Fires continue to fuel news ratings

A night so devoid of interest that the combined audience share for the digital networks was 38.5%s. The ABC’s News channel saw its evening prime time share rise to a solid 2.5% from 1.7% on Monday night. The audience for Sunrise jumped sharply to 529,000 with the metro audience at 329,000 — the gain about 58,000 from Monday. Today had its second solid morning with the national audience at 312,000 and the metro at 209,000. News Breakfast on the ABC had its second morning with an audience above a high 270,000, the audience for Seven’s Morning Show jumped to 269,000 yesterday but there was no move in the audiences for Nine’s Today Extra or Studio 10 on Ten.

Seven’s hour of news from 6pm averaged 1.56 million, Nine’s hour averaged 1.18 million, up by around 45,000 from the night before, and the ABC News averaged 1.05 million. There was a real appetite for news on the fires on free-to-air TV, but not so strongly on Sky News — the after dark screamers like Bolt, Credlin and Paul Murray were tops last night. In regional markets it was Seven’s 6pm News with 546,000 from Seven News/TT with 539,000, Home and Away with 366,000, The Chase Australia 5.30pm with 339,000 and the 7pm ABC News with 318,000.

Network channel share:

1. Seven (30.5%)
2. Nine (25.8%)
3. Ten (19.3%)
4. ABC (15.9%)
5. SBS (8.5%)

Network main channels:

1. Seven (20.6%)
2. Nine (15.5%)
3. Ten (12.0%)
4. ABC (10.2%)
5. SBS ONE (5.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. 10 Bold (4.8%)
2. Gem (4.4%)
3. 7TWO (4.0%))
4. 7mate (3.9%)
5. GO (3.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 1.573 million
2. Seven News/TT — 1.545 million
3. Nine/NBN News 6.30  — 1.183 million
4. Nine/NBN News  — 1.177 million
5. 7pm ABC News  — 1.059 million
6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.045 million
7. Home And Away (Seven) — 1.002 million
8. Bride & Prejudice (Seven) — 919,000
9. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 878,000
10. 7.30 (ABC) — 861,000

Top metro programs: None with a million or more viewers

1. Seven News — 1.029 million
2. Seven News/TT— 1.006 million

Losers: The usual suspect: Flop Island — two nights to go!

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News —1.029 million
2. Seven News/TT —1.006 million
3. Nine News 6.30  — 875,000
4. Nine News — 871,000
5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 746,000
6. 7pm ABC News — 741,000
7. 7.30 (ABC) —572,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 453,000
9. Ten News First — 399,000
10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 279,000

Morning (National) TV:

1. Sunrise: National: 529,000, Metro: 329,000
2. Today: National: 312,000, Metro: 209,000
3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 274,000
4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 269,000
5. Today Extra (Nine) —125,000
6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 64,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. Jones & Credlin (Sky News) — 76,000
2. The Bolt Report (Sky News)  — 71000
3. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 64,000
4. Credlin (Sky News) — 52,000
5. Cricket Legends – Andrew Symonds (Fox Cricket) — 40,000`