Which TV network is #1 for 2023? It depends who you ask
Another television ratings season has steered to a close, with both Nine and Seven claiming the victory.
“No matter how you cut it, we are #1” – James Warburton, Seven CEO.
“9Network has once again asserted its dominance as the most watched network in the five major capital cities” – Nine press release
“I’m at the top and ain’t no one on top of me” – Drake, lyrics from ‘Versace’.
Now, it must be said that, no matter how you cut it, to quote Warburton, Seven have won the year, assuming this means they got the most viewers – where in all viewers are created equally, regardless of age and geographical location. Of course, this isn’t how television audiences are counted, not really.
Here are the audience breakdowns, by percentage, as per OzTAM’s rating system.
Total TV audience
Seven: 30%
Nine: 29%
ABC: 16.7%
10: 15.8%
SBS: 8.5%
Seems clear cut, right?
When presenting their cases, both Nine and Seven focus on ‘commercial share’ of audience, which means they bump out the ABC, which isn’t a commercial enterprise, unless of course, you consider the millions of pieces of Wiggles, Bluey, and triple j merchandise sold every year to be a commercial exercise, which would be madness. They also remove SBS from this reporting, which is mildly insulting.
Nine opt for the entire 2023 calendar year, from January 1 through to November 30, in their reporting. They also stick firmly to the five capital cities.
Seven focuses on the more official 2023 survey year, which started on February 12, and also choose to include the entire nation in its figures, while also breaking out regional and capital city victories to showcase their true reach.
Nine’s decision to include the entire calendar year in its reporting is most likely because the majority of the Australian Open is played during non-ratings season.
“The 9Network has ended the year as No.1 in all key demographics in the five major capital cities,” they announced.
“For the fifth year in a row, 9Network has once again asserted its dominance as the most watched network in the five major capital cities with the demographics that matter most to advertisers.”
This is true. When you break the Total TV audience down by demographic, Nine looks a lot better in a few of those key demos.
25-54s
Nine: 31.9%
Seven: 28.6%
10: 21.1%
ABC: 11.5%
SBS: 7%
16-39s
Nine: 32.7%
Seven: 29.8%
10: 21%
ABC: 10.9%
SBS: 5.5%
Even more so when you lose ABC and SBS. Now Nine can claim it “recorded the highest ever commercial shares of any network with people 25-54 and 16-39” which is a pretty great claim to be able to make.
Here’s how Seven presented the results. Without ABC and SBS those 40s look amazing.
“This year was Seven’s second best year ever in ratings history, with our biggest share since 2018,” Warburton said.
“Seven has once again shown consistent leadership across the year, winning more weeks nationally than any of our competitors and achieving a 40% plus audience share in the capital cities for only the third ever time.”
Seven can also claim both the overall win across the 2023 OzTAM TV ratings survey year and the 2023 calendar year to-date, both nationally and across capital cities.
Seven is also the only network to grow its national audience year-on-year, (up 0.8 commercial share points in the 2023 survey year), and to grow its commercial share in the capital cities (in calendar 2023).
But, what about Ten? Well, it has an angle of its own.
As you may have read on Friday in Mumbrella’s interview with Daniel Monaghan, SVP of content and programming and Rod Prosser, chief sales officer, Ten secured nine of the top 15 entertainment shows in both the under 50s sector, and the 16s to 39s – as well as eight of the top 15 in 25s to 54s.
It has even made a play for the overall 0-24 and 25-54 demographics, albeit with a number of caveats.
While Ten can correctly claim to dominate individual programming in the younger demographics, as Nine reminds us – they actually rule the under 50s demo.
BIGGEST PERFORMERS
Not surprisingly, The Matildas and Seven took out the three most-watched television events of the year, with five of the top six (broken up only by the AFL Grand Final), and even the Matilda-less Women’s World Cup final, between Spain and England, was the tenth most-watched show.
We have to wade down to the 17th most-watched show of the year to find something not at all reported to sports: the boxing match that is the MAFS final dinner party episode, which pulled over 2.1 million Australians. It just pipped The Block final, as well its own final episode.
Australians love reality in all shapes and forms – the only scripted TV to make the top 50 was an episode of Vera, on the ABC (#36) and an episode of Home and Away, which slipped in at #46.
| Rank | Network | Program | Total audience | BVOD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v England | 7,320,500 | 970,000 |
| 2 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v France Post Game | 4,516,800 | 442,000 |
| 3 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v France | 4,225,200 | 467,000 |
| 4 | Seven | Seven’s AFL Grand Final: Collingwood v Brisbane | 3,984,300 | 453,000 |
| 5 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v Denmark | 3,569,000 | 378,000 |
| 6 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Sweden v Australia | 3,414,000 | 388,000 |
| 7 | Nine | NRL Grand Final Day – Match | 3,412.80 | 621,000 |
| 8 | Nine | State Of Origin, First Match | 3,293.90 | 548,600 |
| 9 | Seven | Seven’s AFL Grand Final: Presentations | 3,242,000 | 328,000 |
| 10 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Final Spain v England | 3,088,400 | 378,000 |
| 11 | Nine | State Of Origin, Second Match | 3,044,600 | 575,000 |
| 12 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v England Post Game | 2,856,900 | 324,000 |
| 13 | Seven | Seven’s AFL Grand Final: On The Ground | 2,840,300 | 260,000 |
| 14 | Nine | State Of Origin, Third Match | 2,505,400 | 477,000 |
| 15 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Canada v Australia | 2,492,800 | 275,000 |
| 16 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v England Pre-Game | 2,412,600 | 254,000 |
| 17 | Nine | Married at First Sight – The Final Dinner Party | 2,115,700 | 601,400 |
| 18 | Nine | The Block – Grand Final | 2,114,200 | 224,000 |
| 19 | Nine | Married at First Sight – Final | 2,098,300 | 587,400 |
| 20 | Nine | 2023 Australian Open, Men’s Final | 1,975.30 | 243,300 |
| 21 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v Ireland | 1,959,400 | 198,000 |
| 22 | Nine | Married at First Sight – Wednesday | 1,931,200 | 616,500 |
| 23 | Nine | Married at First Sight – Sunday | 1,929,000 | 592,300 |
| 24 | Nine | Married at First Sight – Launch | 1,860,200 | 577,800 |
| 25 | Nine | Married at First Sight – Monday | 1,825,200 | 568,400 |
| 26 | Nine | Married at First Sight – Tuesday | 1,821,500 | 572,500 |
| 27 | Nine | NRL Grand Final Day – Entertainment | 1,785,500 | 223,400 |
| 28 | Nine | Married at First Sight – Thursday | 1,752,900 | 581,500 |
| 29 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v Denmark Pre-Game | 1,712,700 | 149,000 |
| 30 | Seven | John Farnham: Finding The Voice | 1,663,800 | 129,000 |
| 31 | Nine | State Of Origin, First Match | 1,653,500 | 214,900 |
| 32 | Nine | ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 – Final Session 1 | 1,602,100 | 166,300 |
| 33 | Nine | The Block – Sunday | 1,575,300 | 290,300 |
| 34 | Nine | State Of Origin, Second Match – Pre Match | 1,559,900 | 223,900 |
| 35 | Nine | NRL Grand Final Day – Post Match | 1,539,600 | 254,700 |
| 36 | ABC | Vera | 1,535,900 | 168,100 |
| 37 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia v Nigeria | 1,482,200 | 142,000 |
| 38 | Seven | Seven’s AFL: Friday Night Football Finals | 1,462,400 | 0 |
| 39 | Nine | 2023 Australian Open, Men’s Final – Presentation | 1,462,400 | 189,000 |
| 40 | Nine | The Block – Launch | 1,421,100 | 280,800 |
| 41 | Seven | 7NEWS Monday to Friday | 1,409,400 | 37,000 |
| 42 | Seven | FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Final, Spain v England, Post Game | 1,386,900 | 160,000 |
| 43 | Seven | Farmer Wants A Wife – Finale Part 1 | 1,375,800 | 204,000 |
| 44 | Seven | The Voice – Launch | 1,365,700 | 202,000 |
| 45 | Seven | 7NEWS Sunday | 1,363,300 | 33,000 |
| 46 | Seven | Home And Away | 1,358,500 | 153,000 |
| 47 | Seven | TV WEEK Logie Awards | 1,357,800 | 62,000 |
| 48 | Seven | 7NEWS at 6.30 | 1,356,900 | 37,000 |
| 49 | Seven | Farmer Wants A Wife – Finale Part 2 | 1,352,600 | 160,000 |
| 50 | Seven | The Voice – Grand Finale | 1,347,000 | 141,000 |
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