Sydney Thunder players celebrate after winning the WBBL final on Saturday (Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)

Did any notice the great warm, damp blanket of boredom settle over Australian free to air and pay TV screens at 2am on Sunday, as the official ratings season ended?

The great blanket has in fact been with us for months on most Friday and Saturday nights as Nine, Ten and Seven program for the lowest transmission costs possible and try to dazzle us with sport.

It went Seven, Nine, the ABC then Ten last night in the battle that no one professes to be interested in, but watches as closely as in normal ratings. Beat the Chasers on Seven, 1.03 million. Established as a modest hit.

The weekend’s Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) final on Saturday was not well supported by the Seven Network. Seven continues to make a monkey of itself with the moaning about Cricket Australia’s poor scheduling.

Seven did have a point with the one day international (ODI) series against India starting the season behind a paywall on News Corp’s Foxtel, but that was Seven’s decision back in 2018 when it dropped the rights to the short form games — allowing them to go to Foxtel and behind the paywall (and on Kayo streaming as well).

Instead, Seven’s main channel showed a repeat of the repeat of the repeats of Frozen. It was watched by, wait for it, 344,000 viewers nationally. The WBBL final on 7mate, 321,000 and given the bigger potential audience for the main channel, would have topped Frozen’s weak showing. The 321,000 audience for the WBBL final was larger than any program on Ten on Saturday. There was a further 108,000 on Fox Cricket. So a combined 430,000 which is more than respectable. The WBBL final was the most watched program on Foxtel on Saturday.

The first ODI between Australia and India on Friday night, 328,000 for both innings — yesterday’s second ODI, 414,000 for both innings. Not to be sneezed at and an indicator of how Seven stuffed up in handing the rights to Foxtel exclusively.

In regional markets: Seven News, 443,000; Beat the Chasers, 387,000; 7pm ABC News, 320,000; Restoration Australia, 268,000; Nine News, 258,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.7%)
  2. Nine (28.7%)
  3. ABC (18.4%)
  4. Ten (15.1%)
  5. SBS (8.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (23.0%)
  2. Nine (18.5%)
  3. ABC (13.0%)
  4. Ten (8.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.8%)

Top 5 digital channels:

  1. 10 Bold (3.9%)
  2. GO (3.6%)
  3. Gem (3.2%)
  4. 7mate, ABC Kids/Comedy (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.34 million
  2. Nine/NBN News — 1.05 million
  3. Beat The Chasers (Seven) — 1.03 million
  4. 7pm ABC News — 913,000
  5. Restoration Australia (ABC) — 787,000
  6. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 770,000
  7. Insiders (ABC, ABC News) — 555,000
  8. RBT (Nine) — 550,000
  9. The Child In Time (ABC) — 510,000
  10. The Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 471,000

Top metro program: None with a million or more viewers.

Losers: We are all in it — Foxtel won because of the ODI.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 896,000
  2. Nine News — 795,000
  3. 7pm ABC News – 593,000
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 550,000
  5. The Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 348,000
  6. Ten News First — 273,000
  7. The Sunday Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 245,000
  8. SBS World News — 180,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC, ABC News ) — 575,000
  2. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 391,000
  3. Landline — Summer (ABC) — 313,000
  4. Weekend Today (Nine) – 253,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) — 208,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Cricket: ODI Big Break Game 2 (Fox Cricket ) — 448,000
  2. Cricket: ODI Post Match Game 2 (Fox Cricket ) — 447,000
  3. Cricket: ODI Game 2 – Australia (Fox Cricket ) — 440,000
  4. Cricket: ODI Game 2 – India (Fox Cricket ) — 385,000
  5. Bolly Week: Legend: Tendulkar (Fox Cricket) — 381,000