ABC’s NYE fireworks coverage up by more than 300,000 from 2017
More than 1.4m Australians across the five metro cities tuned in to watch the fireworks on the ABC, as the clock ticked over into 2018.
With 1.486m metro viewers, ABC’s coverage was up by more than 300,000 on the year prior, which attracted 1.178m.
Pickering, with co-host Zan Rowe
The midnight fireworks also topped the key advertising demographics, 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.
In the last moments of the countdown, host Charlie Pickering told viewers the midnight countdown was the “only time it’s okay to kill a police officer” – something he later apologised for, noting he meant to say “kiss”.
ABC’s live countdown to midnight, which included the gaffe, achieved 707,000 metro viewers and the Family Fireworks – which go off at 9pm AEDST – achieved 710,000.
Last year, the Family Fireworks averaged 656,000 across the five metro cities.
In total, News Year Eve with Charlie Pickering managed 498,000, a slightly higher result than 2016’s main show which had 443,000.
Over on the commercial free-to-air networks, Seven attracted the biggest audience with 625,000 tuning in to Seven News Sunday. The result was slightly higher than Nine News Sunday’s 577,000.
On Ten, the first session of the Big Bash League clash between the Adelaide Strikers and Brisbane Heat pulled in a metro audience of 544,000, while the second session handed Ten 626,000 metro viewers, according to OzTAM’s confirmed overnight ratings.
Ten’s result was higher than last year’s New Years Eve Big Bash clash, which had audience of 470,000 and 571,000 in the respective time slots.
The BBL also made the top three shows across the 16-39 and 18-49 advertising demographics.
ABC finished the night with a share of 22.1%. Its nearest competitor Ten finished on a 17.1% share. The result was an improvement for the ABC, which reported a 19.8% share last year.
Seven’s share was 14.6%, Nine’s share was 12% and SBS had a share of 5.1%.
This is what ABC is saying:
3.7 MILLION AUSTRALIANS CELEBRATED WITH THE ABC’S ALL-STAR NEW YEAR’S EVE COUNTDOWN
Monday, January 1, 2018 — ABC, ABC ME and ABC News reached 3.7 million viewers in metro and regional markets across its New Year’s Eve broadcast coverage from 8:30pm last night.
In addition, a total of 46,000 live streams were recorded via iview across the night and the coverage had a further 2.2 million views across social media platforms.
Audiences peaked at 11:59pm for ABC’s Midnight Fireworks (combined metro and regional audience).
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