Floods draw viewers to their TV screens
Viewers were drawn to their television screens last night as networks provided continuing coverage of the Queensland floods.
- Published by David Knox
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Viewers were drawn to their television screens last night as networks provided continuing coverage of the Queensland floods.
Nine attracted the highest network share of 36.0%, ahead of Seven’s 26.5%, TEN’s 17.8%, ABC’s 14.6% and SBS’ 5.1%. But these include multichannels most of which provided alternative viewing.
Nine’s primary channel was 25.0% over Seven’s 19.4%. Nine News pulled 1.56m to Seven News 1.44m and ABC News 984,000. A Current Affair was 1.16m to Today Tonight‘s 1.08m. Overnight figures are always preliminary and may yet be adjusted.
But there was also a significant audience looking for viewing alternatives. Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation was the top entertainment show for the night at 727,000 viewers.
Multichannels netted some interesting results.
GO!’s share was a whopping 7.9%, with 7TWO at 3.8% and ELEVEN making its mark at 3.6% on day of launch.
It’s hard to know whether the ELEVEN figure was down due to breaking news or up as people sought alternatives. Neighbours was its highest rated show at 254,000 followed by Futurama (210,000), The Simpsons (173,000), Nurse Jackie (155,000), Californication (129,000) and The Office (127,000). GO!’s share suggests people were actively pursuing alternatives.
ABC News 24 has also seen a modest boost to its numbers in recent days, last night at 2.0 around double its usual audience.
32 Responses
i think rob hit it on the head. ch9 seems to have brung their a class while seven relied on the b class.
call me bias or call me a cab, but why do Blonde women ask the absolute double dumb@$$ questions…just now on Ch 7 , news anchor to Mark Ferguson… such as : “are the people of Brisbane concerned “… Paleeze
Nine continual pushing of worst case scenarios as the norm was very irritating. Its like they had to keep pumping up big numbers. River heights, death toll. numbers missing..all were rammed down our throats far too much
Michael Usher was the exception, came across refereshingly human in a sea of “Oh golly look how bad everything is and it’s going to get worse!”
just joined the throng of viewers to see the live cross to Qld Premier..on $even…Premier introduced a signing person for HI viewers…. what does the cameraman do, zoom in!!!!! epic fail. Fortunately, the captioning people kept on keeping on..Over on ABC they had a cameraman with brains and stayed on a widey but their sound was crap, probably from a camera top mic by the amount of room reverb I heard…oh and Bathy apologized for the dumb cameraman who is now on the way to the dole office for being such an imbecile.
Yes this seems overcritical…but this is the test for media organisations to show their experience and professionalism…something they spout on about endlessly in their promos…I am only questioning said bragging.
Channel Benign…well they have cricket commitments dont they…dont want to let a disaster get in the way of profits…and TEN, what a joke…showing comedy re-runs and cartoons…
cant wait for the navy seals to blow up the island vessel tonight about 1130 pm….live in the river and probably media managed to the hilt.
Its delayed in Perth, unless you watch ABC 24. I cant work out why 7 & 9 are showing it delayed, you might as well have normal programming for Perth viewers. This reminds me of the Winter Olympics with Nine. How stupied do they think we are. Plus the Nine chopper was amuterish with the coverage tour with NRL plugs for State of Orgion all day long for Suncorp shots. No mention of the Wallabies or Reds!
Im bored of this now with the media, its same stuff that they’re saying etc. It’s becomming overkill now with the coverage esp with the word induated, find a different word to use! I cant work out why ABC 24 are showing modelling maps when they’re not used by the weather people for flood damage and the other one they had was 8.5m high when it wont even reach that high as they stated, then why waste everyones time with the map with red colours.
I heard a media conference journo ask the Police chef today if the phone conversation about a rescue was esthatic when he heard the news. I wish he answered it with what do you reckon or that he was upset that he wanted the death numbers to climb!
i thought that the 7pm project shouldve had just journos on the panel last night. a doctor, a swimmer and a comedian just wasnt right. george negus saved the show
@Elaine Luke,
Try calling 1300 993 191, they might be of assistance.
Please, Dave (3:37pm)! I’m gonna be sick…
Has anyone seen Jodie Luke and Adam Mellow and their 3 children in the Lowood area in the last 24 hours? Please phone on 32089465 as contact has been lost.
I watched a little bit of Seven’s coverage last and was a bit miffed about some of the wrong information that were giving out about some towns. At one point they were still saying Caboolture was isolated a couple of hours after the Bruce Highway had re-opened at both places where it had been closed earlier in the day.
There are times when the Australian media is way too parochial and narrow.
Now is rightly so, such a time, I am quite comfortable with them being so. For this Australian, when other Aussies are displaced, killed, lost, ruined and whole towns and cities are in threat of being swept away -I am affected. it is a huge deal. it cuts to the core of the Aussie spirit and identity.
As a mum we made the decision late yesterday to actively seek alternate programs to watch but we didn’t watch Neighbours – too much doom and gloom on it!
@Guy: Yes, you put that all so well!
@others: yes, Anna Bligh is doing an exceptional job … and being a very real human being as well as a strong leader… perfect example of what the others should be. i also agree that Rudd was impressive for the first time in a very long time.
@Queensland: My heart goes out to you all, stay safe!
First off its good to see Eleven get 3.6. It was a good night of TV and i watched from 8:30pm onwards.
As for all this coverage I am basically over Channel Nine’s coverage. Its the same thing nearly every 15-20 minutes. I have decided to watch Seven today although last night i decided to watch Eleven because i was over all this over-saturation from the media. At least Seven and TEN had breaks in their coverage. Can’t say that for Nine.
I know its a massive event and i have relatives effected but the scale is no where near that of the Haiti disaster this time last year. Sorry to sound a bit harsh but its true. At least when i was watching Seven today the coverage was always different. They never spoke about the same thing all the time whereas Nine seem to repeat it over and over and over again.
Look i don’t care who shows what as long as when i want to know a bit they give it to me. Not all this repeat stuff.
I see the arguments for and against this rolling coverage – one can accuse the networks of milking a disaster – they are also doing their jobs – reporting events and crucial information for Australians to see, hear and feel. Like with anything else that beams into our rooms – we have the option to switch it off, turn to some entertainmenT instead. Some audiences are gaining invaluable info from it, others are gaining compassion and insight into a very real and live natural diaster. As with 9/11, bushfires, tsunamis and political turmoil – the media has its job to do. Anna Bligh has a gravitas but also a human and real presence on screen – who do we look to in times of crisis – our leaders, Good on her, and Gillard for being in the right place and at the right time. Presence and funds given
@ Russell
I’ve read at Mediaspy 2.2 for the Victorian Election was ABC News 24 highest rating so far. That said I think you’re mainly right (about it being triple their normal ratings ). I’ve been watching them as well as some of the others. My thoughts and well wishes are with everyone facing the floods as well as the fires.
@Jack!: I agree, News directors at Seven & Nine seem to be experiencing orgasmic levels of joy at the fact they can continuously air this information, its sick really. I’m not sure the ABC is doing a better job either.
@dave: I agree completely, she’s been calm and in control the entire time and with the information she’s recieving I would imagine hourly a lesser person male or female would crumble under the pressure. We’re getting a real lesson in leadership from both Anna Bligh and weirdly Kevin Rudd, I’ve never seen the man look so Prime Ministerial before. As for Julia Gillard, not so much…
ABC News 24 is the only one that has had live streaming on the web and iPhone/iPad during this all. So it has been the only one I have watched.
ABC News 24 more than doubling it’s audience is a “modes boost”?
A 2.1 share is actually about a tripling of their normal ratings.
And an all time ratings record for them.
I think Channel Nine’s coverage has been superior, but only because Seven’s coverage has been lacking the required gravitas. I’ve never heard of their afternoon presenters – it seems like everyone’s still on holidays??? Why haven’t they pulled some of their big names to host the coverage? Where’s Mike Munro? Why don’t they have Chris Reason host? Perhaps Sam Armitage, Monique Wright, or Rahni Sadler? They’re all fantastic talent and perhaps equal to nine’s stable of presenters.
Natural disasters – the ultimate in reality TV.
I’m not a queenslander but i really like Anna Bligh, and how she is handling this devastating crisis. Whether or not she will be thrown out of office – she is behaving like a sensitive human being and human doing. I’m not sure you can expect that of all pollies in her situation.
Frankly I got sick of the coverage and went else where for a few hours last night, cane back in time for the TEN coverage at 9:30 pm only to see much the same coverage as they had at 5pm.
What I do like is checking out BBC World, Fox and CNN for an international POV on the floods making world wide news.
Not to speak politics but this can only help Labors chances of re-election in QLD, depending how they handle the aftermath.
Bad news for Neighbours, going from ~600K Down to 254K. Maybe starting on a Tuesday was the problem there. Interesting Futurama was more popular than Simpsons. Maybe people are Simpsoned out.
This is such a devestating time for so many Australians!
I found that the continual coverage from Nine was overkill … they always seem to go too far … the same scenes were repeated far too much … as usual, Seven had a much better approach to the coverage. The real issues are the impact on individuals and businesses … not the “worse than 1974” catch cry.
I really wish that the Prime Minister would actually show some real emotion for once instead of the same pre-written responses to every question … she is looking very, very hard hearted and distant.