An early end to the pink ball torture from Adelaide meant it was even stevens for the networks in prime time last night, and viewers voted with their remotes, departing en masse for the digital channels. The combined share of the 14 digital channels was a very high 37.1%, much higher than the combined share of any single network. The mixture of odd shows, repeats, low ranking programs, old movies and whatever else proved to be more alluring than what was on the main channels. 

In the same vein, SBS ONE’s share jumped to 7.1% (not far behind Ten’s 8.9% share) with the return of The Vikings (291,000 nationally) and another episode of Struggle Street (441,000 nationally) which concludes tonight. Nine did not issue amended ratings data to account for the early finish to the cricket, so reported that second session was watched by 691,000, and the third session was watched by 537,000. Overall, Seven won a very poor night.

In the regions Seven News was on top with 490,000, then Seven News/Today Tonight with 418,000, Home and Away was third with 410,000, then Session 1 of the Test with 329,000 and the 5.30pm bit of The Chase Australia was fifth with 325,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.1%)
  2. Nine (28.1%)
  3. ABC (17.8%)
  4. Ten (14.5%)
  5. SBS (10.5%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (18.7%)
  2. Nine (16.9%)
  3. ABC (11.3%)
  4. Ten (8.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (7.1%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.5%)
  2. 7TWO (4.2%)
  3. 7mate (4.1%)
  4. ABC 2 (3.8%)
  5. 9Life (3.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.423million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.300 million
  3. Second Ashes Cricket: Session 1  Day 5 (Nine) — 1.044 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.036 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 1.023 million
  6. Nine/NBN News — 1.019 million
  7. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 877,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 820,000
  9. QI (ABC) — 655,000
  10. Rosehaven (ABC) — 651,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.100 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.093 million
  3. The X Factor (Seven) — 1.083 million
  4. Nine News — 1.022 million
  5. Nine News 6.30 — 1.037 million

Losers: Where do I start?

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 933,000
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 839,000
  3. Nine News — 769,000
  4. 7pm ABC News – 694,000
  5. 7.30 (ABC) — 562,000
  6. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 444,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News — 419,000
  8. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 275,000
  9. SBS World News — 115,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 555,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 414,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, 162,000 + 96,000 on News 24) — 258,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 215,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 159,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) —124,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Real Housewives of Melbourne (Arena) — 98,000
  2. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 74,000
  3. The Flash (Fox8), American Dad (Fox8)  — 63,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox8) — 61,000