Seven’s not-quite-live V8 coverage takes network to Sunday ratings dominance
Seven’s decision to timeshift coverage of the Bathurst 1000 to accommodate advertising may have infuriated motor racing fans, but the channel still dominated Sunday’s programming.
Seven had the four biggest rating audiences of the day, according to preliminary overnight ratings from OzTam.
The podium for the Supercars race delivered 1.316m viewers, while the race itself averaged 1.038m.
The X Factor also performed slightly better for Seven, delivering 1.224m – up on last Sunday’s 1.115m.
The biggest audience of the day – 1.621m – went to Seven News.
Meanwhile, despite Seven’s delayed coverage of Bathurst overrunning into the start time for the Japanese Grand Prix, Formula Onewas still One’s biggest audience of the day, delivering 315,000 viewers.
Ten’s late primetime coverage of the Commonwealth Games averaged 703,000 while its early primetime coverage averaged 673,000. However, the coverage was also simulcast with One.
A spokesman for Seven told Mumbrella: “We had a choice: miss laps or not. We made the right decision to cover the laps and not miss a thing. The closeness of the race, the reduced number of safety cars in today’s race, advertising commitments and our desire that viewers not miss a single moment of the race led us to time-shift our coverage. Our objective was viewers not miss a moment of action. It wasn’t a plan to schedule against an F1 race, we had a great race and made the decision not to take out laps with commercial breaks as Ten does with F1.”
Sunday’s top rating shows:
- Seven News Seven 1.621m
- V8s on Seven: Bathurst 1000 – Podium Seven 1.316m
- Sunday Night Seven 1.291m
- The X Factor Seven 1.224m
- ABC News Update ABC 1.068m
- 60 Minutes Nine 1.048m
- V8s on Seven: Bathurst 1000 – The Race Seven 1.038m
- Poirot ABC 1.032m
- Nine News Nine 1.028m
- ABC News ABC 0.952m
- V8s on Seven: Bathurst 1000 – Wrap-up Seven 0.933m
- Last Chance to See ABC 0.931m
- Bones Seven 0.801m
- V8s on Seven: Bathurst 1000 – Final Countdown Seven 0.799m
- Hot Pursuit Nine 0.761m
(Bathurst figures likely to change due to overrun)
Sunday’s share:
- Seven: 24.3%
- ABC1: 17.1%
- Nine: 17.0%
- Ten: 16.4%
- GO!: 5.8%
- One: 5.0%
- SBS1: 4.4%
- 7mate: 2.8%
- Gem: 2.3%
- 7TWO: 1.6%
- SBS2: 1.6%
- ABC2: 0.8%
- ABC3: 0.5%
- ABC News 24: 0.4%
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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While I can understand some fans fury at the delay, to suggest switching to another broadcaster will make no difference.
The V8 Supercars need all the cash they can get to put on the spectable they do, and a large part of that comes from broadcast rights.
If all these furious people can’t handle a 30 minute delay over a full day, I can only guess at the time it would take them to combust if were to move to a pay per view model.
Besides, surely they could have made a medium choice and either stayed live online or on the radio and ignored the TV, or chose the TV and accepted the delay.
It’s a small price to pay for FREE to air.
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I dont think it was the delay but the sheer amount of ads…. it’s the main thing wrong with Seven, up to 15 ads per break is exhausting to watch
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In this age of social networking and everyone being wired this was a completely arrogant move by 7 and their claim to “It wasn’t a plan to schedule against an F1 race” what a load of…. Half an hour delayed coverage is unnecessary and condesending. There was so many boring round and round laps surely they could have squeezed in 1 or 2 ads. TEN doesn’t pause F1 as claimed by 7 – it annoys the hell out me when things are missed in the breaks! But at least it’s live and they show a replay…
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It’s time to start calling out commercial television stations for the bullshit excuses they offer up. They are nothing more than money making machines using public resources (the airways) without any hint of consideration for the audience.
Channel Seven has been televising this event profitably for over thirty years without having to resort to these tricks. Their plea that “they didn’t want fans to miss any of the action” is utter crap – the real reason they time-slipped the race is that it’s financially in their best interests to do so. Time-slipping allows them to screen even more ads than what they would normally, plus the delayed ‘finish’ to the race provides a very nice lead-in audience for their news bulletin.
Seven has been pulling this stunt for a while now with their so-called “live” sporting broadcasts. To do so in the age of mass-media and social networking means one of two things – that they must be idiots, or that they think that we are.
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Adam Paul, what made you think a COMMERCIAL tv station would be anything other than a “money making machine”?
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Curva – …because, by using a public asset to transmit their signal, they are subject to the rules and regulations of the Broadcasting Services Act which is meant to enforce minimum service standards. I’d suggest lying to the public does not meet those standards.
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Well said Adam paull. Time to stop treating viewers like idiots as they do..
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I AGREE WITH THE COMMENTS ABOVE RE ADS. I WAS ALSO PISSED OFF WITH THE PIP.AND SOME MORON DRONING ON AND AD NAUS.
I RETIRED AND HIT THE PITS AT LAP 18.
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i think seven should have planned their ad breaks better rather than assuming that there will be a certain number of stoppages throughout the day. Viewers don’t mind seeing ads, it is the price to pay for watching free to air tv. Nine get it right when the cricket is on, one ad after every 6 overs, not long enough to leave the telly but enough to pay for the rights to show the cricket.
Maybe next time incorporate a 60sec ad break every 10-11 minutes or so, and if there is a smash, there is nothing wrong with viewers seeing a replay, especially if they see the ending live. This also brings me to another point; what happens if I was doing live betting on the race, assuming Seven was televising it live? Would the betting companies take my bets if I bet on the go eg At the end of lap 55, Lowndes would be leading…just a thought
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Seven does this to their rugby matches all the time. It been going on for several years. Ironic since Panasonic PVRs are advertised during the ad breaks.
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