Nine was a clear winner in the metros and a narrow victor in the regionals. Seven has already won the week, so it is saving money by not programming expensive locally made shows on Thursday night, except the hour-long episode of Home and Away for all the fans in metro and regional markets.

This is the last week of daylight savings for Australia so viewing should start rising from now on and into winter, as it has done in years gone by. Audience numbers of Thursday nights should be higher as well, or that’s the hope for Nine and the NRL after another lowish figure for last night’s whale wresting between Manly and Souths. It managed 835,000 viewers across the country on Nine and Gem which wasn’t convincing. There were another 233,000 on Fox Sports 1 — which helps explain the underwhelming free-to-air numbers on Nine.

Home and Away was the most watched program in regional markets with 435,000 viewers (again saving the program from a weak national performance). The 7pm ABC News was second with 416,000, Nine News was next with 363,000 and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia had 351,000. Fifth was the NRL game with a total of 340,000 viewers on WIN and Gem.

Sunrise won a second morning in breakfast over Today: 317,000 to 314,000 in the metros — narrow, but enough to encourage Seven. Sunrise again won nationally.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (31.3%)
  2. Seven (25.0%)
  3. Ten (18.5%)
  4. ABC (18.0%)
  5. SBS (7.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (22.5%)
  2. Seven (15.7%)
  3. Ten (14.1%)
  4. ABC (12.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.2%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.8%)
  2. GO (3.8%)
  3. 7mate , ABC 2 (3.3%)
  4. 9Life (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.303 million
  2. 7pm ABC News — 1.304 million
  3. Seven News — 1.111 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.070 million
  5. 7.30 (ABC) — 928,000
  6. Nine News 6.30 — 913,000
  7. Janet King (ABC) — 913,000
  8. Seven News/Today Tonight — 876,000
  9. The Chase Australia (Seven) — 875,000
  10. NRL: Manly v Souths (Nine) — 875,000
  11. The X Factor (Seven) — 1.597 million

Top metro programs: No programs had a million or more viewers.

Losers: Just a weak night and the NRL battled (835,000 national viewers on Nine and Gem is OK, but not brilliant). It was beaten by Janet King on the ABC, but then won the rest of the night to around 10pm (Nine’s after-match stuff goes on and on Thursday nights).

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 940,000
  2. Nine News (6.30pm) — 913,000
  3. Seven News — 852,000
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 832,000
  5. 7pm ABC News – 787,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) – 650,000*
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 619,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 564,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 426,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 400,000

* Pre-empted in Brisbane for the NRL game

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 317,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 314,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 140,000
  4. Today Extra (Nine) — 132,000
  5. News Breakfast (ABC, 80,000 + 47,000 on News 24) — 158,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 77,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1 (3.4%)
  2. LifeStyle, TV HITS  (2.1%)
  3. Fox 8  (1.8%)
  4. Discovery(1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Manly v Souths (Fox Sports 1) – 233,000
  2. NRL: Thursday (Fox Sports 1) – 115,000
  3. AFL: 360  (Fox Footy) — 99,000
  4. NRL: Thursday (Fox Sports 1) – 70,000
  5. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 69,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) and network reports.