It is a pretty poor state of affairs that the most vibrant interesting programs on TV last night were the NRL game on Nine (644,000 nationally and 220,000 on Foxtel), the AFL game on Seven (533,000 nationally and 180,000 on Foxtel) and Masterchef (1.08 million nationally). At least Seven got 31 ad spots from the 31 goals kicked in the game. What was really weak about last night was the ABC running two programs bought after they had first appeared on Foxtel – Grand Designs Australia (825,000 nationally) and Wentworth (221,000 nationally). Both Australian content, but both examples of the creative bankruptcy at the national broadcaster at the moment. 

The World Cup started late Thursday and continued into the early hours of Friday (175,000 nationally for Russia V Saudi Arabia on SBS). And the weekend is all sport — France has a training run against Australia on Saturday night, the Swans play the Weagles tonight in Sydney, there’s cricket on tomorrow night from England and the Wallabies play Ireland tomorrow night in the second test in Melboring.

In the regions, Seven’s night with the 6pm News on top with 589,000, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 485,000, Home and Away with 405,000, the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia with 386,000,  A Current Affair with 345,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (30.0%)
  2. Nine (26.6%)
  3. Ten (19.7%)
  4. ABC (15.0%)
  5. SBS (8.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (19,8%)
  2. Nine (17.9%)
  3. Ten (15.2%)
  4. ABC (10.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.2%)
  2. 7mate, GO (3.7%)
  3. ANC Comedy/Kids (2.9%)
  4. 7flix, 9Life (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.532 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.4278 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.252million
  4. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.261 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.084 million
  6. Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.081 million
  7. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.007 million
  8. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.004 million
  9. 7pm ABC News — 997,000
  10. Grand Designs Australia ABC) — 825,000

Top metro programs: None with a million or more viewers

Losers: The footy was OK for a while, but then … snore.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News —943,000
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 942,000
  3. Nine News —937,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 906,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 739,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 657,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 514,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 488,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 426,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 304,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 462,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 358,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Parramatta v Souths (Fox League) — 220,000
  2. AFL: Port Adelaide v Footscray (Fox Footy) — 180,000
  3. NRL: The Late Show With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 127,000
  4. AFL: Thursday Night Footy on Fox (Fox Footy) — 83,000
  5. NRL: Thursday Night League (Fox League) — 78,000