The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Memo Seven, it might be summer, but the “special” one-hour news bulletin idea from 6pm is confusing viewers. Some commentators have touted that this is an idea for Seven this year or next if Today Tonight‘s ratings continue to tank. Based on what we have seen so far, it will be a losing recipe that could approach the ratings disaster in Melbourne from 6-7pm, which remains the biggest headache for Seven management.

Look at the metro markets: Seven’s 6pm news averaged 1.080 million viewers, but the Nine News averaged 1.106 million, and Nine didn’t have the tennis as a lead in. At 6.30pm Seven News averaged 922,000, but rival A Current Affair on Nine averaged 960,000. Across the hour Nine had an average of 2.066 million viewers, Seven had 2.002 million.

But the situation worsens when you look nationally. Nine News had 1.647 million viewers, Seven News had 1.592 million, but at 6.30pm ACA had 1.487 million, while Seven had just 1.080 million.

Thanks to a solid game by Bernard Tomic in his first round game at the Australian Open, Seven won the night. Tomic backs up again tomorrow night. The tennis averaged 917,000 in the five metro markets, down from the more than 1.2 million who watched Lleyton Hewitt lose on Monday night. Nationally, the tennis had more than 1.3 million viewers last night, down from the more than 1.8 million on Monday night. Elsewhere, Ten ran fourth for yet another night, behind the ABC. The pain continues.

Tonight: More tennis today and tonight on Seven with Sam Stosur back for round two. Here’s hoping, say Seven’s bosses. The ABC has a repeat of a good doco on Queen. Ten has The Wedding Band and then a movie repeat, Nine has repeats from 7pm to 11.30pm. Lay down and ignore them if you don’t like the tennis.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

  1. Nine News — 1.647 million.
  2. Seven News — 1.592 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.487 million.
  4. Australian Open tennis, night three (Seven) — 1.382 million.
  5. ABC1 News — 1.271 million.
  6. New Tricks (ABC1) — 1.212 million).
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.096 million.
  8. Today Tonight (Seven) –1.080 million.
  9. QI (ABC1) — 1.078 million.
  10. Ten News — 878,000.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.106 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.080 million.

The Losers: Seven viewers who want to see Today Tonight, consult their guides or who have it programmed to record, and the program doesn’t appear, pre-empted by a “special” news of one hour.

Metro News & CA:

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.106 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.080 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 960,000.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 922,000.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 910,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 753,000.
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 650,000
  8. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) –413,000.
  9. ABC Late News (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 174,000.
  10. SBS News (6.30pm) — 145,000.
  11. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 91,000.

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 336,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 311,000.
  3. Mornings Summer (Nine, 9am) — 151,000.
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 45,000 + 32,000 on News 24.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 31.1%, from Nine (three) on 23.7%, the ABC (four) was on 20.3%, Ten (three) was on 17.9% and SBS (three) was on 7.0%. Seven leads the week with 32.0% from Nine on 26.6%, the ABC on 18.3%, Ten on 16.3% and SBS on 6.7%. Main Channels. Seven won with a share of 24.4% from Nine on 16.1%, ABC1 was on 15.0%, Ten was on 11.1% and SBS ONE was on 5.2%. Seven leads the week with 24.8%, from Nine on 19.4%, the ABC is on 12.9% and Ten is on 10.1%.

Metro Digital: Gem won with a share of 4.3%, from ONE on 3.7%, 7mate on 3.5%, GO on 3.3%, 7TWO was on 3.2%, Eleven was on 3.1%, along with ABC2, SBS TWO was on 1.7%, ABC 3, 1.23%, News 24, 1.0% and NITV 0.1%. The 11 digital channels had an FTA share of 28.3%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.1% from GO on 3.8% and Gem and ABC2 on 3.4% each.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 24.5%, from Nine (three) on 18.7%, the ABC (four) was on 16.0%, Ten (three) was on 14.1% and SBS (three) was on 5.5%.

The 16 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 80.8%, with the 11 digitals’ share, 22.7% and the five main channels on 58.1%. Pay TV, through the 200 plus channels on Foxtel had a high 19.2% share last night, thanks to the Big Bash game between the Brisbane Heat and the Melbourne Renegades which grabbed over a quarter of a million viewers.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox Sports 2 — 4.8%
  2. Fox8 — 3.1%
  3. TV 1 — 2.2%
  4. Cartoon Net., Disney 2.0%
  5. LifeStyle — 1.9%

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Big Bash Cricket (Fox Sports 2) — 270,000.
  2. Come Dine With Me Australia (LifeStyle) — 81,000.
  3. Coronation Street (UKTV), Storage Wars (A&E) — 74,000.
  4. The Carrie Diaries (Fox 8) — 70,000.
  5. Eastenders (UKTV) — 62,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 32.7%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 28.2%, the ABC (four) was on 17.0%, SC Ten (three) was on 15.7% and SBS (three) was on 6.4%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 24.9%, from WIN/NBN on 18.8%, ABC1 was on 11.5% and SC Ten ended on 9.6%. The digitals were won by Gem with 4.9%, GO on 4.5% and 7mate on 4.3%. The 11 digital channels had an FTA viewing share of 30.8%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.7%, from WIN/NBN on 31.3%, the ABC was on 16.0% and SC Ten on 14.3%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Nine News — 543,000.
  2. ACA — 517,000.
  3. Seven News — 512,000.
  4. Australian Open tennis night three — 466,000.
  5. New Tricks — 389,000

Major Metro Markets: a clean sweep for Seven (overall and the main channels) in all five markets. Nine and the ABC/ABC1 shared second and third, especially in Perth where the national broadcaster pushed Nine back to third (and in the main channels in Adelaide as well). The digitals saw Gem win Melbourne and Adelaide, share Sydney with GO and Brisbane with One. 7TWO won Perth. Seven leads the week everywhere with Nine second and the ABC third, except in Brisbane where Ten is clinging to third spot.
(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data