More than 1.7 million Australians watched the ABC’s federal election leaders debate across all platforms, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton went head-to-head in prime time.
The event attracted a national TV average of just over 1 million, with strong digital, radio and social figures rounding out a wide-reaching national broadcast.
The leaders will face off again on Nine on Tuesday 22 April, with a final debate airing on Seven on Sunday 27 April, ahead of the federal election on 3 May.
From ABC:
ABC federal election leaders debate reaches millions of Australians
The ABC federal election leaders debate on Wednesday night reached millions of Australians across live ABC TV, audio, digital and social channels.
The prime-time debate between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton recorded a total average national TV audience of just over 1 million people and had a national reach of more than 1.7 million across scheduled broadcast and ABC iview.
The Insiders: Debate Analysis Special achieved an average national TV audience of 748,000 and had a national TV reach of almost 1.3 million.
Many more Australians were listening across ABC Local Radio and ABC NewsRadio. The debate was also available live in Auslan on ABC iview. Across the day the ABC NEWS web and app had 2.2 million users.
ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks said:
“The ABC was honoured to host such a significant national conversation and to be able to put the questions and concerns of Australians directly to our leaders.”
“We can see that people tuned in to the debate on TV, radio or online wherever they were in the country.”
Other audience highlights included:
- 140,000 live streams of capital city ABC Local Radio on the ABC listen app and 59,000 live streams of ABC NewsRadio
- 167,000 live streams on the ABC NEWS YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok*
- 107,000 live streams of the ABC NEWS Channel on the website and app
Source: OzTAM VOZ National Total TV, Overnight Wednesday 16th April 2025, each Viewing threshold is >60 seconds for Broadcast TV Reach and > 15 seconds for BVOD; Snowplow Digital Analytics; YouTube Analytics; Meta Native Analytics; TikTok Native Analytics *Numbers as of 9am AEST, 17th April 2025.
The abc don’t have that many viewers
Phil Andrewi bet you was an embarrassment to your parents when tj3 realised you were brain dead.