So it was Nine’s night last night, from Seven and Ten in the metros, with the ABC fourth. In the regions Seven edged Nine overall, but Nine edged Seven in the main channels. The ABC was third and Ten a distant fourth, again. Anyone who watched TV last night in prime time — other than maybe three programs (excluding the News and 7.30) — needs their heads to be read to see if the bumps are interfering with reception. It was a very weak night.

I know Nine thinks they are being very clever strong arming the NRL into showing a game on Thursday nights in the run up to the finals, but last night’s effort between Canterbury and the Tigers (my poor, struggling team), was torture for the audience and judging by the body language on screen, for both teams. Thankfully Silk and Catalyst could be recorded or watched on iView, while outside NSW and Qld, viewers could watch The Block Glasshouse, which would have been far more entertaining.

The NRL game helped Nine win in Sydney (its 355,000  viewers was the biggest audience in the market), but was useless in helping Nine win Brisbane (just 132,000 watched, the 10th most watched program. In fact the pre match chat with 141,000 had more viewers) Seven won Brisbane, so while Nine did well nationally, in terms of the programming intent of Nine it was one win (Sydney) and one big loss in the second most important NRL market in the country.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (29.5%)
  2. Seven (27.3%)
  3. Ten (18.9%)
  4. ABC (18.2%)
  5. SBS (6.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (23.4%)
  2. Seven (18.2%)
  3. Ten (13.1%)
  4. ABC (12.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (5.5%)
  2. GO (4.0%)
  3. 7mate (3.5%)
  4. ABC 2 (3.4%)
  5. ONE (3.2%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.581 million
  2. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.381 million
  3. Seven News — 1.300 million
  4. Catalyst (ABC) – 1.167 million
  5. ABC News — 1.105 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) – 1.010 million
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) – 1.006 million
  8. Nine News 6.30 – 989,000
  9. The Bachelor (Ten) — 927,000
  10. The Footy Show (Nine) — 918,000

Losers: The TV audiences, except for gut fans for Catalyst on ABC at 8pm, legal beagles for Silk at 8.30pm and the usual Home and Away tragics on Seven, who pushed the program up to number two nationally.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.075 million
  2. Seven News — 997,000
  3. Nine News 6.30 – 989,000
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 915,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 816,000
  6. ABC News — 721,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 656,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) – 656,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 596,000
  10. The Project 6.30 — 482,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 347,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 299,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 141,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC  78,000 + 31,000 on News 24) —
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 104,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 49,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (3.0%)
  2. LifeStyle  (2.6%)
  3. TVHITS!  (1.9%)
  4. Cartoon Net (1.7%)
  5. UKTV (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Village Vets Australia (LifeStyle) – 88,000
  2. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 82,000
  3. AFL 360 (Fox Footy) – 78,000
  4. Outlander (SoHo) – 73,000
  5. Two and A Half Men (Fox 8) – 69,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) and network reports.