Cricket continues to climb for Seven on Sunday night
Day four of the first Test between Australia and India continued to draw the TV crowds on Sunday night, averaging 526,000 viewers across the three sessions – the largest audience of the game so far.
Session three was the most-watched non-news program of the night, with 661,000 metro viewers for Seven, according to OzTAM’s preliminary overnight ratings.
The session also topped the key advertising demographic of 16-39s, but in the 18-49s and 25-54 it wasn’t quite enough to knock Nine’s Sunday news program off the top spot.
However it wasn’t all roses for Seven, as viewers of its version of the cricket coverage expressed frustration after it chose to show ads during Nathan Lyon’s hat-trick ball.
Things channel 7 has unfortunately failed to broadcast:
– the toss
– Lyon’s hat-trick ballThings channel 7 has unfortunately not failed to broadcast:
– Michael Slater #AusvInd #7Cricket— Perry Driver (@_PerryDriver) 9 December 2018
I am loving the 7 coverage and it’s uncool to bag another network when you work for one yourself, but Channel 7 ACTUALLY JUST FAILED TO SHOW THE POTENTIAL HAT-TRICK BALL #AUSvIND Add that to the toss
— Anthony Sharwood ❄️? (@antsharwood) 9 December 2018
Foxtel (or Kayo) just secured my business for the length of the current cricket TV rights deal. Seven not showing a Nathan Lyon hat-trick ball is a national disgrace. #AUSvIND
— Tyler Maher (@tylermaher5) 9 December 2018
Foxtel’s ad-free cricket broadcast averaged 256,000 viewers nationally, with its most popular session attracting 315,000 viewers.
@ShaneWarne was on ? with his predictions today! pic.twitter.com/jaCexUQI8d
— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) 9 December 2018
The match wasn’t enough to provide Seven with the largest audience share of the night, which went to Nine on both a network and primary channel level. Nine achieved a 19.8% share on its primary channel compared to Seven’s 17.9%. On a network level, Nine achieved a 32.3% share compared to Seven’s 26.8%.
The win was partly down to Nine’s news program, which attracted 970,000 metro viewers, and 60 Minutes, with 580,000.
ABC’s most-watched program was also its news show, which attracted 617,000 metro viewers. Ten’s highest rating show of the night was The Graham Norton Show with 378,000 viewers.
This was reflected in audience share, with ABC’s main channel drawing 11.6% of the audience, compared to Ten’s 10.4%.
SBS had a main channel share of 5.0%.
