Seven wins again as the NRL starts on Nine tonight

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Easy night, again, for Seven. Nine and Ten just not in the hunt, again. Do they have enough new programming to go the distance in 2012? Nine at least has NRL starting. Ten used to have AFL up its sleeve for Saturdays, but no more (and it also provided good material for ONE, which is lurching more and more to being a clone of GO! and 7mate).

In fact, Seven in Adelaide and Perth had shares of 40% or more as the network’s digital channels (7WO and 7mate) attracted very high audiences last night.

Tonight: The NRL season starts on Nine tonight in Sydney and Brisbane (NSW and Queensland regional markets as well). That’s the highlight. The lowlight is that it will be followed by the 2012 edition of The NRL Footy Show — the worst program on free To Air TV for the past few years.

The NRL should do well in regional NSW and Qld tonight. Regional areas of NSW and Queensland are true believers in Rugby League and the heartland of the regional TV market.

Nine will battle to make headway on metro markets against My Kitchen Rules on Seven. Ten has The Biggest Loser at 7 pm. The ABC has Family Confidential and then The Straits (which is now jumping the shark each week). SBS has Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 2.552 million
Seven News — 1.770 million
Nine News — 1.579 million
Please Marry My Boy (Seven) — 1.497 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.424 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.403 million
ABC News — 1.369 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.338 million
The Biggest Loser (Ten) — 1.215 million
Sherlock (Nine) — 1.063 million

Metro Winners:

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.796 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.210 million
Please Marry My Boy (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.084 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.049 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.031 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.005 million

The Losers: Where to start: Nine from 7pm including the many repeats of The Big Bang Theory and then Sherlock at 8.30pm, 738,000.

Ten. No one is Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation much anymore, judging by the weak 633,000 viewers last night. The Good Wife, 525,000 at 9.10pm.

Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight at 8.30pm on ABC 1, just 508,000 people noticed. Woodley at 8pm, 400,00.

Metro News & CA:

Seven News (6pm) — 1.210 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.049 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.031 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.005 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 886,000
Ten News (5pm) — 773,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 637,000.
The Project (Ten) (5pm) — 526,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 216,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 206,000
The Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 121,000
SBS News (10.30pm) — 90,000
The Drum (News 24) (10pm) — 54,000
The Drum (News 24) (6.45pm) — 46,000

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: Seven’s cash give away to celebrate its 10th birthday, and the appearance of Breakfast on Ten, has been having the desired impact on viewers, so far.

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 388,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 323,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 180,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 86,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 68,000
Breakfast Live (Ten) (7am) — 53,000
ABC News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 35,000 (+21,000)

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 35.9% from Nine (3) on 24.3%, Ten (3) was on 19.7%, the ABC (4) ended with 14.3% and SBS (2) ended on 5.8%. Seven leads the week with 34.3% from Nine on 25.4% and Ten with 19.7%. Main Channels: Seven won with 25.7% from Nine on 17.8%, Ten was on 14.1%, ABC 1 was on 9.5% and SBS ONE finished with 4.7%. Seven leads the week with 26.7% from Nine on 18.6% and Ten with 14.6%.

Metro Digital: 7mate won with 5.2% from 7TWO on 5.1%, GO was on 4.0%, Eleven was on 3.5%, ABC 2 was on 3.1%, Gem was on 2.5%, ONE was on 2.1%, News 24 ended with 1.0%, as did SBS ONE and ABC 3 ended with 0.6%. That’s a total FTA viewing share last night of 28.1%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.1%, from GO on 3.6% and 7mate on 3.5%.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 29.6% from Nine (3) on 20.1%, Ten (3) was on 16.2%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) ended with 15.2%, the ABC (4) was on 11.8% and SBS (2) ended on 4.8%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of 84.8%, with the 10 digital channels share, 23.2% and the five main channels, 61.5%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (3.31%)
Lifestyle (2.22%)
Fox Sports 1 (1.95%)
UKTV (1.92%)
Crime & Investigation (1.86%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Football: Australia v Saudi Arabia (Fox Sports 1) (8.30pm) — 138,000
Selling Houses Australia (Lifestyle) — 108,000
Football: Australia v Saudi Arabia (Fox Sports 1) (10.35pm) — 84,400
Coronation Street (UKTV) — 73,400
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 73,400

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 35.8%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 25.8%, SC Ten (3) was on 19.4%, the ABC (4) ended on 13.3% and SBS (2) was on 5.7%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 22.9% from WIN/NBN on 20.2% (much closer than in metro markets). 7TWO won the digitals with 6.5% from 7mate on 6.4% and Eleven on 4.1%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of a high 31.1 because of the strong performances of Seven’s two digital channels. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 34.3% from WIN/NBN on 27.0%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

My Kitchen Rules — 728,000
Seven News — 566,000
Nine News — 538,000
A Current Affair — 530,000
Home and Away — 466,000

Major Markets: Seven won everywhere overall and the main channels. Ten was second overall on Brisbane, but it was Nine second and Ten third everywhere else. 7mate won the digitals in Melbourne and Perth. 7TWO won Adelaide and shared Brisbane with Eleven. GO won Sydney. Seven leads the week everywhere.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports