ABC’s NYE fireworks coverage grows audience, with 1.256m metro viewers tuning in
1.256m people across the five capital cities turned to the ABC for their New Year’s Eve entertainment, up from 1.237 at the start of 2019.
The countdown to midnight had 875,000 metro viewers, down slightly from the 886,000 who watched previously.
Despite controversy, the fireworks still attracted an audience
With the addition of regional figures, New Year’s Eve 2019 had 1.703m for the fireworks, and 1.185m for the countdown.
The main programming in the lead-up to the new year, led by Charlie Pickering, had 687,000 metro viewers, and 891,000 in total. One year ago, that figure was 515,000 in the metro markets.
The earlier 9pm fireworks had a metro audience of 564,000, and a total of 740,000.
The ABC’s New Year’s broadcast helped the channel secure a rare overall win, with a primary channel share of 23.0%, ahead of Seven’s 19.6%, Nine’s 12.2%, Ten’s 7.0% and SBS’ 5.0%.
With the addition of multi-channels, the rankings remained the same, with the ABC Network leading the way on 32.3%, ahead of Seven’s 25.8%, Nine’s 20.7%, Ten’s 13.0% and SBS’ 8.4%.
ABC also ruled the key advertising demographics, with a 23.1% primary channel share amongst those aged 25 to 54, and a 33.3% network share. In the younger 16 to 39s, the ABC also led the way with 27.9% for the channel and 28.8% for the network.
Outside of NYE-based programming, Seven News was the most popular, with a metro audience of 722,000, which climbed to 1.157m with the addition of regional figures. Nine News was not as popular, with 697,000 and 950,000.
In sport, Seven’s coverage of the Big Bash match between Adelaide Strikers and Sydney Thunder had 318,000 metro viewers for session one (546,000 total), and 351,000 for session two (579,000 total).
Ten’s most-watched show for the evening was 10 News First, with 370,000 metro, and 547,000 total viewers.
