Some amongst us would argue that summer reaches its seasonal depths for two weeks, starting today. That coincides with the 2016 Australian Open Tennis titles from Melbourne on Seven. Others would argue that the seasonal has been in its usual cricket-dominated trough for a month or so. The BBL tip and run competition on Ten has been thrilling, but meaningless – the women’s BBL has starred and been discovered by more and more viewers, which is the big plus for the summer and cricket. And the three One Day Internationals so far between Australia and India have been down-to-the-wire results that saw tight and surprising wins for the weakish (bowling) home team, especially last night in Melbourne.

The interview between ABC sports journalist and presenter Tracey Holmes and former Essendon AFL coach James Hird attracted 206,000 metro viewers from 7.40pm to 8.30pm (including 124,000 in Melbourne, naturally). Nationally, with 93,000 watching in regional markets, the program had a solid 299,000 viewers up against the ODI on Nine. This is a good idea for the Sydney Ethics Centre and should be continued with invited interviewers and more high profile guests.

The third one-day cricket international between Australia and India last night was easily the most watched program on TV. The nearly 1.4 million people who watched Australia batting in the second session (last night) in metro markets was comfortably ahead of all but one other cricket broadcasts this year. Certainly it out-rated the Big Bash on Ten. 958,000 watched India bat in the first session of the ODI.

Nine pointed out this morning that “The second session recorded a 5 City Metro average audience of 1.392 million, making it the highest rating session of any one day match of the 2015/16 season and the second highest rating session of all forms of cricket (just behind Day Three of the Third Test between Australia and New Zealand which recorded a 5 City Metro average audience of 1.614 million).” Translated, it did much better than any of the Big Bash 20 20 games on Ten. As a result Nine won the night, easily in metros and the regionals.

With the regional audiences added, the national figures were even better. 650,000 watched the second session in the regions, taking the national total to a massive 2.042 million. Session One was watched by 440,000 in the regions, taking the total audience to 1.398 million. The total game had a high 1.720 million national average audience which also comfortably exceeded any Big Bash audience.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (36.8%)
  2. Seven (22.4%)
  3. ABC (18.2%)
  4. Ten (14.7%)
  5. SBS (8.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (28.9%)
  2. Seven (16.7%)
  3. ABC (12.8%)
  4.  Ten (9.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.5%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 9Life (3.7%)
  2. 7TWO (2.9%)
  3. ABC 2, 7mate (2.8%)
  4. GO (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. ODI, Australia v India, Game 3 Session 2 (Nine) — 2.042 million
  2. Nine News — 1.855 million
  3. Seven News — 1.584 million
  4. ODI, Australia v India, Game 3 Session 1 (Nine) — 1.398 million
  5. ABC News — 1.149 million
  6. Border Security International (Seven) — 1.146 million
  7. Vera (ABC) — 1.081 million
  8. The Force repeat (Seven) — 959,000
  9. Motorway Patrol (Seven) — 935,000
  10. Grand Designs repeat (ABC) — 770,000

Top metro programs:

  1. ODI, Australia v India, Game 3 Session 2 (Nine) — 1.392 million
  2. Nine News — 1.379 million
  3. Seven News — 1.054 million

Losers: Any one who missed the cricket, the Indian batting was again thrilling, as was the Australian innings.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.379 million
  2. Seven News — 1.054 million
  3. ABC News – 766,000
  4. 7.30 (ABC) — 776,000
  5. Ten Eyewitness News — 310,000
  6. SBS World News — 159,000

Morning TV:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 311,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) – 274,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (2.6%)
  2. TVHITS (2.5%)
  3. LifeStyle  (2.0%)
  4. Crime and Investigation (1.9%)
  5. Foxtel Movies Premiere (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Project Almanac  (Foxtel Movies Premiere) – 63,000
  2. Soccer: EPS, Liverpool v Man United (Fox Sports 4) — 60,000
  3. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) — 58,000
  4. Supergirl (Fox8) – 56,000
  5. NCIS (TVHITS) — 55,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2016. 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.