Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: summer boredom sets in

Regional viewers have a lower boredom tolerance. It is going to be a long hot summer for bored TV viewers. Time for a drink or 50, I think.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night as the third cricket Test finished early with the expected big win by the South Africans. Even though that was coming, it still was the biggest development on TV last night.

But Ten claimed it was number one in metro markets with viewers under the age of 50 in zone one of prime time, (6 – 10.30pm). Everyone else had lots of viewers over 50? Does that mean Nine, Seven and the ABC had more viewers in the 25 to 54s and over 55 demos?

That’s a rather hollow claim seeing 43% of last night’s audience was either watching the FTA digital channels (24.4%) or pay TV (18.6%). That means viewers weren’t happy with the main channel offerings and went elsewhere during prime time for their viewing “thrills”.

It was a similar story in regional areas were nearly 35% of the FTA audience were watching the digital channels. (That’s a lot more than the 30.9% in the five metro markets). Regional viewers have a lower boredom tolerance. It is going to be a long hot summer for bored TV viewers. Time for a drink or 50, I think.

Tonight: No cricket (sadness). Seven has Better Homes and Gardens at 7pm, Once Upon A Time at 7.30pm and promotes the one time star, Grey’s Anatomy to 8.30pm. Nine has nothing really. Plus, 2 Broke Girls is one of the year’s turkeys, if you are interested, as is Two and a Half Men. Ten has NICIS repeats at 8.30pm and 9.30pm for the LA edition. Ten has one episode of Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals at 7.30pm and then slips in a repeat of a Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals at 8pm (that will be a repeat of a repeat). ABC1 has Rick Stein’s Spanish Christmas at 8.30pm.

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

Nine News — 1.833 million.
Seven News — 1.826 million.
Today Tonight — 1.640 million.
ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.347 million.
Motorway Patrol (Seven) — 1.301 million.
SCU (Seven) — 1.281 million.
Test cricket (Nine, session three) — 1.230 million.
Better Homes and Gardens (Seven) — 1.138 million.
Test cricket (Nine, session two) — 1.071 million.
7.30 (ABC1) — 1.032 million.

The Metro Winners:

Nine News (6pm) — 1.291 million.
Seven News (6pm) — 1.165 million.
Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.155 million.

The Losers: It’s summer, so no real losers. Oh, all right then … Ten’s Hawaii Five-O: 356,000 metro viewers at 9.30pm. The New Normal on Ten at 9pm (season return), 340,000 metro and national viewers.Metro News & CA: The influence of the cricket again made the news ratings meaningless, and it’s summer anyway.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.291 million.
Seven News (6pm) — 1.165 million.
Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.155 million.
ABC1 News (7pm) — 911,000.
7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 672,000.
Ten News (5pm) — 604,000.
ABC1 Late News (10.30pm) — 229,000.
Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 157,000.
SBS News (6.30pm) — 109,000
SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 67,000.
The Drum (News 24, 10pm, repeat) — 33,000.

In the morning: A quiet morning with Ten’s Breakfast no longer bothering viewers,.

Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 353,000
Today (Nine, 7am) — 347,000.
The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 178,000.
Mornings Summer (Nine, 9am) — 123,000.
News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 52,000 + 28,000 on News 24.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 28.7% from Nine (three) on 26.6%, Ten (three) was on 20.5%, the ABC (four) on 19.8%, and SBS (two) was on 4.4%. Nine leads the week with 29.5% from Seven on 28.4%, Ten is on 19.7% and the ABC was on 18.0%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 20.5% from Nine on 18.5%, ABC1 was on 14.3%, Ten was on 12.6% and SBS ONE was on 3.3%. Nine leads the week with 21.9%, from Seven on 19.6%, ABC 1 is on 13.0% and Ten was on 12.6%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO and GO shared the night with 4.6%, from Eleven on 4.3%, 7mate and ONE were on 3.6%, Gem and ABC2 were on 3.4%, News 24 was on 1.3%, SBS TWO was on 1.2% and ABC3 were on 0.9%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of a high 30.9%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.4%, from Gem on 4.2% and GO on 4.0%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 22.7% from Nine (three) on 21.1%, Ten (three) was on 16.3%, the ABC (four) on 15.7%, and SBS (two) was on 3.5%. The 15 FTA channels had a low viewing share last night of 81.4%. The 10 digital channels had a high share of 24.4% and the five main channels share was a very low 57.0%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel produced a high Pay TV viewing share last night of 18.6%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox8 — 2.9%.
TV1 — 2.7%.
Discovery — 2.2%.
UKTV — 2.1%.
LifeStyle, A&E — 2.0%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Hardcore Pawn (A&E) — 89,000.
New Tricks (UKTV) — 80,000.
Metatrucks (A&E) — 80,000.
Coronation Street (UKTV) — 72,000.
QI (UKTV) — 69,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 34.1% from WIN/NBN (three) on 27.9%, the ABC (four) was on 17.8%, SC Ten (three) was on 16.0% and SBS (two) was on 4.2%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 22.9% from WIN/NBN on 18.0%, ABC1 was on 12.4% and SC Ten was on 8.9%. The digitals were won by 7mate with 5.8%, from 7mate on 5.5% and GO on 5.2%. The 10 digital channels had an ultra high FTA viewing level of 34.8%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Seven News — 661,000.
Nine News — 540,000.
SCU — 489,000.
Today Tonight — 478,000.
Motorway Patrol — 477,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven won (overall and the main channels) in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The ABC/ABC1 were third in Sydney, again. ABC1 was third in the main channels in Melbourne and Adelaide and second in Perth with Nine third. Ten was second overall in Perth and third in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Meanwhile, 7TWO won the digitals in Adelaide, Perth, and shared Sydney with GO, which won Melbourne. Eleven won Brisbane. Nine leads the week in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven leads in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Ten is third everywhere bar Sydney where the ABC is third.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data