The battle of the food channels begins to heat up

Food is the latest battle in Australian TV — not Ten’s fading MasterChef or Seven’s sluggish My Kitchen Rules or Nine’s Family Food Fight flop — but the contest between the established SBS Food and the 7food network, which started last Saturday and really kicked off on Monday.

After three nights this week, SBS leads easily in the battle, but Seven isn’t doing too shabbily, pulling some viewers — a week ago, SBS Food was getting shares of 1.4% (Monday) and 1.7% (Tuesday). This week, those numbers were 1.2% and 1.4% respectively. Meanwhile, SBS Food regularly has more viewers in prime time than ABC News 24, 7flix, 9Life and 7Food.

Overall, last night was Nine’s in total people (Seven won in the main channels). Ten’s Ambulance Australia was the most watched non-news program with 946,000, beating Seven’s final episode of The Good Doctor. In the regions, Seven’s 6pm News led with 496,000, then Seven News/Today Tonight with 485,000, followed by Home and Away with 359,000, The Good Doctor with 337,000 and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia with 344,000. 

Network channel share:

1. Nine (28.6%)
2. Seven (28.1%)
3. Ten (18.6%)
4. ABC (15.2%)
5. SBS (9.5%)

Network main channels:

1. Seven (19.4%)
2. Nine (18.2%)
3. Ten (12.7%)
4. ABC (9.6%)
5. SBS ONE (6.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. GO (5.1%)
2. 10BOSS (3.6%)
3. 7TWO (3.2%)
4. 7mate (3.1%)
5. ABC Kids/Comedy (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 1.427 million
2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.352 million
3. The Block (Nine) — 1.115 million
4.  Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.147 million
5.  Nine/NBN News — 1.455 million
6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.035 million
7. 7pm ABC News — 977,000
8. Ambulance Australia (Ten) — 946,000
9. Home and Away (Seven) — 934,000
10. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 877,000

Top metro programs: None.

Losers: Those who managed to stay the night. The various News broadcasts and 7.30 were OK, then faded to a snore.

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News — 931,000
2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 888,000
3. Nine News — 883,000
4. Nine News6.30 — 873,000
5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 767,000
6. 7pm ABC News – 655,000
7. 7.30 (ABC) — 540,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 410,000
9. Ten Eyewitness News — 361,000
10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 256,000

Morning (National) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) – 454,000
2. Today (Nine) – 327,000
3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 278,000
4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 205,000
5. Mornings (Nine) — 144,000
6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 64,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 64,000
2. Jones & Co (Sky News) — 56,000
3. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 55,000
4. The Simpsons (Fox8), Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 51,000