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Rule Britannia as UK content outranks US

Australian audiences are far more interested in British content than American, according to recent ratings.

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Australian audiences favour British television far more than American, according to last week’s TV ratings.

18 of the top 30 international shows were from the UK / Europe, 11 from the US and 1 from New Zealand (*it qualifies as local content under current regulation).

It is ABC audiences that are drawn to international titles more than those watching commercial networks, with Father Brown, Midsomer Murders and Grand Designs nabbing the top 3 international titles.

Here are their Overnight numbers for the last week:

Free to Air:

  1. Father Brown, ABC 805,000
  2. Midsomer Murders, ABC 781,00
  3. Grand Designs, ABC 762,000
  4. The Big Bang Theory, Nine 753,000
  5. Britain’s Got Talent, Nine 708,000
  6. The Queen’s 9th Birthday Celebrations, Seven 675,000
  7. NCIS, TEN 660,000
  8. Criminal Minds, Seven 621,000
  9. Indian Summers, ABC 611,000
  10. The Indian Dream Hotel, ABC 530,000
  11. Modern Family, TEN 518,000
  12. Soundbreaking, Nine 514,000
  13. QI, ABC 485,000
  14. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Seven 466,000
  15. Silent Witness, ABC 455,000
  16. NCIS: Los Angeles, TEN 424,000
  17. Eurovision Song Contest, SBS 409,000
  18. Nightmare on Everest, Nine 403,000
  19. Madam Secretary, TEN 389,000
  20. The Graham Norton Show, TEN 348,000
  21. The Bold and the Beautiful, TEN 347,000
  22. (*Best Bits, Seven 332,000)
  23. Antiques Roadshow, ABC 327,000
  24. Great Continental Railway Journeys, SBS 318,000
  25. Would I Lie to You?, ABC 313,000
  26. 24 Hours in Emergency, SBS 305,000
  27. Castle, Seven 301,000
  28. Lip Sync Battle, Nine 297,000
  29. Scott and Bailey ABC 294,000
  30. Lewis, 7TWO 290,000

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Pay TV

In the last 7 days of available Pay TV rankings Game of Thrones was far and away the top international drawcard while Children’s TV titles are also popular.

But there are some qualifications to required. Firstly, STV numbers include regional and metro markets. These numbers are also based on one playout, whereas STV platform relies on multiple plays, plus plenty of timeshifted and catch-up via the IQ.

  1. Game of Thrones 355,000
  2. The Simpsons 77,000
  3. The Flash 76,000
  4. Peppa Pig 68,000
  5. Family Guy 66,000
  6. Paw Patrol 64,000
  7. The Day Henry Met 64,000
  8. PJ Masks 63,000
  9. Sherriff Callie’s Wild Wild West 63,000
  10. Miles from Tomorrowland 61,000
  11. Gold Rush 60,000
  12. Ugly House to Lovely House 60,000
  13. Sofia the First 57,000
  14. Doc McStuffins 55,000
  15. Curious George 51,000
  16. Goldie & Bear 49,000
  17. Geordie Shore 49,000
  18. Dance Moms 49,000
  19. American Dad 48,000
  20. Dora and Friends 48,000
  21. Outlander 47,000

© OzTAM Pty Limited 2016. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM. Program performance and ranking information subject to change when not based on final program logs. Ranking information is for individual episodes. Includes Preliminary data.

17 Responses

  1. It’s widely agreed that both the US and the UK are in a new golden age of television drama at the moment, and both are helping the others succeed whilst the Aussie networks are lost in an endless loop of reality TV formats. The rest of the world left the naughties 6 years ago I’ll have you know!

    Also worth noting that the first and last entry on that pay-TV list have one thing in common – both commissioned and paid for by US cable networks, but filmed in Britain with a predominantly British cast and British crew.

  2. It comes down to the fact that older people are the only people who still watch free to air tv and their tastes tend to skew British. It’s also true that not much American content is on free to air at reasonable times, unlike in the past when it dominated. However, this just reflects the interests of the people who watch free to air, which, again, is British.

  3. What this actually says is that US content is not really available on Australia FTA television, hoardes of people are still watching US content but they’re not being measured because they are fragmented across graveyard slots on secondary FTA tv stations, Pay TV, SVOD and other legal and illegal sources from Apple TV through to DVDs and the effects of timeshifting and PVRs.

    Its not really surprising that UK content is being viewed in the sample taken, which is primetime FTA TV viewers who are faced with the choice of wall-to-wall reality broadcast on commercial FTA and quite a lot of UK and Australian content on the ABC. The demography of Australia is also ageing and the UK content tends to skew older viewers anyway, young people aren’t watching FTA broadcast TV as much so the measured audience is ageing.

  4. I will watch British over American tv anytime ….. so long as it is on the ABC or Foxtel with no edits for ads, also i will take quality over quantity anytime!

  5. I had a close look at the article, and I had to double check that there wasn’t a play on words that I was missing (still not sure I’m overreacting), and no one else had picked it up but…

    isn’t it Britannia, not Brittania?

  7. It’s not as simple as saying that Aus audiences prefer Brit TV on FTA. There’s a considerable skewing in terms of what’s on offer and on which channels. Drama, in particular is affected.

    If I want to watch a British drama, it’ll most likely be on ABC 1 and will start on time at a reasonable hour, so I’ll watch it there. If I’m interested in a US drama, I would prob have to chase it around the schedule on one of the commercial networks, assuming that they were even showing it, so I end up watching it somewhere else.

    There also tend to be a lot more shows such as QI and Would I Lie to You? which are all British. The US equivalents, if they exist, are generally not broadcast on FTA.

  8. This kind of mirrors my taste atm, in the past I could count on one hand the British shows I watched and I was a fan of many great US shows. Nowdays the British shows seem to hold the magic that the US shows used to have, so I tend to watch more of them. Most US shows these days have a politicaly correct stance which irritates me. Still don’t like old UK shows, so the suggestion to bring UK shows to 7Flix is a bad one, leave them on 72.

    1. Same here…and …oh gosh…noooo….I do not want the old UK shows on 7Flix either…I cannot get it…and don’t really care that I can’t….Yes…leave them on 7TWO…..

  9. So much US programming is indistingishable from itself. They find it difficult to tell stories that don’t involve crime and/or the underworld, or politics. For me, it is all just too depressing, especially in a seemingly deteriorating world. The UK take ordinary people and ordinary life, and make it incredibly entertaining or funny. Even the UK murder/detective shows are so much lighter in tone. UK do historical drama like no one else, and their comedy is so much funnier to the Australian ear.

  10. I’m not surprised, British programs are way better, in all respects, than America’s. The Yanks’ stuff is so formulaic, specially the crime shows. I was sort of watching CSI something last night, and you can just about predict everything. Someone killed, start of investigation where everyone takes their turn in speaking, someone walks in from the next room and immediately interjects into the conversation, someone else comes from a different direction and does the same, and so on.

    And if you analyse the acting, it’s generally pretty bad. And they all speak so fast, you have to use subtitles to keep up, and even then the s/t struggle.

    Give me the Poms and our own stuff, every time.

  11. British programmes are always most popular on FTA digital channels . That’s why GEM has now copied 7TWO and stripped UK drama from 730-1030. If 9 Life and 7 flix put more UK content I reckon their numbers would increase. Threres plenty of UK lifestyle programmes available

  12. I wonder how those figures would look if it included the ‘pirates’. Those, apparently, under-performing US shows might juuuuuust start to move up in the ranks.

    1. Or SVOD services (Stan, Netflix, Presto)

      British content is still popular with pirates though, even a lot of BBC content which is easy to get with the iplayer app and a VPN.

      If the top 30 were shown for pirated programmes I believe it would be pretty even, especially once top gear comes back next week.

  13. 22. (*Best Bits, Seven 332,000)

    Assuming this is included as it’s an Aussie program made in NZ?

    Is it it abut the economics that it is made in NZ?

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