It’s a week where the two biggest networks have plenty to crow about. Seven’s a winner, Nine’s a winner and 10… is still struggling.
The Seven Network is breathing a sigh of relief this week with the return of AFL. While Married at First Sight helped Nine own Sunday – Wednesday, the AFL then helped Seven claim the rest of the week. The shares were impressive to say the least with Seven scoring a 36.8% network share on Thursday, then a massive 37% on Friday (its highest share in survey this year) and 31.9% on Saturday.
Nine’s highest network share was 35.6% on Tuesday and they claimed the week with a network share of 31.8% to Seven’s 30.4%.
Both networks should be happy but Nine has extra reason to smile winning all key demographics in primary channel primetime commercial shares: People 25-54s (35.3%), People 16-39s (36.4%) and Shopper with Child (37.1%).
Nine also won across all key demographics in network primetime commercial shares: People 25-54s (43.5%), People 16-39s (43.5%) and Shopper with Child (44.7%).
10, once again, was left languishing in fourth position on 14.3%. Easter can’t come fast enough.
2019 RATINGS CHART – WEEKS 1 TO 12
Looking at the primary channels and the rankings remain the same, although there was a bigger margin for Nine’s primary channel (23.5%) when comparing to network shares. Seven remained in second place with 20.7%, the ABC had 12% and 10 came fourth with 9.2%.
WEEK 12 RATINGS
**All data below has been calculated from overnight top 20 lists provided by OzTam, not adjusted figures**
BIGGEST SHOWS FOR EACH NETWORK (excluding nightly news)*
NINE: MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT (Sunday) – 1,476,000
SEVEN: MY KITCHEN RULES (Tuesday) – 768,000
10: AUST FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2019 – RACE (Sunday) – 649,000
ABC: HARD QUIZ (Wednesday) – 697,000
BATTLEZONES – NSW STATE ELECTION
Election nights are always interesting to see who viewers trust to deliver big stories. An election allows networks to plan a news event (a rare thing indeed) and they have the chance to show their wares.
When it comes to elections it’s hard to beat Antony Green – he is a numbers machine! Although the technology didn’t quite work right on the night, viewers chose the ABC coverage above all else.
The networks have all coded the election differently, so TV Blackbox has gone and calculated the figures manually using the period of 7pm – 10pm. This is to accomodate Nine News not finishing until 7pm and was the first period where all three networks were broadcasting their coverage at the same time (the ABC started at 6pm, Seven at 6.30pm and Nine at 7pm).
According to our manual calculations the ABC led the way with an average audience of 143,000 viewers across the 3 hours (please remember these are just Sydney numbers only and do not include ABC News 24). Nine came in second with 125,000 followed by Seven with 112,000 viewers.
NSW STATE ELECTION COVERAGE 15 MINUTE SPLITS 23.03.2019
BATTLEZONES – BREAKFAST
Despite calls for David Koch to be sacked after his confrontational interview with Pauline Hanson, Sunrise continues to dominate in the morning time slot. On Friday Seven’s offering even cracked the 300k mark, a rare event these days.
The TODAY show is still struggling but managed to pop its head above the 200k mark on Monday and Tuesday. It finished with an average audience of 191,000 for the week, which must be infuriating producers as audiences avoid the changes that launched on January 14. The new team have had 10 weeks to bed in the show in and it’s pretty obvious at this point viewers don’t like the changes.
I’m calling it right now – TODAY in 2020 will be vastly different to the show currently on air. There is just no way this can continue. If significant changes are not made soon, then I predict ABC News Breakfast will become the #2 show.
BATTLEZONES – NEWS
The most watched news service around the country last week was 7 NEWS/TODAY TONIGHT (893k), although 9 NEWS (848k) claimed Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. This is significant because news is a state based production, not national. The margin in Melbourne was extremely close across the hour with just 1,000 viewers the difference. Seven was stronger in the 6.30 – 7pm portion of the news hour. This is surprising considering the strength of Married at First Sight which, theoretically, should boost Nine’s numbers the closer we get to 7.30 as viewers traditionally pre-tune to the station they plan to watch later.
Brisbane was separated by only 2,000 viewers for the news hour with Nine edging out in front. It’s always been a tussle in the Sunshine state over the past few years but Seven appear to have found form again. This market will be one to watch.
As usual, Seven decimated the competition in Adelaide and Perth with their offering of 7 News and Today Tonight. As mentioned last week, Seven Adelaide celebrated 500 weekly wins in that market and they’re even stronger in Perth. It shows the power of Seven in those markets that it can lose the East Coast but still claim a national win.
BATTLEZONES – 7PM
A Current Affair (674k) was the winner at 7pm, but ABC News (664k) held up well. It should be noted ACA did not air in Brisbane on Thursday and Friday due to Nine’s NRL coverage.
Despite dominating headlines this week, The Project only saw a lift of 6,000 viewers compared to last week, coming in fourth behind Seven’s Home & Away
The following charts have been supplied by NINE:
Co-Creator and Editor of the TV Blackbox website, Robert McKnight is highly regarded Australian Television Producer, he has worked at SEVEN, NINE and TEN, and is most well-known for creating and producing STUDIO 10. Currently Rob is the host and producer of the TV Blackbox, McKnight Tonight and Monsters Who Murder podcasts.
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