The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A close night, but like Wednesday, an underwhelming night for viewers with only two programs, Seven News and the 7pm ABC News, topping the million viewer mark in the five metro markets. Seven and the ABC were stronger on the main channels where the real ratings action is and Seven won that from Nine and ABC1 with Ten fourth, again. Ten in fact went missing in action again last night. Perhaps AWOL would be a better way of describing its performance.

In regional markets Seven also won through Prime/7Qld, but the stand-out there was the very high combined share for the digital channels of 34.6%. The share in metro markets was 28.7%, which tells us the main channel offerings last night were less than gripping for many viewers. That is now commonplace on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. For the networks though, the main thing is that the majority of viewers, when they leave the main channels, are not straying too far from home.

Seven’s Brynne: My Bedazzled Life, (756,000 metro and 1.088 million national viewers) at 7.30pm, Beauty and The Geek Australia (831,000 metro and 1.249 million national viewers); and Nine’s Big Brother (787,000 metro and 1.092 million nationally) at 7pm and Big Brother Confidential (738,000 metro viewers, 985,000 nationally) at 8pm failed to grab viewers as they did earlier in their seasons. ABC1’s science program, Catalyst, had more viewers at 8pm than Big Brother Confidential with 740,000 metro and 1.095 million nationally. Different demos, I know, but Catalyst isn’t supposed to beat a high-profile program such as Big Brother Confidential. The slide in the audience for the Big Brother Confidential program tells us the target viewers for BB aren’t that impressed with the idea.

Seven’s Home and Away had a solid night with 932,000 metro and 1.356 million national viewers, and fourth place nationally.

ABC1’s Rake had 807,000 metro and more than 1.14 million national viewers. ABC1’s 7pm news not only was second nationally and in metro markets, but won the news battle in Sydney, having more viewers than the Nine or Seven News (daylight saving and the long commute help) and was second in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Tonight: New Tricks on ABC1. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven. Nine has Big Brother, and repeats (Seven has a movie repeat). Ten has The Living Room and a repeat of a Melbourne Comedy festival gala. SBS has a feminist view of seven English Queens.

Saturday: The Rugby Union test between Australia and NZ in Brisbane is on Nine and Fox Sports. That’s the highlight of the night. ABC1 returns Kingdom (Stephen Fry) at 8.20pm, after the Doc Martin repeat. SBS ONE has the doubled Boardwalk Empire, but the Ken Burns Prohibition documentary on before it at 8.30pm is far better. Seven has movie repeats, Ten has odds and sods.

Sunday: The morning chats. Landline at Midday. David Attenborough has another series on ABC1, this time it’s plants at 7.30pm, then the second Jack Irish telemovie. Nine has 60 Minutes and House Husbands. Seven has Sunday Night and Bones, plus Border Security. Ten has its second super Sunday offering. Will Homeland and The New Normal rise from the dead? Modern Family will certainly do well because it’s good TV. Homeland is American escapist rubbish, good for downloading if you are under 21.

Update: More from the this week’s Seven launch. Next year Seven is toying with the idea of simulcasting Better Homes and Gardens at the same time on its main and 7TWO while the AFL is on. It’s not set in concrete, but it could very well happen. If Seven does move to that set up, it will allow for a network-wide single broadcast at 7.30pm on Thursdays where Better Homes was shown in NRL markets this year. And Seven is going to allow fans of Home and Away to have input into the storylines, character development etc of the program, which is now 25 years old. The network says the move will be the first to allow viewers/fans to have direct input into the content of a major TV program. It’s part of a move by Seven to try and start a two-way conversation via social media with the program’s fan base. Home and Away is the most consistent performer on Australian TV in terms of ratings (around a million fans each night) and consistently wins its target demos year in year out.

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

  1. Seven News — 1.519 million.
  2. ABC1 News (7pm)  — 1.377 million.
  3. Nine News — 1.360 million.
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.356 million.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.310 million.
  6. Beauty and The Geek Australia (Seven) — 1.249 million.
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.179 million.
  8. Rake (ABC1) — 1.149 million.
  9. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.129 million.
  10. Catalyst (ABC1) — 1.095 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.052 million.
  2. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.020 million.

The Losers: Ten, again.

Metro News & CA: Seven’s weakness continues in Melbourne where it was beaten by 93,000 viewers. In Sydney Seven had a surprisingly large 65,000 winning margin over Nine News. In Adelaide Seven won by 53,000 and 79,000 in Perth and 63,000 in Brisbane. Today Tonight beat A Current Affair nationally, but lost Melbourne by a huge 131,000 viewers!

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.052 million.
  2. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.020 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 955,000.
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 898,000.
  5. 7.30 (ABC1) — 760,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 595,000.
  7. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 520,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6 – 6.30pm) — 417,000.
  9. Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 243,000.
  10. Lateline (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 190,000.
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 124,000.
  12. The Business (ABC1, 11.05pm, repeat) — 111,000.
  13. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 73,000.
  14. The Drum (News 24, 6pm) — 40,000.

In the morning: Ten’s Breakfast steadied, ABC’s News Breakfast jumped, Today edged ahead of Sunrise, just another morning of TV.

  1. Today (Nine, 7am) — 353,000.
  2. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 348,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 155,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 102,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 57,000 + 31,000 on News 24.
  6. Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 43,000.

Metro FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 27.6%, from Seven (3) on 26.3%, Ten (3) was on 20.7%, the ABC (4) was on 19.1% and SBS (2) ended on 6.3%. Seven leads the week with 30.6%, from Nine on 26.9% and the ABC on 19.7%. Main Channels: Seven won with 19.3% from Nine on 18.9%, ABC 1 was on 14.5%, Ten ended on 13.3% and SBS ONE was on 5.1%. Seven leads the week with 23.0% from Nine on 19.8%, ABC 1 on 15.1% and Ten on 11.3%.

Metro Digital: GO won easily with 5.8% from Eleven with 4.7%, 7mate on 3.7%, 7TWO on 3.2%, Gem with 2.9%, ONE on 2.7%, ABC 2 was on 2.5%, SBS TWO, 1.2% and ABC 3 and News 24 ended with 1.0% each. The 10 digital channels had a highish FTA share last night of 28.7%. GO and 7TWO share the lead with 4.0% each, with 7mate on 3.6% and Eleven on 3.5%.

Metro including Pay TV: Nine (three channels) won with a share of 22.7%, from Seven (3) on 21.6%, Ten (3) was on 27.0%, the ABC (4) was on 15.7% and SBS (2) ended on 5.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 84.3%. The 10 digital’s share was a highish 24.8%, the five main channels share was a low 59.5%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave Pay TV a share last night of 15.7%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. LifeStyle, Fox 8 — 3.2%.
  2. TV1 — 2.2%.
  3. Discovery, Cartoon — 1.6%.
  4. Fox Classics, UKTV — 1.5%.
  5. Nick Jr, Fox Sports 1 — 1.4%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Grand Designs Australia (LifeStyle) — 123,000.
  2. The Simpsons (F8) — 71,000.
  3. Family Guy (F8) — 68,000.
  4. Futurama (F8) — 64,000.
  5. CSI Miami (TV1) — 55,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 29.9%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 26.6%, SC Ten (3) was on 18.6%, the ABC (4) was on 18.2% and SBS (2) ended on 6.8%. Prime/7Qld won with a share of 18.7% from WIN/NBN on 17.4%, ABC1 was on 12.6% and SC Ten was 4th with 10.7%. Meanwhile, 7mate won the digitals with 6.6%, from GO on 5.8%, 7TWO on 4.5% and Eleven on 4.4%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a very high 34.6%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 34.1% from WIN/NBN on 26.0%, the ABC was on 18.4% and SC Ten ended on 16.5%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. A Current Affair — 479,000.
  2. Seven News — 463,000.
  3. Nine News — 462,000.
  4. Home and Away — 425,000.
  5. Beauty and The Geek Australia — 419,000.

Major Metro Markets: A mixed night again in that Nine won Melbourne and Brisbane (overall and the main channels). Seven won Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Ten was third overall in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and second in Perth with Nine third. But in the main channels, ABC 1 was third in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and second in Perth. Ten was third in Adelaide. The digitals were won by GO in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth where it shared the win with Eleven, which won Brisbane outright. Seven leads Nine and the ABC in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Nine leads in Melbourne and in Brisbane its Seven from Nine and Ten.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data