Once again a loss of transmission has
upset the ratings. This time both Seven and Ten lost their signal in
Adelaide for an hour, from 9.30pm to 10.30pm last night. This came on
top of Seven’s national loss of signal on a Wednesday night last month
and Ten’s briefer 10 minute-plus national loss of signal in March.

As
a result the network shares and figures are slightly askew, but it’s
clear that Nine won the night, but perhaps not by as much as it might
seen. The offending aerial in Adelaide is controlled by TX Australia,
which is a third each owned by Seven, Ten and Nine and controls the
aerials and transmission facilities for the commercial networks across
Australia. The networks say they are waiting for an explanation.

Ten’s Rove Live and half of Seven’s All Saints and Medical Emergency were on air or about to go to air in Adelaide. The impact can be seen from Rove,
it was watched by only 6,000 people (well, 6,000 sets were claimed to
be still tuned to Ten in Adelaide in the hour). That cut the program’s
national audience to 784,000, down around 120,000 from normal.

All Saints’ audience in Adelaide crashed to only 54,000 (the first half) and Medical Emergency was watched by only 1,000, or rather 1,000 sets were tuned to Seven from 10pm to 10.30pm. All Saints lost around 117,000 viewers, compared to a week earlier.

By the time Seven was back on air it was time for its Budget special at 10.30pm and 17,000 watched!

Nine
won the night with a national share of 30.5% to Seven on 26.8%, Ten
with 23.1%, the ABC with 15.2% and SBS with 4.3%. After CSI with 1.7 million viewers, Seven News and Nine News
finished second and third respectively, with Seven winning by a few
hundred viewers. Seven won in Sydney and Perth but lost to Nine
elsewhere. Today Tonight and A Current Affair were 4th and 5th, with TT winning by 54,000. Seven’s latest dance special The Magic of Riverdance 10th anniversary special finished 9th with 1.35 million people but was clearly no Dancing with the Stars. But it did beat Survivor: Palau.