The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A close night, but who cares. There was little on telly last night to grab you by the eyeballs, except the battle of the interviews with the two 2Day FM DJs who were involved in the royal prank phone call that went sour.

But in the important main channels, Nine was an easy winner and Seven’s overall win was helped by a solid performance by its digital channels. And in the key 16 to 54 demos, Nine was the winner on the night. It was a similar story in regional markets where Nine did much better in the main channels and ended up with more key viewers.

Over 42% of the audience last night were watching pay TV (18.3%) or the 10 digital channels (24.9%) in metro markets. In regional markets the audience for the digitals was also high. In Sydney the ABC/ABC1 beat Seven into second behind Nine in a surprise result. Seven ended up third in its best market. The ABC again beat Ten in the metro and national markets.

Tracy Grimshaw on A Current Affair swanned in and had a royal command performance with lots of emoting and concerned cutaways and won the night (especially in Sydney and Melbourne). Today Tonight by way of contrast, put a reporter up to do the interview (the program doesn’t have a strong presenter) and she turned in a pretty credible effort.

ACA had 1.084 million metro (and 1.656 million national) viewers, TT had 1.023 million (and 1.417 million nationally), again confirming that TT‘s weakness (except for Adelaide and Perth and sometimes Brisbane), is much larger than the figures for Sydney and Melbourne tell us. As an aside, Nine News has been looking weaker in regional markets for much of the back half of 2012 and last night was no exception with Seven News making enough gains to move to the top of the national most watched list after finishing second behind Nine in metro markets.

Last night in Sydney ACA won 348,000 to 257,000 and in Melbourne it won 359,000 to 229,000 (130,000). But ACA was helped by big wins in both markets by Nine News which won Sydney 369,000 to 277,000 (92,000) and Melbourne, 374,000 to 282,000 (88,000). Nine News and ACA also won Brisbane quite easily.

And when those programs were over, the night eased back into the black (apart from 7.30‘s brief flare) and the lights went out. The top six programs nationally and in metro markets were all news and current affairs offerings. It was one of those nights, again, that dominate our summer viewing.

Tonight: Yes, it’s another dry night for TV viewing. Apart from the fresh Compass at 8pm called “Churches on Trial” (shouldn’t it be longer than half an hour?), ABC1 has repeats at 8.30pm and 9.25pm and 10.35pm. SBS ONE has an intriguing program at 8.30pm called The Truth About Exercise. Seven goes fresh with Once Upon A Time and Grey’s Anatomy at 7.30pm and 8.30 pm, and a fresh Covert Affairs at 9.30pm and 10.30pm. Nine goes repeats from Big Bang at 7pm through Hamish and Andy’s Gap year, Big Bang again and then fresh episodes of 2 Broke Girls and Anger Management. The latter are both tragic flops from 2012.

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

  1. Seven News — 1.767 million.
  2. Nine News — 1.696 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.656 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.417 million.
  5. ABC1 News — 1.331 million.
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.285 million.
  7. Motorway Patrol (Seven) — 1.174 million.
  8. Serious Crash Unit (Seven) — 1.143 million.
  9. Family Confidential (ABC1, repeat) — 1.119 million.
  10. RBT (Nine) — 1.118 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.193 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.160 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.094 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.023 million.

The Losers: Ten, same old story. Weak  programs. That was especially so in regional markets where Ten’s main channel share dipped to less than 8%.Metro News & CA: A big night for Nine News and ACA.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.193 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.160 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.094 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.023 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 909,000.
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 854,000.
  7. Ten News (Ten, 5pm) — 713,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 575,000.
  9. ABC Late News (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 279,000.
  10. Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 231,000.
  11. SBS ONE News (6.30pm) — 167,000.
  12. SBS ONE Late News (10.30pm) — 41,000.
  13. The Drum (News 24, 6pm) — 39,000.

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 357,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 315,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 167,000.
  4. Mornings Summer (Nine, 9am) — 98,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC 1, 7am) –53,000 + 26,000 on News 24.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won narrowly with a share of 26.9% from Nine (three) on 26.7%, the ABC (four) was third with 22.4%, Ten (three) was next with 19.2% and SBS (two) was on 4.6%. Seven leads the week with 27.8%  from Nine on 25.9%, the ABC is on 21.7% and Ten is on 19.0%. Main Channels: Nine won with a share of 19.8% from Seven with 18.5%, ABC1 was on 15.6%, Ten was on 12.6% and SBS ONE ended with 3.3%. Nine leads the week with 18.6% from Seven on 18.3%, ABC1 on 14.1% and Ten on 12.2%.

Metro Digital: Meanwhile, 7TWO won with a share of 4.9%, from ABC2 on 4.4%, GO on 3.9%, Eleven with 3.6%, 7mate on 3.5%, ONE on 3.1%, Gem with 3.0%, SBS TWO and News 24 with 1.4% each and ABC3 with 1.0%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a high 30.2%. That means 7TWO leads the week with 5.8% from ABC  with 4.8%, GO on 4.1% and 7mate on 4.0%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won narrowly with a share of 21.4% from Nine (three) on 21.2%, the ABC (four) was third with 17.8%, Ten (three) was next with 15.3% and SBS (two) was on 3.8%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of 81.7% after pay TV’s share of 18.3% (based on the 200 plus channels on Foxtel). The 10 digital channels share was 24.9% and the five main channels share was 57.7%. The most-watched program was the EPL game, Manchester United v Manchester City in the early hours of Monday morning.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox8 — 3.0%.
  2. TV1 — 2.5%.
  3. UKTV — 2.3%.
  4. LifeStyle — 2.1%.
  5. A&E — 2.0%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. EPL; Man U v Man City (Fox Sports 2) — 87,000.
  2. QI (UKTV) — 76,000.
  3. Hardcore Pawn (A&E) — 75,000.
  4. Megatruckers (A&E) — 69,000.
  5. QI (UKTV) — 68,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 30.2% from WIN/NBN (three) on 29.9%, the ABC (four) was on 19.9%, SC Ten (three) was next with 15.9% and SBS (two) was on 4.1%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN on 22.9% from Prime/7Qld on 19.7%, ABC1 on 12.7% and SC Ten on a very low 7.9%. The digitals were won by 7mate with 5.4%, from 7TWO on 5.1% and GO on 4.3%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share last night of an ultra high 33.8%. Prime/7Qld lead the week with 31.3% from WIN/NBN on 27.9%, the ABC is on 19.8% and SC Ten is on 16.1%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Seven News — 608,000.
  2. ACA — 559,000.
  3. Nine News — 504,000.
  4. 7.30 — 431,000.
  5. ABC1 News — 422,000.

Major Metro Markets: Nine won Sydney (overall and the main channels), with the ABC/ABC1 second and Seven a surprise third. Nine also won Brisbane overall and the main channels, with Seven second and the ABC/ABC1 third. Seven won Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth with Nine second and the ABC/ABC1 third (except in Adelaide where the ABC and Ten tied for third). In the digitals, 7TWO won everywhere except Brisbane which it shared with GO. Nine leads Seven and the ABC in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven leads elsewhere. Ten’s only “joy” is a third place  for the week so far in Adelaide.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data