Seven dominates Thursday ratings with ANZAC Day AFL
Seven’s coverage of the ANZAC Day AFL match which saw Collingwood beat Essendon by three points to win 73 to 69 brought in 779,000 metro viewers, a 9% increase on 2018’s match.
When combined with regional figures, 1.044m viewers tuned in for the game, making it the most-watched program behind Seven and Nine’s nightly news offerings, and helping to push Seven to a 20.4% audience share.
Seven News was the most-watched program for the evening, with 1.298m viewers tuning in for the first half, followed by the second half which airs as Today Tonight in some cities, which saw 1.090m. Those figures make the whole hour the most watched news hour of 2019 so far.
Combined with a strong performance by the multi-channels, Seven Network also took the top spot in the network share, holding a substantial 32.9%.
Seven also took the top spot in all key advertising demographics, with the AFL topping 16 – 39s, and Seven News the most-watched for 18 – 49s and 25 – 54s.
Nine’s most-watched program was Nine News which aired to 894,000 viewers, followed by A Current Affair which pulled 641,000. Nine’s NRL coverage of the Sydney Roosters vs the St George Illawarra Dragons, which only aired in Sydney and Brisbane, saw 310,000 metro viewers tune in.
In Melbourne on 9Gem, Nine screened the Melbourne storm versus the New Zealand Warriors match.
Nine’s morning show Today experienced a slight jump in viewership, hitting 200,000 metro viewers, although it was still beaten by Seven’s Sunrise on 277,000.
Ten’s most-watched program was a tie between The Project’s second half hour at 7pm and Bachelor in Paradise, both of which brought in 433,000 metro viewers.
685,000 viewers tuned in for ABC News, making it the channel’s most-watched program. ABC’s coverage of the ANZAC Day March brought in 389,000 metro viewers.
Sport also dominated the top spots in subscription TV. 315,000 viewers tuned in to Fox Footy for the AFL, making it the most-watched subscription program, followed by 264,000 viewers for the NRL.
Nine held 17.6% of the audience share, followed by ABC on 11.1% and Ten on 10.0%. In the networks, Nine sat behind Seven on 25.0%, followed by Ten on 17.1% and ABC on 16.0%.
Despite a strong performance from Seven’s multi-channels, 10 Bold took the top spot with 4.7%, followed by 7Two on 4.6% and 7Mate, which aired the AFL in some states, on 4.3%.
