Over 1m tune into Foxtel for Game of Thrones season eight premiere
The first episode of season eight of Game of Thrones dominated the subscription television ratings, taking the top three spots.
Episode one of the final season had 293,680 viewers at 3.20pm, 263,643 at 8.30pm and 193,364 when it premiered at 11am, according to OzTAM’s preliminary overnight figures. Over 300,000 viewers watched on demand on Foxtel Go and Foxtel Now, MCN said.
Season 8 will be the final season of Game of Thrones
Foxtel put the total television viewing numbers at 962,000, and celebrated the 17% increased on the season seven premiere in 2017. It noted it “anticipates continued record-breaking performance once the consolidated data becomes available”.
A further 333,000 streamed it live of On Demand across Foxtel Now and Foxtel Go – the biggest daily VPM audience for 2019.
Brian Walsh, Foxtel’s executive director of television, said yesterday’s Game of Thrones premiere was a milestone event for Foxtel, and called the show the “television series of a generation”.
“The Wall may have fallen, but last night’s ratings have rocketed Game of Thrones higher than ever, as Australia joined the rest of the world in watching this global television event in numbers never before seen on Foxtel,” he said. “Yesterday’s viewership is a testament to the hunger that fans have had over the past two years for the return of the unrivalled action, drama and intrigue that only Game of Thrones can deliver, and we are thrilled with the result.”
In free-to-air viewing, Seven’s programming topped all key demographics last night, with a strong news performance for My Kitchen Rules giving the network an overall market share win.
The latter half of Seven News, which airs as Today Tonight in some states, held its crown as the most-watched show for the evening with 1.054m metro viewers. That figure rose to 1.575m when combined with regional viewers.
My Kitchen Rules, which is entering its final episodes, brought in 850,000 metro viewers for the network, a jump from 710,000 last week when it went up against the final episode of Married At First Sight.
My Kitchen Rules was also the top show across all three key demographics, 16 – 39s, 18 – 49s and 25 – 54s, followed by Seven News in the second and third spot, except in the 16 – 39s where Home and Away held the third spot.
Nine’s highest-watched show for the night was Nine News with 946,000 metro viewers.
ABC’s most-watched offering for the night was the ABC News which took 731,000 metro viewers, followed by Four Corners on 710,000. Media Watch also made the top 10 shows for the evening with 669,000 metro viewers.
The final Dancing With The Stars elimination before finale week was the most-watched show for Ten with 556,000 metro viewers tuning in to see Jett Kenny get sent home, a jump from 437,000 last week. The first half of the show brought 543,000.
Seven took the biggest market share at a primary channel level, holding 20.7%. Nine held 16.8%, ABC 16.9% and Ten 12.5%. Seven also took the highest share as a network with 29.4%, followed by Nine on 24.5%, ABC on 21.5% and Ten on 17.6%.
In the multi-channels, 9Go held the top spot with 3.7% followed by 7Two on 3.4%. SBS held 4.8% and 6.9% as a network.
Excuse me Hannah – but where does the 1 million come from?
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Hi Huh?
Given how many times this episode screened – and the various platforms on which viewing occurred – you are correct to question the number. I’m sure you’ve noticed the different numbers being reported by various outlets.
The figures we have at the moment, which we will update should more information come to hand is:
* 11am screening: 193,364
* 3:20pm screening: 293,680
* 8:30pm screening: 263,643
Total (even if some of them are repeat viewers): 944,051
Plus, MCN has stated 288,000 more streamed the episode on the Foxtel Go device, giving Hannah the 1.232m figure.
We’re being sent more information throughout the day, so I will update if necessary.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
For how many streamed/downloaded illegally. If 1 million watched it on Foxtel I’d hazard a guess it’s close to triple that watched it one way or another.
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I would love to see these too! It would make my headline of ‘Over 1m….’ seem quite conservative, I suspect.
Vivienne – Mumbrella
If FTA aired the same episode of content 14 times I am quite sure almost every piece of content would see over 1m viewers.
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Sweet Jesus, can’t Foxtel enjoy their win, you bunch of miseries. And before you ask, no, I don’t work there. Not even a fan of the show.
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Love to see you try get 1M people to watch Sunday Night Takeaway
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Arrrrr! I’d be keen on these stats as well!
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