2012 TV ratings halfway point: Seven winning all people; Nine leads key demos and Ten points to digital growth
Seven and Nine have both declared victory at the halfway point of the 2012 TV ratings battle, while Ten is pointing to the growth of its online and catch-up viewing audience.
The networks’ analysis of the OzTam ratings for weeks 7-28, place Seven ahead in reaching all people, while Nine claims the lead in the key advertiser age demographics of 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.
In the battle for primetime across Australia’s five capital cities, Seven is ahead in all people for both single channel viewing, and in viewing across primary and secondary channels. Then comes Nine, Ten and ABC1.
Seven’s digital channel 7Two is the best performing secondary channel among all people, followed by Nine’s Go and Ten’s Eleven. Meanwhile, Neighbours, on Eleven, was the most watched drama series across all digital channels while the most watched show of the year on digital was the Australian Grand Prix on One.
That ratings show SBS1 narrowly keeping its nose ahead of the digital channels. And the ABC’s news channel ABC News 24 is still struggling to find an audience with a share of less than 1%.
Single channel all people primetime free to air share:
- Seven 23.1%
- Nine 21.6%
- Ten 14.1%
- ABC1 12.3%
- SBS ONE 4.7%
- 7TWO 4.0%
- GO! 3.7%
- ELEVEN 3.3%
- 7mate 3.2%
- Gem 2.6%
- ABC2 2.5%
- ONE 2.4%
- SBS TWO 0.9%
- ABC News 24 0.8%
- ABC3 0.7%
Multi channel all people prime time share:
- Seven + 7mate + 7TWO 30.4%
- Nine + Go + Gem 27.9%
- Ten + One + Eleven 19.9%
- ABC1+ ABC 2 + ABC 3 + ABC News 24 16.3%
- SBS1 + SBS2 5.5%
According to Nine’s analysis, which also excludes the easter ratings break, it leads the primary channel and combined channel battles. Nine’s figures exclude the ABC and SBS.
Primary share:
25-54
- Nine: 28.2%
- Seven: 27.5%
- Ten: 20.2%
18-49
- Nine: 27.8%
- Seven: 27%
- Ten: 20.6%
16-39
- Nine: 26.8%
- Seven: 26.1%
- Ten: 21.1%
Nine’s recovery in 2012 has been led by The Voice, with The Block also performing well. Recent weeks have seen the networks audiences dip though as it waits to kick off its Olympics coverage. Also to come from Nine in the second half of the year are Big Brother, the next instalment of Underbelly, Badness and Kerry Packer biopic Howzat!
Seven can point to dominance in mornings with Sunrise remaining number one, albeit with a slimmer margin over Nine’s Today, and The Morning Show easily winning its timeslot. Seven’s best performing show of the year has been My Kitchen Rules, followed by Revenge, Downton Abbey and Packed To The Rafters.
Ten’s schedule has relied heavily on Masterchef to deliver ratings although US drama Homeland also performed. Ten is also pointing to its local drama slate including timeslot-winning drama Bikie Wars in the 18-49 demo, and the recommissioned Offspring. The second half of the year will will the network roll out The Shire, star search I Will Survive and dance contest Everybody Dance Now. Puberty Blues will also air soon.
The only ABC1 show to make the top 30 programmes of the year was UK drama New Tricks.
TOP 30 REGULAR PROGRAMMES
- THE VOICE – TUESDAY Nine 2,524,000
- THE VOICE – MONDAY Nine 2,346,000
- MY KITCHEN RULES – TUESDAY Seven 1,883,000
- MY KITCHEN RULES – MONDAY Seven 1,842,000
- MY KITCHEN RULES – WEDNESDAY Seven 1,769,000
- MY KITCHEN RULES – THURSDAY Seven 1,768,000
- THE BLOCK – SUNDAY Nine 1,737,000
- MY KITCHEN RULES – SUNDAY Seven 1,733,000
- REVENGE Seven 1,730,000
- DOWNTON ABBEY Seven 1,615,000
- PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,555,000
- THE BLOCK – MONDAY Nine 1,508,000
- THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,416,000
- THE BLOCK – TUESDAY Nine 1,400,000
- HAMISH & ANDY’S EURO GAP YEAR Nine 1,377,000
- NINE NEWS – SUNDAY Nine 1,365,000
- SEVEN NEWS – SUNDAY Seven 1,352,000
- THE BLOCK – WEDNESDAY Nine 1,344,000
- THE BLOCK – THURSDAY Nine 1,321,000
- MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA – SUNDAY Ten 1,314,000
- NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,284,000
- AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT- MONDAY Seven 1,239,000
- SEVEN NEWS – MONDAY-FRIDAY Seven 1,236,000
- SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,215,000
- HOMELAND Ten 1,210,000
- MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA – WEDNESDAY Ten 1,207,000
- MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA – TUESDAY Ten 1,202,000
- MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA – MONDAY Ten 1,197,000
- DANCING WITH THE STARS Seven 1,195,000
- MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA – THURSDAY Ten 1,176,000
Among the key trends affecting viewing are time-shifted viewing. In one case, the audience for an episode of Homeland, on Ten, rose by 36.7% once time shifting was taken into account.
This year has also seen the networks begin to take online viewing seriously, although no agreed metric has yet been developed. Ten said today that the first half of the year had seen 1.17m weekly video views via ten.com.au – up 46.6% on last year. Masterchef Australia delivered 983,9767 weekly video views. And Offspring had 397,400 weekly video views.
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A year on and lots of sackings and program changes later I’d be very interested to know what the year on year ratings difference was for One HD. In fact overall for Ten? I can’t be sure but I reckon they’ve gained marginally for One HD but have lost all identity along the way and would be a much tougher proposition for their sales squad in market. I’m sure the mothership Ten would be down and I reckon Eleven is too.
Have you guys got the comparisons?
The fact Ten is talking up online is a fair indication that nothing is working for them on air.
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Michael you are perceptive, talking up one million odd impressions a week on catch up TV is a sure sign they have nothing to talk about. You will find the ONE increases are approx 30-40% dependant on which zones you look at. But these are from a very low base.
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Wonder what Janine will say about this then? Seven is the winner overall. they have the Xfactor to come after AGT finishes. that was a ratings winner for Seven last year. They need maybe two seasons of MKR. Ten is grappling at straws(Ten is pointing to the growth of its online and catch-up viewing audience.)
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