Five kelpie pups, all from the same litter, have become the stand-out hit of summer viewing on Australian television with Muster Dogs ending its four-week run on the ABC with a current total audience, including encores, of 1.43 million viewers*.
It is currently the ABC’s top non-kids program on both broadcast and ABC iview for the year-to-date and is ranked #2 in its timeslot, up against strong competition including The Australian Open tennis coverage and Married at First Sight.
The first episode, which screened on Sunday 23 January 2022 has delivered a total audience of 1.7 million viewers to date.
The series has been warmly embraced by audiences across Australia with fans sharing photos, videos and stories of their dogs on social media. There were more than 2.1 million views of Muster Dog content across Facebook, Instagram, You Tube and Twitter and just under 400,000 pages views for digital articles.
Early interest has also been shown from international broadcasters with the first overseas sale confirmed for New Zealand.
An original format created by Ambience Entertainment and the ABC, Muster Dogs tells the authentic stories of remote and regional farmers as they meet the challenge to train a Kelpie puppy in just 12 months. The series explores the benefit of using this unique Australian pedigree to muster stock after years of reliance on machines. It advocates the use of dogs as an environmentally sustainable practise that “takes the rattle out of the cattle” and promotes regenerative farming to better protect the land.
The production was supported by The Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Screen Finance Program.
ABC Commercial holds worldwide distribution rights for Muster Dogs.
*Source: OzTAM 5 City Metro, Regional TAM Agg incl WA, OzTAM VPM, Ep 1-3 broadcast figures are based on C7 data, Ep 4 is preliminary overnight.
