Cricket World Cup bowls out prime time giants

The World Cup cricket ODI between Australia and England dominated viewing last night. The 709,000 average for the Australian innings from 7.30pm on Nine Gem pushed Nine to a huge win on the night. An average of 260,000 watched the England innings at the end of ratings for the night at 2am (the match didn’t finish to around 3.30am). The Australian innings averaged 360,000 on Foxtel, with the England innings grabbing a solid 126,000. That’s more than a million people who watched the Australian batting last night. 

On the night of what was always going to attract a big audience Foxtel’s Sky News also programmed the first of two parts of the Bad Blood documentary series about the toppling of Malcolm Turnbull. It had an average audience of 114,000 — a good audience for Sky News, but it was swamped by Fox Cricket.

The cricket drew viewers away from rival programs on Free To Air TV, including Nine’s main channel where The Voice fell to 1.07 million, Seven’s House Rules fell to 955,000 and MasterChef eased to 793,000. In the regions it was Seven’s 6pm News with 618,000, Seven News/Today Tonight with 599,000, The Chase Australia 5.30pm with 444,000, Home and Away with 419,000 and House Rules ended with 371,000.

Network channel share:

1. Nine (37.7%)
2. Seven (25.9%)
3. Ten (16.6%)
4. ABC (12.3%)
5. SBS (7.5%)

Network main channels:

1. Nine (20.5%)
2. Seven (18.5%)
3. Ten (10.6%)
4. ABC (8.2%)
5. SBS ONE (4.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. Gem (13.3%)
2. 10 Bold (3.7%)
3. 7mate (3.4%)
4. ABC Kids/Comedy (2.6%)
5. 7TWO, 10 Peach (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 1.707 million
2. Seven News/TT —  1.639 million
3. The Voice (Nine) — 1.416 million
4. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.203 million
5. Nine/NBN News — 1.186 million
6. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.082 million
7. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.066 million
8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.046 million
9. House Rules (Seven) — 955,000
10. 7pm ABC News —946,000

Top metro programs:

1. Seven News — 1.089 million
2. Seven News/TT (Seven) — 1.049 million

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News — 1.089 million
2. Seven News/TT (Seven) — 1.049 million
3. Nine News 6.30 — 890,000
4. Nine News 6.30pm  — 883,000
5. ACA (Nine) — 731,000
6. 7pm ABC News – 636,000
7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 499,000
8. 7.30 (ABC) — 474,000
9. 10 News First  — 365,000
10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 291,000

Morning (National) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 467,000 (Metros: 282,000)
2. Today (Nine) —307,000 (Metros: 212,000)
3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) —269,000
4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 216,000
5. Today Extra (Nine) — 141,000
6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 71,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. Cricket: World Cup: Australia v England Session 1 (Fox Cricket) —360,000
2. Cricket: World Cup: Australia v England – Innings Break (Fox Cricket) —215,000
3. Cricket: World Cup: Australia v England Session 2 (Fox Cricket) —126,000
4. Bad Blood (Sky News) — 114,000
5. Wentworth (Fox Showcase) — 86,000