The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Games, games and games. Nine and Pay TV had another big night.

The ABC’s hours of news and current affairs again out-rated Ten’s meagre offerings, which didn’t include The Shire which is now at 8pm on Wednesday. Ten should force it down the same route as Being Lara Bingle which is being forced to walk the plank very quickly, tonight.

Games Update: Nine’s Games coverage averaged 2.461 million nationally and 1.644 million metro viewers last night in the evening … about on par with recent nights. In regional markets it averaged 787,000.

Tonight: Winners & Losers on Seven, MasterChef All Stars on Ten, Foreign Correspondent on ABC 1, Insight and Dateline on SBS ONE. Oh, and the games coverage on Nine and Pay TV.

Seven this morning announced it had commissioned a third series of Winners & Losers for 2013.

Programming Note: And, you can tell Ten is really committed to a second series of Being Lara Bingle, can’t you: it’s running the penultimate and then the final episodes from 8pm to 9pm tonight. In other words its being buried against the games coverage on Nine and Foxtel and Once Upon a Time and Winners  & Losers on Seven, both of which will drain viewers from Being Lara Bingle’s demographic: young female viewers. It is yet another example the old adage that you judge TV Networks not by what they say, but what they do with their programs and stars.

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

  1. The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) — 2.543 million
  2. The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) —  2.321 million
  3. Nine News — 2.050 million
  4. Seven News — 1.912 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.369 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.364 million
  7. ABC News — 1.301 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.230 million
  9. The Olympic Games (late) (Nine) — 1.277 million
  10. Once Upon a Time (Seven) — 1.123 million

The Metro Winners:

  1. The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) (6.50pm) — 1.690 million
  2. The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.599 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.426 million
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.271 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.109 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.066 million

The Losers: No one really. In fact there was a small bonus, The Shire wasn’t on (it’s on tomorrow night, unfortunately).

Metro News & CA: Why does the ABC’s Q&A feel as though it had to give so much exposure to George Brandis (the Queensland Liberal Senator). It must be the second or third time he has been on this year. He kills a program stone dead.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.426 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.271 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.109 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.066 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 944,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 794,000
  7. Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 706,000
  8. Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 631,000
  9. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 574,000
  10. Media Watch (ABC) (9.30pm) — 564,000
  11. The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 562,000
  12. Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 517,000 (+78,000)*
  13. The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 407,000
  14. Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 193,000
  15. Ten News — (10.30pm) — 164,000
  16. SBS News (6.30pm) — 139,000
  17. The Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 103,000
  18. SBS News (10.30pm) — 36,000
  19. The Drum (News 24) (6pm) — 33,000

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: Today and Mornings on Nine have been pre-empted by the Games coverage. The shortened Breakfast on Ten averaged 33,000. The new Ten Morning News at 10am averaged 36,000, 20,000 down on the recent figures for The Circle which was axed last week.

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 358,000.
  2. The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 158,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 47,000 (+20,000)*
  4. Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 33,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 40.7%, from Seven (3) on 22.6%, the ABC (4) was 16.8%, Ten (3) was on 16.4% and SBS (2) was on 3.4%. Nine leads the week with 40.7% from Seven on 23.1% and Ten on 16.7%. Main Channels: Nine won on 37.6%, Seven was next with 17.2%, ABC 1 was on 12.5%, Ten ended on 11.6% and SBS ONE was on 2.8%. Nine leads the week with 37.3% from Seven on 17.7%, ABC 1 was on 12,0% and ABC 1 ended with 11.9%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won the digitals with 3.1%, from Eleven on 2.8%, GO was on 2.6%, as was ABC 1. 7mate was on 2.4%, ONE ended on 2.0%, ABC 3 was on 0.9%, News 24 was on 0.8%, SBS TWO ended with 0.6% and Gem was last with 0.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a low 18.3%. 7TWO and GO lead the week with 3.1% each.

Metro including Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 31.7%, from Seven (3) on 17.6%, the ABC (4) was 13.1%, Ten (3) was on 12.8% and SBS (2) was on 2.6%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night with 80.1%. The five main channels share was 65.9%, the 10 digital channels share ended on 14.2%. The 200 plus Pay TV channels had a high share of 19.9%, boosted again by the eight Pay TV channels broadcasting the Games.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Other Subscription Channels (23.7%)
  2. Fox Sports 2 (3.0%)
  3. Fox 8 (2.6%)
  4. TV1 (1.7%)
  5. LifeStyle (1.5%)

Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 41.2%, from Prime/7Qld (3) on 24.4%, the ABC (4) was on 16.4%, SC Ten (3) finished with 16.0% and SBS (2) ended on 4.0%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with a share of 37.7%, from Prime/7Qld on 17.3%, ABC 1 on 10.5%, SC Ten was on 10.0%. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.5%, ABC 2 was on 2.9% and SC Ten was on 2.8%. WIN/NBN leads the week with 41.1% from Prime/7Qld on 24.9%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. The Olympic Games (early evening) — 854,000
  2. The Olympic Games (evening) — 721,000
  3. Seven News — 642,000
  4. Nine News — 624,000
  5. WIN News — 449,000

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep for Nine overall and in the main channels. Seven was second everywhere. The ABC and ABC 1 was third overall and the main channels in Sydney and Melbourne. ABC 1 was third in Perth. Ten was third in Brisbane and Adelaide overall and in Perth overall. Eleven won Sydney and shared Melbourne with 7TWO which won Brisbane and Adelaide. GO won Perth. Nine leads everywhere and has the week won.

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

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports