The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Games, Games, Games. Nine wins, Foxtel did well, last week and last night. Foxtel had just over 21% of the national TV audience last night. Nine had 31%. Foxtel’s strong showing is helped by it giving the coverage to existing sports subscribers for free. It would not have been so high if it had attempted to charge subscribers a separate fee for the Games events, as it tried unsuccessfully to do in the past. The same story on the screen. Commentary and coverage varying from good to boring and parochial.

Thankfully we didn’t hear the BBC here after the flood of gold medals at the weekend. Judging by media reports, the commentary rivalled the worst we had in Sydney in 2000 (and at other Games, including these). There are other events and countries performing at the Games. As I said last week, that is a complaint made about coverage in most countries, judging by stories online.

Another week though of this. Then we get the start of the spring campaign by the networks, if you hadn’t noticed the incessant promotions. Usain Bolt this morning was amazing in the men’s 100-metre final and showed why he is the all-time greatest sprinter.

Grand Designs Revisited on ABC 1 (872,000 metro and 1.244 million national viewers), Sunday Night on Seven (1.212 million metro and 1.830 million national viewers) and MasterChef All Stars on Ten (787,000 metro and 1.093 million metro viewers) again did OK for non-Games watchers or those seeking a moment or two’s relief. In fact, Sunday Night has been the most solid non-Games program during the event so far.

Games update: Nine’s national and metro audiences held up well despite a weak weekend for the Australian team. Last night the national prime time average was a solid 2.389 million, down from a week ago and from recent Games, but still easily ahead of the rest. The metro average was 1.631 million. In regional areas, the Games coverage failed to be number one. Nine News was tops (boosted though by people tuning in early for the Games coverage). The average last night in regional markets was a still impressive 759,000 viewers.

Last Week: Nine won strongly and pay TV (now Foxtel) had its best week ever (which is understandable). Nine won Friday and Saturday night and Foxtel had nearly a quarter of the national audience: 24.8%. Pay TV had a 20% share for the whole week, with Nine on 34.9%. Nine also won in regional areas through WIN/NBN.

Tonight: Games on Nine and Foxtel. Once Upon a Time on Seven. MasterChef All Stars on Ten and four hours or more of news and current affairs on ABC 1. Four Corners’ report on racing looks to be the highlight of the night, including the Games coverage.

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

  1. The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) – 2.416 million
  2. Nine News — 2.384 million
  3. The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) — 2.363 million
  4. Seven News — 1.967 million
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.830 million
  6. Grand Designs Revisited (ABC 1) — 1.244 million
  7. One Upon A Time (Seven) — 1.105 million
  8. MasterChef All Stars (Ten) — 1.093 million
  9. ABC News — 1.082 million
  10. Dream Build (ABC 1) — 1.071 million

The metro winners:

  1. The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.667 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.614 million.
  3. The Olympic Games (early evening)(Nine) (6.30) — 1.596 million
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.346 million
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.212 million)

The losers: No one really, well non-sports/Games viewers. Hang on, not long to go.

Metro news & CA: Nine won nationally but not in Adelaide, Perth or Brisbane.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.614 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.346 million.
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.212 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 770,000
  5. Ten News (5pm) — 500,000
  6. The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 361,000
  7. SBS News (6.30pm) — 166,000
  8. The Bolt Report (Ten) (4.30pm) — 110,000

In the morning: Weekend Today is pre-empted for the Games. Insider Business was off the pace again because it was prerecorded on Friday. It couldn’t therefore talk about the good jobs report from the US for July and the spark that gave to markets overnight Friday, our time.

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 315,000
  2. Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 195,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Ten) (10am) — 147,000
  4. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 137,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 122,000
  6. Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 121,000
  7. Meet The Press (Ten) (10.30am) — 77,000

Metro FTA: Nine (three channels) won with 40.7% from Seven (three ) on 23.5%, Ten (three) was on 17.0%, the ABC (four) was on 13.9% and SBS (two) ended on 4.9%.

Main Channels: Nine won with a share of 37.0%, from Seven on 18.2%, Ten was on 12.3%, ABC 1 was on 11.3% and SBS ONE ended on 4.4%.

Metro Digital: GO won with a share of 3.5%, from 7TWO on 3.1%, ONE was on 2.7%, 7mate was on 2.2%, Eleven ended on 2.1%, ABC 2 was on 1.4%, ABC 3 ended on 0.7%, SBS TWO was on 0.5% and News 24 finished with 0.4%. Gem ended with 0.2%. The 10 digital channels had a low FTA share of 16.5%.

Metro including pay TV: Nine (three channels) won with 31.0% from Seven (three) on 17.9%, Ten (three) was on 13.0%, the ABC (four) was on 10.6% and SBS (two) ended on 3.7%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of 78.6%, with the 10 digital channels’ share a low 12.9% and the five main channels’ share on 65.7%. Pay TV (Foxtel) had another solid night with a share of 21.4%, thanks to the eight channels of Games coverage included in the other channels category).

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Other subscription TV channels (23.1%)
  2. Fox Footy (4.3%)
  3. Fox Sports 2 (2.8%)
  4. TV1 (2.2%)
  5. Fox Sports 1 (2.2%)

Regional: WIN/NBN (three channels) won with a share of 41.1%, from, Prime/7Qld (three) on 25.5%, with SC Ten (three) on 15.4%, the ABC (four) was on 13.0% and SBS (two) ended on 5.0%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 36.4% from Prime/7Qld on 19.1%. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.8%, from GO on 4.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a low 19.7%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Nine News — 770,000.
  2. The Olympic Games (early evening) — 769,000
  3. The Olympic Games (evening) — 749,000
  4. Seven News — 621,000.
  5. Sunday Night — 619,000.

Major metro markets: Nine had a clean sweep, overall and the main channels, in all five metro markets. GO won the main channels in Brisbane and Adelaide and shared Melbourne with 7TWO, which also won Melbourne. 7mate won Perth.

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