ABC news breakfast
(Image: ABC News Breakfast)

Nine had its worst finish in the main channels for years. It was fourth overall with 14.6%, Ten in third with 14.8%, the ABC with 15.2% in second and Seven with 20.0% in first. The digital channels had a combined share of just over 30%, but the main channels are where the money is made for the commercials and Nine’s decision to switch to summer mode until ratings finish in three weeks or so was rewarded by viewers simply turning off. Love Island at 8.30pm got 345,000 national viewers. A complete joke, and a sign of Nine’s arrogance in treating viewers like clods, trying to write ad revenue against this costly disaster.

There was a also a clear ratings bump for news about the terrible bush fires — ABC News Breakfast’s audience was up nearly 30,000 on a week earlier, while Today’s audience topped 300,000 national (312,000) and 200,000 metro (215,000) for the first time in more than two months. That was possibly due to people tuning in to see who would be on air after all the publicity about Karl Stefanovic. Sunrise added around 25,000 viewers — 471,000 nationally and 292,000 in the metros. At night, Seven News was up around 50,000 from a week ago over the hour to 7pm. The 7pm ABC News saw more viewers — 136,000 from the previous week with 1.03 million last night — and finished in front of A Current Affair (966,000) and Home and Away (964,000). In regional it Seven’s 6pm News with 521,000 then Seven News/TT with 498,000, The Chase Australia 5.30pm with 335,000, the 7pm ABC News with 330,000 and Home and Away with 323,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.8%)
  2. Nine (22.7%)
  3. Ten (20.3%)
  4. ABC (19.5%)
  5. SBS (7.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (20.0%)
  2. ABC (15.2%)
  3. Ten (14.8%)
  4. Nine (14.6%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.1%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (4.6%)
  2. Gem, 10 Bold (3.5%)
  3.  7TWO (3.3%)
  4. GO (2.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.572 million
  2. Seven News/TT — 1.520 million
  3. Nine/NBN News 6.30  — 1.143 million
  4. Nine News — 1.123 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 1.032 million
  6. Have You Been Paying Attention (Ten) — 996,000
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 966,000
  8. Home and Away (Seven)  — 964,000
  9. Australian Story (ABC) — 952,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 924,000

Top metro programs: 

  1. Seven News — 1.051 million
  2. Seven News/TT — 1.022 million

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.051 million
  2. Seven News/TT — 1.022 million
  3. Nine News, Nine News 6.30  — 833,000
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 678,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 703,000
  6. Australian Story (ABC) — 640,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 616,000
  8. Four Corners (ABC) — 570,000
  9. Media Watch (ABC)  — 539,000
  10. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 354,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise: National: 471,000, Metro: 292,000
  2. Today: National: 312,000, Metro: 215,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 271,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 207,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) —156,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 65,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 64,000
  2. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 62,000
  3. Credlin (Sky News) —- 50,000
  4. The Simpsons (Fox8) — 47,000
  5. Cricket Legends: Shane Warne (Fox Cricket) — 45,000