With the end of official ratings for 2007, Seven has claimed its biggest win since 1978. The OzTAM figures show that Seven won the year in the five metro markets with a 29.1% share of 6pm to midnight, well ahead of Nine’s 26.9%, Ten’s 21.9%, the ABC’s 16.7% and SBS’s 5.5%.

Seven lifted its share one point and the ABC added 1.2 points, while Ten dropped 0.6 points and Nine fell 1.6 points. Seven also won all five metro markets, the first time that has been done.

Seven’s win was built on its dominant Monday and Tuesday night schedules, but more importantly, it was far more competitive on Sunday nights. And the dominance of the AFL in southern states, especially Melbourne, was the icing on the cake.

According to Sydney consultant, Fusion Strategy, the split during the peak 6pm to 10.30pm period was: 24.66% for Seven (24.32% in 2006); 22.45% for Nine (24.60%); 18.52% for Ten (19.48%); 14.63% for the ABC (13.97%); 4.40% for SBS (4.42%) and 15.36% for Foxtel’s 100 plus channels (13.21%).

But Nine, through WIN and its new subsidiary, NBN, narrowly won the regional battle. WIN/NBN won with a share of 29.0%, to Prime/7Qld with 28.3%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 20.6%, the ABC with 15.9% and SBS with 6.1%. No figure for Pay TV in the bush but it probably had a slightly bigger share than in the five metro markets.

Programs like Australian Idol, Big Brother and So You Think You Can Dance were not as popular in regional areas as in the cities, which hurt Ten’s affiliate, Southern Cross.

Seven won the last week of official ratings with a share of 29.4% (28.9%) from Nine with 27.3% (26.5%), 20.2% for Ten (20.8%), the ABC on 18.0% (19.0%) and SBS on 5.2% (4.8%). Seven won all four of the five metro markets and drew Melbourne with Nine.