Budget announcement drags a handful of viewers away from MAFS

Suppose they had a budget and no one turned up to watch? Well, 751,000 watched the announcement nationally last night, and 623,000 watched the ABC News special which followed straight after. The audience wasn’t much different to Scott Morrison’s last budget in 2018 (772,000 nationally and 630,000 for the ABC special). But the 2018 speech and special weren’t up against MAFS on Nine and MKR on Seven, so the ratings performance last night was a lot stronger than 11 months ago.

With MAFS (1.89 million nationally) and Travel Guides (1.18 million nationally) it was Nine’s night. MKR (1.24 million nationally) had its second 1.2 million-plus audience in a row — could it be a rebirth? In regional areas it was Seven’s 6pm News with 530,000, then MAFS with 503,000, Seven News/Today Tonight with 494,000, MKR with 415,000 and Home and Away with 393,000.

Network channel share:

1. Nine (34.5%)
2. Seven (29.5%)
3. ABC (15.6%)
4. Ten (13.5%)
5. SBS (6.8%)

Network main channels:

1. Nine (26.2%)
2. Seven (22.1%)
3. ABC (10.1%)
4. Ten (8.9%)
5. SBS ONE (4.5%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. 10 Bold (3.2%)
2. GO (3.0%)
3. 9Life (2.9%)
4. ABC Kids, 7TWO (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. MAFS (Nine) — 1.891 million
2. Seven News — 1.587 million
3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.519 million
4. MKR (Seven) — 1.246 million
5. Nine/NBN News 6.30, Travel Guides (Nine) — 1.188 million
6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.159 million
7. Nine/NBN News  — 1.145 million
8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.142 million
9. 7pm ABC News — 1.031 million

Top metro programs:

1. MAFS (Nine) — 1.225 million
2. Seven News — 1.057 million
3. Seven News/TT – 1.024 million

Losers: Nine/NBN news: surprisingly weak nationally last night.

Top Metro News and Current Affairs

1. Seven News — 1.057 million
2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.024 million
3. Nine News 6.30 — 866,000
4. Nine News— 845,000
5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 818,000
6. 7pm ABC News —692,000
7. The Treasurer’s Budget Speech (ABC) — 506,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 429,000
9. ABC’s Budget Special — 425,000
10. 10 News First — 385,000

Morning (National) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 452,000 (Metros: 274,000)
2. Today (Nine) — 275,000 (Metros: 189,000)
3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 235,000 
4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 213,000
5. Today Extra (Nine) — 128,000
6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 85,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. Budget 2019 (Sky News) — 73,000
2. Budget With David Speers (Sky News) — 64,000
3. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 55,000
4. PML Later  (Sky News) — 54,000
5. Budget With David Speers (Sky News) — 51,000