Lots of tennis on Seven’s main channel and on 7TWO as the network doubles its coverage by broadcasting more games — especially, as we saw yesterday — matches featuring Australians in the first round and some highly seeded players going up against lesser ranked players. This is a very interesting test of viewer reaction (and awareness, especially) by Seven of of a multi-channel broadcast of a complex major sporting event. The Olympics and Commonwealth Games come to mind, but so to events like the AFL. Seven also streamed the Open live and it was also available on its hybrid TV offering, 7Plus.

Because of the long matches, the combined audience for the tennis on Seven and 7TWO was well over 1.1 million from 7pm until around midnight. The night session (from 7pm to 10.30pm) was watched by a total of 1.159 million viewers (760,000 on Seven and 399,000 on 7TWO). The late session was watched by more viewers — a total of 1.280 million, with 695,000 watching on Seven’s main channel and 585,000 on 7TWO. In all cases there were different matches being shown on the two channels. So an average of 1.22 million people watched the tennis on Seven last night until well into the late evening — big numbers!

Ten had the Big Bash cricket last night, Nine had a trio of repeats of The Big Bang Theory and the ABC had not much at all — except the fascinating doco on the history of JJJ called Sounds Like Teen Spirit. It was a gem, running for around 75 minutes from 8.45pm — it could have had another 30 minutes, easily. It was the third doco in the past few months screened by the ABC which has helped give some very valuable context to Australian cultural life — the two-part doco on Countdown (called Countdown: Do Yourself A Favour) was the second, while the first was Brilliant Creatures in September (anchored by UK writer Howard Jacobsen). 

Sounds Like Teen Spirit was shown last night to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast of Double J (on the AM part of the dial), which then became JJJ. If you missed it, catch it on iView, not for the nostalgia, but for how an identifiably Australian approach to an important part of our culture evolved and grew. Commercial radio and Australian music would have been much poorer if Js had not started, kept on the air by nervous ABC management (under enormous pressure from politicians and commercial rivals in all media, especially radio), and evolved as Australia changed. My favourites from the Js were Roy and HG of course in their sporting and non-sporting guises. Brilliant talents. Their football calls are still media icons.

Here are two interesting docos that not to many Australian TV executives would have thought of. In July PBS will premiere The Bomb, a history of nuclear weapons, and Uranium: Twisting The Dragon’s Tail, a look at the science of the weaponry. Both docos coincide with the 70th anniversary of the first atomic bomb explosion in the desert near Los Alamos in the western USA on July 16, 1945. British atomic tests started in Australia in 1956 (meaning next year is the 60th anniversary), so Australian producers, get cracking.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (30.4%)
  2. Nine (27.6%)
  3. Ten (21.6%)
  4. ABC (15.2%)
  5. SBS (5.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (18.6%)
  2. Seven (18.1%)
  3. Ten (14.7%)
  4. ABC (10.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (9.0%)
  2. Gem (5.3%)
  3. ONE (4.4%)
  4. GO (3.7%)
  5. 7mate (3.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.587 million
  2. Seven News — 1.233 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.114 million
  4. ABC News — 1.104 million
  5. Nine News 6.30 — 1.092 million
  6. The Big Bang Theory repeat 1 (Nine) — 1.079 million
  7. The Big Bang Theory repeat 2 (Nine) — 1.069 million
  8. The Big Bang Theory repeat 3 (Nine) — 1.021 million
  9. T20 Big Bash Session 1 (Ten) — 966,000
  10. Grand Designs repeat (ABC) — 906,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News 6.30 — 1.091 million
  2. Nine News — 1.063 million

Losers: If cricket or tennis wasn’t your bag, then it was a rough night. That Christmas book (or ebook) loomed as a decent alternative. Today, add some bike riding to the mix along with the One Day International between England and India which is on Gem, not Nine’s main channel.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News 6.30 — 1.091 million
  2. Nine News — 1.063 million
  3. Seven News — 957,000
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 935,000
  5. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 879,000
  6. ABC News – 754,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 579,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 576,000
  9. 7.30 (ABC) — 574,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 428,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 333,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 293,000
  3. Mornings (Nine) — 138,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC  76,000 + 44,000 on News 24) — 120,000
  5. Studio 1o (Ten) — 84,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (2.8%)
  2. LifeStyle  (1.9%)
  3. Disney, TVHITS (1.8%)
  4. UKTV (1.7%)
  5. Arena (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Modern Family (F0x8) – 84,000
  2. Dance Moms (LifeStyle) — 78,000
  3. Coast Australia (History Channel) — 77,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox8) – 60,000
  5. Coronation Street (UKTV) – 56,000

*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.