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Seven objects to ACA win “around the country”

Seven says Home and Away is winner when regional numbers are counted.

Seven has objected to claims that A Current Affair has won the ratings year “around the country”, after it claimed 21 weeks of 40 won.

The objection comes after Grant Williams, Nine’s Deputy Director of News and Current Affairs offered his thanks “to all our viewers right across the country for making us number one at 7pm.”

Seven’s objection is in the wording, for implying a win nationally, rather than in the 5 city metro.

“Not sure how Nine defines ‘around the country,'” a Seven spokesperson said.

“However, Home and Away is number 1 around the country – given Australia is more than five metropolitan markets.”

Two years ago Seven and Nine went to war over similar claims in breakfast TV, with consensus that “Australia’s #1” did indeed include regional viewers.

For the record Nine’s press release on ACA claimed a 5 city metro win, but Grant Williams did refer to “around the country” in his quote:

A Current Affair is the most watched program at 7.00pm, across Australia’s five mainland capital cities.

At the conclusion of the 25th week of the 40-week ratings year, A Current Affair has won 21 weeks (on weekly average audience), putting it in an unbeatable position.

It marks the third consecutive year that A Current Affair has been the most watched show in its timeslot in Australia’s five biggest cities.

A Current Affair currently has a year-to-date average audience of 828,000 viewers each weeknight across the 5 City Metro, well ahead of Home and Away (which only airs Monday to Thursday) on 781,000; ABC News on 712,000; and The Project 7pm on 549,000.

When Friday episodes are excluded, making a fairer comparison with Home and Away, the average weeknight audience for A Current Affair rises to 872,000 across the 5 City Metro.

Monday episodes of A Current Affair, the highest rating night of the week, have averaged 944,000 viewers per episode across the 5 City Metro in 2017.

Across regional Australia, A Current Affair has achieved an average weeknight audience of 338,000 giving an average nightly national audience of 1.166 million viewers per episode. Excluding Friday episodes, A Current Affair has secured an average weeknight regional audience of 354,000, giving an average nightly national Monday to Thursday audience of 1.226 million viewers per episode.

Grant Williams, Deputy Director of News and Current Affairs for Nine, said: “The entire team at A Current Affair continually strives to provide our audience with a program that is not just informative, but also relevant and helpful in their everyday lives. Our viewers are incredibly loyal and we need to repay that by being just as loyal to them. That’s why we’re out there every day of the year telling their stories and fighting for a fair go when they’ve been hard done by. A huge thank you to all our viewers right across the country for making us number one at 7pm.”

8 Responses

  1. To be fair if they are going to compare with HAA they should only do Mon to Wed as Thursdays have up to 4 episodes. Doesn’t ACA also air at 7:30 in some markets?

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