The most important TV news wasn’t the ratings on another night in the final fading weeks of 2021 ratings. Rather it was the news this morning from Netflix that it is going to start issuing weekly, comprehensive viewing data on a national basis and global basis.

The first new list was published this morning and showed the movie Red Notice was easily the most watched new movie with more than 148 million hours of streaming. That’s an awful lot of homes around the world (including Australia) without exposure to TV advertising! It was the biggest opening week for a movie on Netflix.

Netflix says it will publish weekly top 10 lists spanning films and series in the English- and non-English-speaking world every Tuesday. The lists will reflect total viewing time, rather than the previous metric of at least two minutes of watch time counting as a view. Viewing of both original and licensed fare will be captured from Monday to Sunday the previous week for both original and licensed titles. 

In addition to the four top 10 lists of films and series in English and non-English, it will publish weekly rankings of top titles in more than 90 countries every Tuesday.

Netflix said it has engaged accounting firm EY to vet its numbers. The firm will publish a report on Netflix viewing in 2022. Netflix will also update its all-time top lists, which reflect viewing during a title’s first 28 days on the service. In the week to November 14, Red Notice was the top movie in Australia (as it was globally) while the most watched TV series was Maid. No data on total hours watched though.

Last night: Nine won from Seven and Ten. Nine’s Parental Guidance wrapped up with a weak 648,000 for the grand finale.

Regional top five: Seven News, 528,000; Seven News 6.30, 520,000; Home and Away, 353,000; Nine News 6.30, 302,000; 7pm ABC News, 296,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (28.1)
  2. Seven (26.9%)
  3. Ten (20.0%)
  4. ABC (15.8%)
  5. SBS (9.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (20.0%)
  2. Seven (15.8%)
  3. Ten (12.8%)
  4. ABC (10.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.1%)
  2. 7mate (3.9%)
  3. 10 Peach (3.5%)
  4. 7flix (3.1%)
  5. 10 Bold (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.437 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.397 million
  3. Nine News   — 1.105 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.092 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 919,000
  6. 7pm ABC News — 907,000
  7. Home and Away (Seven) — 887,000
  8. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 745,000
  9. The Dog House Australia (Ten) — 744,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 693,000

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

Losers: Where to start?

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News  — 909,000
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 877,000
  3. Nine News  — 815,000
  4. Nine News 6.30  — 790,000
  5. ACA (Nine) — 639,000
  6. 7pm ABC News — 611,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 474,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 394,000
  9. Ten News First — 299,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 241,000

Morning (national) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 424,000/241,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 313,000/214,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC) — 301,000/194,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 218,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 118,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) —  42,000

Top five pay TV programs: 

  1. China Rising (Sky News) — 79,000
  2. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 66,000 
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News)  —  65,000
  4. Credlin (Sky News) — 69,000
  5. The Great British Bake-Off (LifeStyle) — 56,000