Another clear win for the AFL in round three of The Battle of the Boot at the weekend with more viewers nationally and in metro markets on Seven than the NRL.
Friday night’s AFL final won by Richmond averaged 1.39 million on Seven and its digital channels, (1.09 million in the metros and 299,000 in the regions). The NRL final won by Melbourne averaged 890,000 on Nine nationally (550,000/341,000). On Foxtel, NRL final averaged 333,000, but the AFL scored a rare win with 337,000.
Saturday night’s win by Geelong was watched by 1.482 million viewers (1.15 million/337,000). The NRL was left far behind with 913,000 nationally and 625,000 in the metros and 312,000 in the regions. On Foxtel, the AFL game averaged 331,000, the NRL final, 312,000.
On both nights the AFL’s metro audience easily topped the national audience for the NRL. So for the grand finals this week — the AFL by a mile from the NRL.
The second Rugby Union test between the Wallabies and the All Blacks from Wellington averaged 289,000 on 10Bold (339,000 on Ten) a week ago and on Fox Sports 197,000 (218,000 a week ago). The Super Netball final yesterday afternoon on Nine, 287,000.
The battle for the most boring program on TV (usually won by the Logies) was last night’s Brownlow effort on Seven (instead of a Monday night). 871,000 stuck with Seven for the win. (The Logies weren’t broadcast this year because of COVID-19, so the Brownlow won by default, but it was long and very boring and would have won regardless).
Sunday night saw Nine win total people. The Block Room Winner averaged 1.46 million and the lead up 1.45 million which easily defeated the Brownlows on Seven and its digital channels.
Ten’s Junior MasterChef struggled and averaged 687,000. Earlier in the day the Bathurst 1000 Supercarsrace averaged 1.13 million (and 347,000 on Foxtel) but did nothing for the network’s prime time performance which saw it run fourth behind the ABC.
In regional markets Seven News, 447,000; The Block — winner 380,000; The Block, 355,000; 7News — Cruising — The Biggest Storm, 348,000; 7pm ABC News, 339,000.
Network channel share:
- Nine (32.3%)
- Seven (30.5%)
- ABC (16.2%)
- Ten (14.9%)
- SBS (6.2%)
Network main channels:
- Seven (23.9%)
- Nine (22.1%)
- ABC (11.2%)
- Ten (9.8%)
- SBS ONE (4.0%)
Top 5 digital channels:
- GO (3.9%)
- Gem (3.6%)
- 7mate (3.3%)
- ABC Kids/Comedy (3.1%)
- 10 Bold (2.7%)
Top 10 national programs:
- Seven News — 1.46 million
- The Block Room Winner (Nine) — 1.45 million
- The Block (Nine) — 1.392 million
- Nine/NBN News — 1.31 million
- Supercars Bathurst 1000 (Ten) — 1.13 million
- 7pm ABC News — 959,000
- The Brownlow (Seven and digital channels) — 871,000
- 60 Minutes (Nine) — 754,000
- Restoration Australia (ABC) — 751,000
- Junior Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 687,000
Top metro program:
- The Block — Room Winner (Nine) — 1.08 million
- The Block (Nine) — 1.01 million
Losers: Those who watched The Brownlow all the way through. The drill is watch briefly, record, sleep, awake, fast forward.
Metro news and current affairs:
- Nine News — 989,000
- Seven News — 984,000
- 7pm ABC News – 648,000
- 60 Minutes (Nine) — 524,000
- The Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 414,000
- The Sunday Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 277,000
- Nine Late News — 258,000
- Ten News First — pre-empted
- SBS World News — 171,000
Morning (National) TV:
- Insiders (ABC, ABC News ) — 586000
- Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 385,000
- Landline (ABC) — 365,000
- Weekend Today (Nine) – 252,000
- Sports Sunday ;(Nine) — 257,000
- Offsiders (ABC) — 228,000
Top five pay TV programs:
- Bathurst 1000 Supercars (Fox Sports ) — 347,000
- Bathurst 1000 Supercars The Grid (Fox Sports ) — 230,000
- Rugby Union: NZ v Australia (Fox Sports) — 197,000
- Bathurst 1000 Supercars (Fox Sports ) — 147,000
- Bathurst 1000 Supercars (Fox Sports ) — 102,000
The Canberra election result was a perfect storm for the Canberra Liberals. Ironically, they chose to have their election launch at the Arboretum, an extraordinarily successful project, vehemently opposed by the Liberals at the time. They are correct in their proposal that Canberra is expensive to live in, one of the reasons being the hugely expensive construction of a new dam that gave Canberra water security during the drought. The Liberals opposed this project at the time. The Labor government dealt with the bushfire crisis at the beginning of the year when embers rained down on the southern suburbs, while the Liberal’s madder federal colleagues talked about arsonists, and how this was just normal.
Additionally, the Liberals proposed considerable additional expenditure and proposed cutting rates, while explaining that this would be paid for by population growth. This was just clearly nonsense. Canberra has a problem maintaining what is called the urban forest, as many of the original plantings are getting very old. It costs on average around $300 to establish a tree, given the very high cost of replacement of some of them. the Liberal policy was to plant 1,000,000 trees. They said the established costings were wrong, but gave no explanation.
There is much more like this and it is a wonder that their vote only went backwards by 3%.