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Free TV viewing hits fragmentation milestone

Less than 20 TV shows have reached more than one million metro viewers in a week for the first time since the current OzTAM system began 12 years ago.

The milestone was hit in week 47 of the TV ratings year – the week before last.

When the consolidated ratings – which cover both overnight viewing and catchup recordings viewed over the next seven days – were issued, the 20th most watched show of the week was Seven’s airing of the magic special Dynamo: Magician Impossible. Its consolidated audience was 998,000.

While top 20 shows will have scored below 1m viewers outside of the 40 official weeks of the rating year several times before, this is the first time it has occurred while the networks have been in competition.

If The X Factor had not been split into three shows for ratings purposes, two more shows in the two 20 would have also scored less than 1m.

While the total audience numbers watching television as a medium has barely moved since OzTAM’s inception, fragmentation across the 15 free to air channels and pay TV has meant average audience numbers for individual channels has fallen. I(n the same period, Australia’s population has grown by about 18%.

In 2001, the 20th program of a week averaged 1.491m. In 2012, the 20th program averaged 1.1m.

Source: OzTAM

Media analyst Steve Allen told Mumbrella that the milestone came as no surprise. He said: “Everything is averaging down. We put ten new digital channels in which is taking 20% of audience away from the main channels, plus we have pay TV.”

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