Networks share the spoils

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Nine won overall (muted cheering from Willoughby this morning), Seven won the main channels. It was a dull night except the ABC’s news and current affairs shows.

Seven’s afternoon telecast of the AFL game, Geelong v. Hawthorn averaged 576,000 on the main channel in southern metro markets (393,000 in Melbourne) and just 59,000 in Sydney and Brisbane on Gem (27,000 in Sydney and 32,000 in Brisbane). The Pay TV coverage of the game averaged 332,400 across the nation. The main channel coverage in the regions averaged 162,000 in Tasmania and regional Victoria. The 7mate coverage in the regions averaged 59,000 (the same as in Sydney and Brisbane). The audience for Seven’s FTA coverage of the game was 1.018 million. With Pay TV, the total TV audience for the game was around 1.34 million people, which is very solid for a holiday Monday afternoon.

The ABC did well with a solid effort because it kept its usual news and current affairs line up on air on an Easter Monday. As a result Australian Story averaged more than 1.3 million viewers nationally and Four Corners had more than 1.2 million viewers. Both Media Watch and Q&A had more than 1.1 million viewers. 7.30 had just over 1 million viewers. So from 7pm to well past 10pm, the ABC was watched by more than a million viewers around the country.

Last week: Seven won the first of two weeks of unofficial ratings covering the Easter break. Seven won Sunday night as well.

Tonight: Country Town Rescue could be worth a look at 8pm on ABC 1, as well as Insight on SBS at 8.30pm and Dateline an hour later.

The Biggest Loser and Bondi Vet stand out on Ten on a soft night. Nine is a mass of flops and repeats.

Seven has a fresh Home and Away, World’s Strictest Parents and has the soft Parenthood at 8.30pm with back to back episodes. But overall, a night to be on holidays or go to bed early to recover from the excitement of Sunday’s Easter egg hunt. (I looked for mine with a croquet mallet; a great way to hunt).

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

Seven News — 2.347 million
Nine News — 1.838 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.695 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.436 million
ABC News — 1.409 million
The Biggest Loser (Ten) — 1.403 million
The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.388 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.371 million
Australian Story (ABC 1) –1.324 million
Four Corners (ABC 1) — 1.262 million

The Metro Winners:

Seven News (6pm) — 1.639 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.341 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.032 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.032 million
The Biggest Loser (Ten, 7 – 8 pm) — 1.016 million

Metro News & CA: Seven News won all five metro markets, helped by programming the AFL game to start at 3pm, meaning a finish around 5.50pm in Melbourne, which boosted viewers. In fact, the 578,000 people who watched Seven News in Melbourne was the biggest audience anywhere last night. Today Tonight also had a clean sweep over A Current Affair, helped in part by the solid audience in Melbourne (Seven News and Today Tonight don’t need the AFL to win easily in Adelaide and, especially, Perth).

Seven News (6pm) — 1.639 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.341 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.032 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.032 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 905,000
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 890,000
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 888,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 863,000 (+89,000)*
Media Watch (ABC) (9.20pm) — 834,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 711,000
Ten News (5pm) — 639,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 501,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 360,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 164,000

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: Even for a holiday Monday, when the more established Sunrise and Today were down because of fewer people getting up earlier. The 19,000 viewer average for Ten’s Breakfast was very, very weak. It’s a drop of 50% from the daily average so far, whereas Sunrise and Today were only down 20% at worst on their 2012 averages from 7am to 9am.

Breakfast was well thrashed by News Breakfast on ABC 1. The later morning shows had some of their highest figures this year with people getting up later and cooler weather in some cities (especially Melbourne).

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 305,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 261,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 257,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 143,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 71,000
News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 37,000 (+11,000)*
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 19,000

Metro FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 25.9%, from Seven (3) on 25.6%, the ABC (4) was third with 23.2%, Ten (3) was 4th with 20.6% and SBS (4) was on 4.6%. Seven leads the week with 26.8% from Nine on 26.2% and Ten on 20.8%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 18.7% from Nine on 18.3%. ABC 1 was third with 18.2% and Ten was on 15.3%. SBS ONE finished with 3.9%. Seven leads the week on 20.3% from Nine on 18.6% and ABC 1 with 15.8%.

Metro Digital: GO won with 4.3% from 7TWO on 3.9%, Gem and Eleven were on 3.4% each. ABC 2 ended with 3.1%, 7mate was on 3.0%, ONE ended up on 2.0%, News 24 was on 1.2% (boosted by the Q&A audience) and ABC 3 was on 0.8%, just ahead of SBS TWO on 0.7%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 26.1%. GO leads the week with 4.3% from 7TWO on 3.7% and Eleven on 3.6%.

Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 20.6%, from Seven (3) on 20.3%, the ABC (4) and Pay TV (200 plus channels) ended with 18.4% each; Ten (3) was on 16.36% and SBS (4) was on 3.7%. The 15 FTA channels had a TV viewing share last night of 81.6%. The 10 digitals had a share of 20.5%, the five main channels share was 61.1%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox Footy — 5.4%
Fox Sports 2 — 3.1%
Fox 8 — 2.6%
Nickelodeon– 2.1%
Showtime Premiere — 1.8%

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

AFL: Geelong vs. Hawthorn (Fox Footy) — 334,400
NRL; Manly vs. Penrith (Fox Sports 2) — 332,500
AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 153,800
NRL: Manly vs. Penrith (post game show) (Fox Sports 2) — 107,600
AFL: AFL 360 (Fox Footy) — 104,500

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 29.6%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 26.7%, the ABC (4) on 20.2%, SC Ten (3) on 18.6% and SVS (2) on 4.8%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 20.1% from WIN/NBN on 19.6%, ABC 1 on 14.9% and SC Ten on 12.3%. The digitals were won by 7TWO on 5.7% from 7mate on 4.4%, and GO on 3.9%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share last night of 28.8%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 29.7% from WIN/NBN on 26.7%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Seven News –710,000
Nine News — 617,000
A Current Affair — 531,000
Australian Story — 435,000
Home and Away — 433,000

Major Metro Markets: A very mixed night, especially for Ten. Seven won Sydney and Adelaide overall and in the main channels. In Perth, Seven won overall, but ABC 1 won the main channels. Nine won overall and the main channels in Melbourne and Brisbane. ABC 1 was second in the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Ten was squeezed out and didn’t make the top 3 overall or in the main channels in any of the five metro markets. Gem won the digitals in Sydney, Eleven won Brisbane. Go won Melbourne, 7TWO won Adelaide, 7TWO and GO shared Perth. Seven leads the week everywhere bar Melbourne where Nine leads. The ABC is third in Sydney and Perth.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports