★★★★★ 0/5

Epic Australian Open battle smashes them

UPDATE: The Djokovic / Rafael Nadal kept the nation rivetted, with an adjusted average of 1.8m viewers with 1.67m still watching until 1:40am AEDT.

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Sunday night’s Australian Open Men’s Singles Final broke the record books.

The epic match stretched for 5 hours 53 minutes -the longest grand slam in the history of the Australian Open.

UPDATED: Across the marathon broadcast, which ended at 1:37am AEDT it pulled an average of 1.86 viewers, up 34.7% on 2011’s Final.

The game peaked at 2.8m viewers.

A staggering 1.67m viewers were still glued to Seven for the Men’s Final Presentation at 1.45am this morning.

For Seven the match was ideal, stretching from 7:30pm until just before 2am -the cut off point for daily ratings. Seven landed an enormous 45.4% share (from 6pm – midnight), more than double its nearest competitor, Network TEN on 21.5%. Nine had to settle for third place on 18.3%.

The game trounced the competition, but TEN’s Sunday line-up held strong in its second outing. Both New Girl (1.28m) and Young Talent Time (1.08m) actually increased on their previous weeks. Homeland (1.17m) and Modern Family (1.16m) were also strong. The Project was 412,000.

Nine News was best for Nine on 1.23m viewers, followed by The Big Bang Theory repeats (884,000 / 876,000), 60 Minutes (716,000) and The Mentalist repeats (494,000 / 408,000).

Grand Designs (801,000) topped ABC1 improving from last week, then ABC News (787,000). Zen was 414,000.

A History of Ancient Britain pulled 263,000 for SBS ONE.

The best-ever numbers for the Australian Open remain Lleyton Hewitt’s 2005 match on 4.04 million.

Sunday 29 January 2012

39 Responses

  4. Was a great match. It’s also been brilliant to finally have the tennis live here in Perth. There must be some sort of record with the news. Must be the latest time Seven’s nightly news has ever been telecast. The newsreaders looked like they were gonna fall asleep!

  6. @steve sydney: photo is not demonic; Novak is just channelling his inner furry (or Pokémon maybe; judging from the ears he might really be a Meowth?!). 😉

    Match was amazing. Seven should be proud of the past month’s tennis coverage (barring the awful pop-up ads for their upcoming shows… “yeah!”).

  7. @Cameron – “The combination of Bruce, Jim Courier and Lleyton Hewitt is a winner for me,…”
    Are you the same Cameron who said yesterday that you didn’t watch Seven all week as you’re not a fan of the tennis?

  8. Great work Seven on the coverage of the Aussie open. Maximising the “live” opportunities and using the digital channel (7two) the way you have has been excellent. But then again – it’s the way it should be!!! Other Networks take note – it can work and the ratings can still be achieved. All we have to do is get the HD broadcasts sorted.

    And well done to Ten. I have to say YTT is proving a winner in family viewing. My kids love it. The use of the screens and imagery is excellent. While some of the team are ok…The quality of the contestants last night were just amazing. If that quality keeps up – the show will definitely succeed. Tina is a delightful judge. Just need Millsy to get better at reading the autocue and be more natural and we are all there. Lets hope it keeps ratings. From what I have seen so far – the ratings can build even further.

  9. I agree about Lleyton Hewitt’s commentary, it has been uniformly excellent. Seven need to sign him to permanent commentary duty after he retires. He works in very well with Jim and Bruce and his insight is very good indeed. He is also very articulate.

  12. The actual score is 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5.
    I tuned in and out of the match and when it went past midnight, I realised it would be longer than the epic 2009 men’s final between Nadal and Federer. It was a great match, both Nadal and Djokovic gave their very best efforts and much more. I finally went to bed at 2.15 this morning when the coverage finally ended.

  13. After 3 days straight at the tennis, an average of 4 hours sleep for the last week and 2 young children who don’t sleep in, I had to go to bed at the end of the 3rd set. Unfortunately I just hit record so missed the last few games – does anyone know if channel 7 are replaying the match? I can’t see it on the EPG as yet.
    Thanks.

  14. Agree also Seven’s coverage was great. Used 7Two very well, and live matches everywhere. Well done Seven. And agree with Cameron, Lleyton Hewitt is a good commentator, he should retire now and commentate instead, i prefer him as a commentator. And the good thing having him in the box is it puts the awful Roger Rasheed out of a job. Get rid of him Seven, and Hamish McLachlan who is terrible, can’t interview and just gives inane comments. Other than them two, the coverage was excellent.

  15. Damn Ten have to be happy with that. I thought Homeland especially would drop against the mens final, but things are looking very good for next week onwards.

  17. It was an epic match with epic horrendous commentating from Bruce. Everyone wanted Bruce to shut up and lleytons kids need to do a better job in colouring in. after seeing that terrible etcher scetch thing they used during the match

  18. Also, top marks to Seven for their coverage over the past fortnight, they have stepped it up another level or two.
    The combination of Bruce, Jim Courier and Lleyton Hewitt is a winner for me, Bruce with the stats and uncontrollable passion, Jim with the humour and Lleyton with amazing, rare insight.
    Hoping Seven carry their slick on-air presentation onto the AFL this year, particularly with their graphics, which desperately need an update.
    I think they will.

  19. Looks like all those people writing off Ten for starting their shows early against the tennis have egg on their faces, they are good numbers.
    Excellent work Ten, your risk has paid off for the last 2 weeks, hopefully these numbers can continue to grow.

  20. Unfortunately, I fell asleep and missed most of it, but it sounds like it was epic. Incredible numbers for Seven – congrats to them, their coverage this year has been great.

    @JB, totally agree with you about the Women’s finals. An absolute joke.

  21. David,

    I suspect you’re doing this on very little sleep, however “The best-ever numbers for the Australian Open remain Lleyton Hewitt’s 2005 win on 4.04 million.” can’t go unchallenged. Little Lleyton has never won the Australian Open.

    australianopen.com/en_AU/event_guide/history/draws/2005_MS_F.html

  22. Watched the entire 5hr 53 mins epic and all I have to say is that it was the greatest match ever played. Well done Djoko, thought that Rafa was going to win and excellent coverage by the host broadcaster 7 for the entire tournament.

  23. The match was absolutely incredible. The best match i’ve ever seen. For how long the match went, those numbers are huge. Quite pathetic that the men play almost 6 hours in a 5 set epic, and the women shriek like banshees in a one sided contest barely 1 hour long, and they get equal prize money.

    The big surprise is Ten’s show’s held up very well. If it can get those numbers against 2 million viewers for a final, it should definitely do alright when Seven and Nine schedule their shows.

  24. well I parked my bum on the lounge for the whole game, glad I’m not the only one with bags under eyes today.
    Well done Novak and Rafa, the game was extraordinary as shown in ratings.
    Was hoping they’d continue with advertised broadcasting , thankfully they did so I ended watching the castle series final i missed last year.

  25. David, I was just wondering when I saw the ratings if they did reflect the actual times because the original timing for the Final was 7.30-10.30pm; therefore did they code say 10.00-10.15 as presentation and 10.15-10.30 as interviews? They will prpbably adjust as the week goes on but still good numbers as expected

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