Fast tracking sees Game of Thrones audiences soar for Foxtel as The Odd Couple slips for Ten
Foxtel’s efforts to fast-track the new season of Game of Thrones to air at the same time as its US premiere appear to have paid off, nearly doubling its audience on Showcase for the show.
The debut of the show at 11am yesterday, the same time as it showed on the US eastern seaboard, grabbed 236,000 viewers, while a repeat screening at 7.30pm had 279,000. Last year Foxtel had to wait two hours after the premiere to broadcast it, and got 115,000 and 158,000 viewers respectively.
Foxtel has this morning trumpeted the result with a spokesman saying: “Yesterday’s premiere of the fifth season of Game of Thrones broke ratings records making it the most watched series in Australian Subscription Television history.”
The pay-tv service also noted that its Foxtel Play streaming service was seeing a “steady uplift” on the back of the success of the HBO drama and its new $30 pricing offer.
“While we don’t break out specific numbers for Foxtel Play, we have seen a steady uplift in Foxtel Play since the beginning of the year extending up through our recent Game of Thrones special pricing.,” said the spokesman.
“We did the same thing last year in a move to make it as accessible as possible for fans and each time it’s proven to be very popular.”
Whilst it had the most aggregated viewers for its two outings, the NRL clash between the Rabitohs and the Cowboys had 325,000 viewers on Fox Sports One, making it the single most-watched program.
In free-to-air TV Ten’s US comedy The Odd Couple continued to shed viewers as only 463,000 and 411,000 tuning in for the show’s third and fourth outings last night, well down on the first two shows.
The higher of the two was almost 250,000 fewer than its debut and 167,000 less than episode two.
The decline saw the show drop out of the top 20 most watched programs of the night as Ten took an overall audience share of 10.4 per cent.
Seven narrowly won the night with 21.6 per cent, just ahead of Nine with 21 per cent with ABC performing well, taking 16 per cent.
Cooking dramas again took the honours with Seven’s My Kitchen Rules attracting the largest number of viewers although its audience of 1.3m was more than 100,000 fewer than the public holiday last Monday.
The Block Triple Threat also saw an audience decline as it slipped from 986,000 to 923,000.
But there was a lift in viewers for ABC’s Australian Story at 8pm which climbed from 741,000 to 849,000 to make it the fourth most watched non-news show of the evening.
Over on Nine, two repeat episodes of The Big Bang Theory at 9pm and 9.30pm captured 911,000 and 750,000 viewers respectively, both of which comfortably out-rated Seven’s Revenge which drew 611,000 at 9pm.
In news, Seven’s 6pm bulletin was seen by 1.16m, just ahead of Nine in the same time slot with 1.13m. There was a reversal in the 6.30pm segments with Nine attracting 1.08m and Seven News/Today Tonight 1.02m.
A Current Affair on Nine attracted 997,000.
Top 20 shows:
1 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Network 7 1,325,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Network 7 1,166,000
3 NINE NEWS Network 9 1,134,000
4 NINE NEWS 6:30 Network 9 1,081,000
5 SEVEN NEWS / TODAY TONIGHT Network 7 1,027,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Network 9 997,000
7 THE BLOCK TRIPLE THREAT -MON Network 9 923,000
8 THE BIG BANG THEORY -RPT Network 9 911,000
9 ABC NEWS-EV Network ABC 901,000
10 AUSTRALIAN STORY-EV Network ABC 849,000
11 7.30-EV Network ABC 776,000
12 THE BIG BANG THEORY -RPT EP2 Network 9 750,000
13 HOME AND AWAY Network 7 740,000
14 MEDIA WATCH-EV Network ABC 667,000
15 FAMILY FEUD Network TEN 629,000
16 FOUR CORNERS-EV Network ABC 627,000
17 HOT SEAT Network 9 616,000
18 REVENGE Network 7 611,000
19 TEN EYEWITNESS NEWS FIRST AT FIVE Network TEN 605,000
20 Q&A-LE Network ABC 604,000
Audience share:
Network 7 21.6%
Network 9 21.0%
Network ABC 16.0%
Network TEN 10.4%
Network SBS ONE 4.8%
Network 7TWO 4.3%
Network GO! 3.7%
Network 7mate 3.6%
Network ELEVEN 3.2%
Network Gem 3.1%
Network ABC2 2.9%
Network ONE 2.3%
Network SBS 2 1.7%
Network ABC News 24 0.7%
Network ABC3 0.7%
Network NITV 0.1%
Total share:
Network 7 TTL 29.5%
Network 9 TTL 27.8%
Network ABC TTL 20.2%
Network TEN TTL 16.0%
Network SBS TTL 6.5%
Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM.
So what you’re saying is more people watched Odd Couple at 7:30pm than GoT? That’s sad… but yet fair
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TEN touts The Odd Couple as TV’s #1 New Show, but doesn’t qualify the statement or offer ratings info. I’d have thought Seven’s Revenge would take the biscuits.
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