Yes The Voice was on Nine, yes, MasterChef was on Ten and yes House Rules was on Seven. But we all know that the main event last night was the 2018-19 budget extravaganza in Canberra, with the ABC taking it seriously with prime time coverage (even though it was stiffed another $84 million) and the commercial network paying only a nodding homage late in the evening.
Well, that was the theory and the belief in Canberra. The truth is, viewers didn’t care and the audience for Treasurer Morrison’s budget fell sharply from 2017-18 speech a year ago.
The 7.30pm Treasurer’s Speech broadcast on the ABC’s main channel at this year averaged 772,000 nationally — down more than 17%, with the metro audience dropping to 495,000 from 629,000 and regional audience averaging 277,000, down from 297,000. The talk after the speech on the ABC averaged 630,000 nationally this time round, down 136,000 viewers from 2017’s 766,000. The metro audience tumbled more than 20% to 415,000 (from 525,000) and the regional audience fell from 242,000 last year to 214,000.
The Voice was the most watched non-news program with 1.24 million nationally, over MasterChef on 1.12 million (It was the most watched non-news program in the metros, but has weak regional support). House Rules was weak — 1.03 million last night and just 621,000 in the metros.
In regional areas Seven News was again clearly the most watched program with 609,000 viewers. Seven News/TT was second with 517,000, then Home and Away with 446,000, House Rules with 413,000 and The Voice with 406,000.
Network channel share:
- Nine (30.4%)
- Seven (25.2%)
- Ten (20.2%)
- ABC (16.7%)
- SBS (7.5%)
Network main channels:
- Nine (23.2%)
- Seven (17.2%)
- Ten (13.9%)
- ABC (11.8%)
- SBS ONE (5.3%)
Top 5 digital channels:
- 7mate (4.5%)
- ONE (3.7%)
- GO (3.3%)
- Gem (3.0%)
- Eleven (2.5%)
Top 10 national programs:
- Seven News — 1.655 million
- Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.517 million
- Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.308 million
- Nine/NBN News — 1.273 million
- The Voice (Nine) — 1.246 million
- A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.185 million
- Home and Away (Seven) — 1.146 million
- Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.127 million
- House Rules (Seven) — 1.034 million
- 7pm ABC News — 1.021 million
Top metro programs:
- Seven News — 1.046 million
- Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.0 million
Losers: Anyone who sat through the budget coverage on the ABC (me!) and House Rules on Seven. Third beind MasterChef and The Voice.
Metro news and current affairs:
- Seven News — 1.046 million
- Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.0 million
- Nine News (6.30pm) — 958,000
- Nine News — 937,000
- A Current Affair (Nine) – 825,000
- 7pm ABC News – 674,000
- The Project 7pm (Ten) — 558,000
- Budget: The Treasurer’s Speech (ABC) — 495,000
- Budget Special (ABC) — 416,000
- Ten Eyewitness News — 424,000
Morning (National) TV:
- Sunrise (Seven) – 451,000
- Today (Nine) – 3701,000
- News Breakfast (ABC, 141,000 + 104,000 on News 24) — 245,000
- The Morning Show (Seven) — 225,000
- Today Extra (Nine) — 161,000
- Studio 10 (Ten) — 84,000
Top five pay TV programs:
- AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 80,000
- NRL: 360 (Fox League) — 68,000
- Budget Speech (Sky News) — 50,000
- Back Page (Fox Sports) — 42,000
- Family Guy (Fox8) — 40,000
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