) — 1.060 million.
  9. The Biggest Loser (Ten, 7pm) — 1.019 million.

A bit of a smile on the dial at Ten this morning. A better effort. Ten says it won Sunday night prime-time in 18-49 (26.2%), 16-39 (28.1%) and 25-54 (25.4%).

Ten’s Australian Grand Prix broadcast from 5 to 7pm: just 687,000 on the main channels and 425,000 on ONE, the digital channel. Combined that was an solid 1.11 million. When The Biggest Loser started at 7pm, the audience on the main channel swelled to 1.019 million.

The Losers
The F-1 race on Ten was boring. Like watching tar dry. And listening to a fly trying to escape a closed window. Even though more than 1.1 million people watched Midsomer Murders, it’s now a program I could cheerfully kill. Talk about being turgid. Miss Marple episodes have heaps more pace and better plots.

News and Current Affairs

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.341 million.
  2. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.242 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.190 million.
  4. ABC News (7pm)– 946,000.
  5. A Current Affair Sunday ( Nine, 6.30pm) — 881,000.
  6. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 854,000.
  7. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 331,000.
  8. Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 252,000.
  9. Insiders (ABC, 9am) — 209,000.
  10. SBS News (6.30pm) — 207,000.
  11. Landline (ABC, Noon) — 197,000.
  12. Inside Business (ABC, 10am) — 161,000.
  13. Dateline (SBS, 8.30pm) — 150,000.
  14. Offsiders (ABC, 10.30am) — 139,000.

Nine News won Sydney, thanks to a good NRL game. Seven won Melbourne, thanks to an AFL game. Nine lost Brisbane heavily because the NRL game was from Sydney and Seven has a very popular weekend newsreader. Seven also won Adelaide and Perth.

The Sunday edition of A Current Affair with 881,000 viewers is an admission that the network has nothing better for one of the best family friendly timeslots each week. No Backyard Blitz, Burke’s Backyard. That the Sunday edition of ACA beat Sunday Night on Seven tells us why its there, to neuter Seven’s offering and clear the way for 60 Minutes which had another good night. Nine’s management now says the Sunday edition of ACA is going to be here for a while. God help us all. Just one night now a week when we aren’t offered a helping of “current affairs” by ACA an/ or Today Tonight.

The Stats

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 28.5% from Nine (3) on 27.4%, Ten (3) was on 22.1%, the ABC, (4) was on 17.2% and SBS (2) ended with 4.8%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 21.5% from Nine on 19.9%, Ten on 17.0%, ABC 1 was on 14.2% and SBS ONE ended with 4.2%.
  • Digital: GO won with a share of 4.6% from 7TWO on 3.7%, 7Mate on 3.3%, along with Eleven. Gem was on 3.0%, ABC2 ended with 2.0%, ONE was on 1.8%, ABC News 24 ended with 0.8%, SBS TWO, 0.6% and ABC3, 0.3%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA prime time share of 23.4%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with 23.4%, from Nine (3) on 22.5%, Ten (3) was on 18.1%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) ended with 15.0%, the ABC (4 channels) was on 14.2% and SBS, 3.9%. The 15 FTA channels had an 85.0% share of prime time viewing last night, made up of 15.2% for the digital channels and 69.8% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 29.8%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 29.3%, SC Ten (2) was on 18.9%, the ABC (4) ended on 17.1% and SBS (2) was on 4.9%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 21.8% from WIN/NBN on 20.8%. GO won the digitals with 4.6%, with 7TWO on 4.5% and Eleven and 7Mate on 3.6% each. the 10 digital channels had an FTA prime time share of 25.4% last night.
  • Major Markets: A mixed night. Seven won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Nine won both in Brisbane. In Melbourne Nine won overall but Ten won the main channels, thanks to the Australian Grand Prix in part. GO won everywhere, bar Adelaide where 7TWO got up.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won again, overall, main channels and the digital channels. In fact an easy win. Pay TV won Saturday night with the AFL and the NRL, not with non-sport programming.

Last night: Seven got up again, and Ten and Nine did better in the demos. A fairly average night all said. The Australian TV audience is over the Formula 1, even with Australian Mark Webber in it. Of the 1.1 million people who watched on Ten’s main channel, or one, over half, or 607,000 watched in Melbourne. It was all but ignored in Perth or Adelaide. The 348,000 who watched the race in Melbourne on Ten’s main channel was the 8th largest audience in that market last night, which says something about how Melbourne people love to hate the race. Only 192,000 people watched the Swans vs. Melbourne Game in Melbourne yesterday afternoon by way of comparison. And 313,000 watched the Manly-Newcastle game in the NRL in Sydney on Nine late yesterday afternoon, so the GP is still well liked in Melbourne. Maybe they do like watching tar drying!

TONIGHT: The ABC has its usual Monday line up of news and current affairs programs. Four Corners has a look at the Qantas Airbus 380 drama near Singapore last year. That’s the story 60 Minutes looked at in early February. Nine has Million Dollar Drop. It ran an “encore” screening of the first episode yesterday afternoon (just 123,000 watched) after running the second ep on Thursday outside of AFL states (which won’t be shown in the south, but you never know). Ten has The 7PM project and Glee at 7.30, but it’s Oprah and the cast of Glee special. That will be like watching the Grand Prix yesterday. Seven has My Kitchen Rules and then Conviction Kitchen. SBS has Man vs. Wild.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports