Seven’s cricket coverage helps it win ratings week
The second international test between Australia and India as well as various Big Bash matches helped Seven to win the ratings week with a 20.9% primary channel share and a 31.5% share for the network.
The audience share win, however, wasn’t quite as high as Seven had been spruiking earlier in the year. 
When the network won the broadcasting rights to the cricket from incumbents Nine and Ten, it said it aimed to command 40% of the audience – including women, those aged 25 to 54, grocery buyers and total people.
“It’s a big number. It’s total domination, certainly through that December and January period and it’s not just through the male demographic,” said Seven’s chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette back in July.
Seven’s primary channel had a winning 20.3% share in people aged 25 to 54 (32.7% for the network), 23.4% in 16-39s and 21.4% for those classified as ‘grocery buyers with child’.
Despite the slightly-lower-than-anticipated shares brought on by the cricket, Seven still managed to dominate the top programs list for the week.
Seven’s news program last Sunday night had 940,000 metro viewers (and 1.421m nationally), making it the most-watched program of the week. The third session of day four of the Australia and India test cricket match was next up, with 872,000 metro viewers (1.294m nationally).
Nine placed second for the week with a 17.8% share for its primary channel and 27.5% share for the network. Its most-watched program for the week was also its Sunday night news offering with 827,000 metro viewers (1.087m nationally).
The ABC – which placed third for the week with a 12.9% audience share (18.2% network) – found success with Back Roads. The show was the ABC’s most-watched for the week, attracting 610,000 metro viewers (947,000 nationally).
Ten had a low-rating week, attracting just 8.5% of the total people audience for its primary channel and 14.7% for the network.
The third commercial network aims to attract a younger demographic – rather than focussing on ‘total people’ – and secured 10.6% of those aged 25 to 54 for its primary channel (behind Seven’s 20.3% and Nine’s 18.8%, but ahead of the older-skewing ABC’s 7.5%).
Ten had 9.3% of those aged 16 to 39, also behind Seven’s 23.4% and Nine’s 16.9%.
SBS’ primary channel share in total people was 4.9% and the network had 8.1%.
The graphs and charts below are provided by Nine and are built off OzTAM data. They exclude data for ABC and SBS.
“Big Bash matches helped Seven to win the ratings week with a 20.9% primary channel share and a 31.5% share for the network.”
I’m probably stupid, but why can’t I see those numbers replicated in any of the charts?
User ID not verified.
Hi ‘Confused’,
Not stupid, just two different sets of data.
The data I am using in the text of the article refers to shares across the five free-to-air networks (ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten). The charts (as disclosed at the bottom) are provided by Nine, based on the same OzTAM data. They focus only, however, on the commercial free-to-air networks (Seven, Nine and Ten) and exclude ABC and SBS.
The charts and graphs thus demonstrate the ‘commercial’ share of Seven, Nine and Ten, as if only the three of them existed, hence why the figures are higher and don’t match those in the text.
Hope that helps and sorry for any confusion,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
Isn’t there a new multi-channel “7food network” transmitting now and being counted by OzTam in ratings? It’s also attracting an audience, shares have gone as high as mid-1% already and only available on modern TVs.
Yet your above “provided” graphs by Nine are completely ignoring the channel? Looks very bias and dodgy. Nine need to launch another channel and that is their prerogative.
User ID not verified.
Hi ‘Please explain’,
Seven does indeed have a food network now. I can confirm it had a share of 1.0% of the viewing audience for this TV ratings week, as reflected in the 31.5% network share I reference in the article.
As very clearly disclosed, the graphs are not mine, but I can chase with Nine in an attempt to ensure 7Food is included next year.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella