The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A weak night (I sound like a broken feedback loop). Seven won, Nine was close (and had more viewers in 16 to 54), Ten did better than the ABC and a lot of viewers again opted for the digital channels or pay TV (around 41% of viewers last night). Seven again ran fresh programs, but viewers didn’t appreciate the offering and preferred the mixture of old and blue on Ten and Nine.

Compass at 8pm on ABC1 stood out with a one-off half hour special on s-xual abuse and the churches. It was a reminder of the sterling work this underrated program has done on this terrible issue for the past 20 years or more. In many ways Compass has been a ground-breaker on this story, despite what other TV programs (at ABC TV News and Current Affairs) and some print media may now claim. A rare bright light in a night of dullness. Compass had 613,000 metro viewers at 8pm and 929,000 nationally.

Nine News may have lost nationally to Melbourne but its Melbourne 6pm edition with 372,000 viewers was the most-watched program anywhere last night. It was followed by the 6pm Nine News in Sydney with 326,000 and A Current Affair in Melbourne with 309,000. They were the only programs with a single audience of 300,000 or more in any market last night.

National Indigenous TV started at noon today on SBS’s fourth digital channel.

Tonight: Another weak night. ABC1 has back-to-back repeats of QI, Seven has Dynamo: Magician Impossible and then Grimm (fresh, but not so tasty, both of them). Nine has repeats of The Big Bang Theory and then a fresh CSI and then a repeat of Howzat at 9.30pm (it was at 8.30pm last week). Ten has Wedding Band at 7.30pm, then a movie repeat at 8.30pm.

UK ratings update: The X Factor finished in Britain last weekend, and unlike the local series here on Seven which had a strong year, the UK version shed millions of viewers and is looking a bit tatty ahead of 2013. UK ratings data shows the final on Sunday (results) on ITV1 was watched by 11.1 million people on average, down from just over 13 million a year ago and the lowest since 2006. But it was a massive 6 million under the 17.2 million who tuned in to watch the 2010 final. Saturday night’s first final was watched by 9.5 million viewers, the lowest since 2005. It was beaten by Strictly Come Dancing‘s Saturday show on BBC1 which averaged 10.8 million viewers. The Sunday results episode of Strictly dipped to average 9.8 million because of the X Factor’s final on ITV1. Compared with that the local version on Seven was a raging success.

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

  1. Seven News — 1.656 million.
  2. Nine News — 1.576 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.371 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.359 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.263 million.
  6. Once Upon A Time (Seven) — 1.190 million.
  7. Better Homes and Gardens (Seven) — 999,000.
  8. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 995,000.
  9. 7.30 (ABC1) — 954,000.
  10. Compass (ABC1) — 929,000.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.111 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.095 million.

The Losers: TV viewers generally on the basis of last night’s offerings (except Compass).Metro News & CA: Seven News lost Sydney and Melbourne (the latter by 90,000). But Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth (by 123,000). TT lost Sydney and Melbourne, but won the rest, Perth by 103,000.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.111 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.095 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 971,000.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 920,000.
  5. ABC1 News — 892,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 662,000.
  7. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 631,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 517,000.
  9. ABC Late News (ABC1, 10.25pm) — 239,000.
  10. Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 221,000.
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 144,000.
  12. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 94,000.
  13. The Drum (News 24, 6pm) — 38,000.

In the morning: Summer ennui has settled over morning TV.

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 389,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 327,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 161,000.
  4. Mornings Summer (Nine, 7am) — 98,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 49,000 + 30,000 on News 24.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 26.1% from Nine (three) on 24.5%, Ten (three) was on 21.2%, the ABC (four) ended on 19.9% and SBS (two) finished on 8.4%. Seven leads the week with 27.2% from Nine on 25.5%, the ABC is on 21.2% and Ten is on 19.7%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 18.7% from Nine on 17.7%, Ten was on 15.0%, ABC1 was on 13.3% and SBS ONE ended with 6.5%. Seven leads the week narrowly with 18.4%, from Nine on 18.3%, ABC1 is on 14.1% and Ten is on 13.1%.

Metro Digital: ABC2 scored a rare win with a share of 4.2%, from 7TWO and ONE on 4.0% each, Gem on 3.6%, 7mate on 3.3%, GO on 3.2%, Eleven on 2.2%, SBS TWO on 1.9%, ABC 3, 1.3% and News 24, 1.2%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share last night of a high 28.9%, 7TWO leads the week on 5.0% from ABC2 on 4.6% and GO and 7mate on 3.8%, with ONE on 3.6%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 20.8% from Nine (three) on 19.5%, Ten (three) was on 16.9%, the ABC (four) ended on 15.9% and SBS (two) finished on 6.7%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 81.8% after Pay TV’s share of 18.2% (based on the 200 plus channels on Foxtel), with the 10 digital channels share totalling 22.9% and the five main channels share on 58.8%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. TV1 –2.7%.
  2. LifeStyle — 2.6%.
  3. Fox8 — 2.5%.
  4. A&E — 2.0%.
  5. UKTV — 1.7%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Hardcore Pawn (A&E) — 101,000.
  2. Storage Wars (A&E) — 75,000.
  3. Grand Designs Australia (LifeStyle) — 64,000.
  4. Celebrity Come Dine With Me Australia (LifeStyle) — 63,000.
  5. Coronation Street (UKTV) — 60,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 28.9% from WIN/NBN (three) on 26.8%, SC Ten (three) was on 19.8%, the ABC (four) ended on 17.6% and SBS (two) finished on 6.8%. The main channels saw Prime/7Qld win with 20.1%, with WIN/NB on 18.9%, SC Ten was on 12.9% and ABC1 was on 10.9%. The digitals were won by 7TWO with 4.9%, from ONE with 4.7% and Gem on 4.4%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of an ultra high 32.6%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 30.5% from WIN/NBN on 27.6%, the ABC is on 19.1% and SC Ten is on 17.3%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Seven News — 545,000.
  2. Nine News — 482,000.
  3. Once Upon A Time — 469,000.
  4. ACA — 439,000.
  5. Today Tonight — 400,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven won (overall and the main channels) in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and won Sydney overall. But Nine won the main channels there, and won both in Melbourne for yet another night. The ABC/ABC1 finished third (overall and the main channels) in Sydney and Perth (where it shared second with Nine). Ten was third elsewhere. Seven was second in Melbourne behind Nine. In the digitals, 7TWO won Sydney, ONE won Adelaide and Perth and ABC2 won Melbourne and Brisbane. Nine leads the week in Sydney, Seven leads elsewhere, the ABC is third in front of Ten in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane (shared with Ten) and in Perth. Ten is third in Adelaide.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data