7mate and GEM tie on Day One
Updated: The first day of ratings figures for 7mate and GEM pulls a dead heat -but there's a catch.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
The first day of ratings figures for 7mate and GEM proves to be just like the AFL Grand Final -a dead heat.
Both channels netted a modest 1.1% share for their Sunday programming.
7mate officially launched at 6pm Saturday following the AFL draw. GEM, which had “soft-launch” programming from midday Friday planned, didn’t arrive until 6am Sunday -the time the channel said it would launch officially. It hit a technical snag on Friday.
Both joined the OzTAM ratings panel from yesterday and both trailed GO! (4.7%) and ONE (4.6%). But with sport on offer, Sunday is one of the more distinct viewing days of the week. The dust is yet to settle on how these channels will resonate with viewers and whether one has any edge. 7mate’s promotion which has included extensive cross channel promotion, billboards and even a chopper flying a giant banner over the MCG on Saturday, far outstrips the hurried GEM.
Meanwhile in Sunday night figures Junior MasterChef lost ground, slipping to 1.5m viewers. Now shunted off air for two weeks for the Commonwealth Games, it reinforces the value that stripping gives the main event.
The X Factor dipped slightly to 1.05m viewers, down from 1.09m. At this stage it looks set to repeat the performance of last year’s Australian Idol. At least it has no Brownlow Medal to compete with tonight.
The star performer of the night continues to be Midsomer Murders. It rose from 1.35m to 1.4m, defying the razzle dazzle of its commercial competition.
Elsewhere, Sunday Night was 1.1 1m, 60 Minutes was 1m, RBT 998,000 and Offspring was 943,000.
The Big Bang Theory was 369,000 for GO! and FIA Formula One pulled 368,000 on ONE.
Seven won the night.
From this point forward in ratings results remember that TEN and SBS are now essentially two channels competing against 3 and 4 from their competitors.
UPDATED: TV Tonight has since learned that ratings results did not record any figures in Sydney or Perth for 7mate nor Adelaide for GEM.
67 Responses
Is SBS launching a 3rd channel in 2011 ?
I watched and really enjoyed The A Team, very humorous. But as I watched I see there is no Dirk Benedict!!!!! Some other guy was playing the Face, which was very weird to see.
I checked at IMDB and Dirk takes over as faceman by ep 3, thank goodness.
Wow. “Wagon Train” and “Riptide” in glorious b&W HD from 16mm masters. Can I take so much excitement on top of GEM’s “premiere” movie “Life With Father”? So old it’s a Public Domain title, aired by Channel 31 many times, and available on $2 DVD at Go-Lo.
@mat jones turn it off at the wall wait a min or so see if that works
No HD for commercial networks till 2013? Im moving to New Zealand
I’m very Coincerned with Seven having Three Channels of the Same SD Feed, 7, 70 and 71 I Suggest that the Network should close either or both 70 and 71. Also I saw the first promo for Eleven before Junior Masterchef last night and it’s Amazing how 2011’s gonna be. And Channel 33 is Likely for SBS Three for a 2011 Launch,
pietro, while it is expected that the networks won’t be receiving any extra bandwidth after the release of the spectrum currently used for analogue television broadcasting in early 2014, it is expected that the government will relax their current restrictions with regards to what must be in standard definition, each networks’ annual HD quota, etc.
Peter, the HD quota imposed on the networks is for the whole year, not every week.
So SBS is the only primary free-to-air channel now in HD……Cool!
@ Peter A – The F1 is not in High Def. Bernie is yet to release the HD feed for TV broadcasting…..
HD looks best for NASCAR and NFL IMO……
I told a fib. Channel 80 (WIN Canberra HD) does have the GEM watermark in the top right-hand corner, they just haven’t changed the name of the station on the EPG which makes it confusing. And yourtv.com.au/guide/ has finally listed WIN GEM in their set-up guide for our area.
I live in inner city Sydney and am having trouble getting audio on 7mate (Ch 73) and gem (90). I have and LG HD TV with inbuilt digital reciever.
When 73 was just a re-broadcast of the 7 main channel I didn’t have this issue, although when 90 was a re-broadcast of the 9 main channel I did, but didn’t care as I could also get 9 on channels 9 and 99. I rang the Government’s 1800 number and was told that it might be teething problems but to try re-tuning all channels a few times. I did this, but to no avail. They said I should also call the networks.
I rang 7 yesterday who said a number of people had called with this issue and they were working on it. They also said channel 70 should be the same as 73, but on my TV 70 is the 7 main channel. The Channel 7 guy said it might have something to do with the audio being broadcast at a lower quality (ie, not Dolby 5.1). Have also tried to call 9 a few times and they are hopeless. Terrible customer service and don’t have a clue what’s going on even though they too reported a number of calls on the issue.
Anyone got any tips on resolving this problem?
7mate is okay, I can’t wait to see Quincy M.E. The old shows are fine by me. But disappointed that GEM hasn’t started in our regional area yet.
David why do you say 2013 for more HD? Because analogue is finishing and there will be more bandwidth? I thought I read that the FTA channels won’t get that bandwidth.
Gem is s@&t!! Why the watermark where it is?
Eleven is more my style than the crap line up GEM has.
7Mate has nothing for me since its a blokey channel and I’ve yet to see GEM.
wow, so if those cities were counted, obviously 7mate would have come out on top. The ratings of sydney alone should be worth a point or two of a % at least!
I find 7mate and GEM to be lackluster, even more disappointing is that GEM is showing a lot of old content on the allocated HD bandwidth for the Nine Network, rendering it redundant. Today is also being simulcast on GEM which is pointless.
Mark 7, 70, 71 all have the 7SD signal and 73 has 7Mate in HDD.
@ Andy just because eleven will have more first run content doesn’t mean it will rate well when pretty much all of that first run content flopped and failed to deliver on the main channel. Give me the biggest hits of all time anyday even if it is old which is why GO! and 7TWO work so well.
@ JB – There’s only a couple of shows on each that I’ll bother with. I agree Eleven will have much more that I’m interested in (Supernatural, Nurse Jackie, Sons of Anarchy, Californication, Dollhouse, Dexter, Stargate Universe…..)
I think its a joke that gem and 7mate are in HD and 9 and 7 are in SD now. what are these networks thinking? they spend millions on HD equipment and they go back to SD. just so confused. will we ever see 7,9 and 10 back in HD?
Dave… probably 2013.
@Craig
Channel 7 will have a three massive days of coverage, visit the link below. I am really looking forward to it.
speedcafe.com.au/2010/09/22/seven-network’s-massive-bathurst-coverage/
Both seem crap so far. Nothing good at all to watch. After seeing the ads for 11, i think it will be the best new channel on tv. Has a great line-up.
@ Kai, maybe mention it on their facebook page and see what they say.
I was thinking the same thing, they also skipped episodes 8 , 9 and 10 of Season 3 and went into Season 4. Episode 7 of Season 3 was last seen on GO!.
I guess if they repeat the series from the beginning then we will see all episodes again.
facebook.com/gotvfanpage or
facebook.com/GEMChannel
Why is their no native HD content on either channel it is all upscaled, no articles on this site ever said anything about an upscaled SD , HD channel.