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New-look Mondays off to a quiet start for SBS

Ratings: A new Monday line-up on SBS had heated competition, as Seven just snatches the night from the jaws of Nine.

2014-03-25_0957Last night SBS revamped its Monday night schedule but while the content was strong, they only added a 0.2% share to those from a week ago.

The broadcaster had adjusted its Code of Practice to enable MA content to air from 8:30pm and returned an old favourite to a new night. But with so much heated competition on Mondays it may take some time to see a bounce in the numbers.

Vikings was the top rated show on SBS ONE at 240,000 then Mythbusters (162,000), SBS World News (129,000) and RocKwiz (117,000).

Seven network won the night -just- with a share of 33.1% then Nine 32.1%, ABC 18.7%, TEN 12.4% and SBS 3.7%.

My Kitchen Rules was back at #1 with 1.65m for Seven then Seven News (1.23m / 1.14m), Home and Away (953,000), Revenge (921,000), Million Dollar Minute (489,000) and How I Met Your Mother? (455,000).

The Block‘s delay in announcing its Room Reveal winners worked with 1.46m viewers -its best weeknight figure this season. Next for Nine were Nine News (1.26m / 1.18m), Love Child (1.17m), A Current Affair (1.12m), Hot Seat (647,000). Footy Classified was 300,000 in 3 markets.

ABC News (955,000) led ABC1 then Australian Story (755,000), 7:30 (694,000), Media Watch (611,000), Four Corners (546,000) and Q & A (520,000).

TEN Eyewitness News did well at 671,000 for TEN then The Project (561,000 / 359,000), Modern Family (510,000), The Bold and the Beautiful (393,000), Bondi Rescue (355,000) and a Modern Family rpt (295,000). Secrets and Lies failed at a dismal 278,000, only just ahead of Vikings on SBS, and Blue Bloods was just 210,000.

Neighbours topped multichannels at 309,000. The first ABC2 screening of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon was 94,000.

Sunrise: 325,000
Today: 313,000
ABC News Breakfast: 69,000 / 31,000
Wake Up: 38,000

OzTAM Overnights: Monday 24 March 2014

30 Responses

  1. Poor Secrets and Lies hemorrhaging 50,000 viewers an ep! I didn’t know it was as short as 6 eps; thought it was 8 or 10. As thin as it is plot wise, it creates enough mood and tension for this viewer to stay hooked. Anthony Hayes is pretty creepy as the detective. I wish Dianna Glenn had more to do – she feels wasted in this.

  2. I wonder if the only people currently watching Channel 10 are the regulars who post comments here?
    Just a thought!

    To argue that the entire ratings system is flawed because you are a Channel 10 viewer is ridiculous.

  3. “Either OZTAM’s figures are skewed, or something far more nefarious is going on…”

    Love a good conspiracy theory but the answer to the above is neither – it’s your sampling which is biased. I’m pretty sure that if the advertisers thought that there was something wrong with the system which tells them where to spend their money, they’d be insisting that it be fixed,

    Can we not have people every few days calling for an overhaul of the ratings system because the numbers don’t seem to match what they and their friends watch? It’s getting boring.

  4. “I know of many people who watch SBS shows like Vikings, The Returned, Rockwiz, The Walking Dead, Lilyhammer, even the omnipresent WW2 documentaries”.

    Leave out Rockwiz and I’m one of them!
    However I’m also enjoying Secrets and Lies, that is after recording it so I can FF through the ads.
    I also do that with all SBS programs too.
    Actually, I record everything I want to see so that I can watch something when I feel like it.

  5. Generally speaking if you take a group of random people who have nothing to do with each other, what they watch on TV will reflect roughly what the ratings do.

    But if you look towards your own circle of friends, what makes you friends like having similar interests, something in common, etc will skew what you all watch on TV and not even come close to reflecting what the ratings say.

  6. O knew this would happen. Totally forgot about RocKwiz on a new night. Gonna have to watch it on line. Saturday night there’s always bugger all on the other channels – SBS used to own it with RocKwiz at the helm.

  7. @Josh777
    The non-repeat Modern Family rated more than the second half hour of The Project.

    Niche shows like The Returned are timeshifted on DVDs or watch online and don’t appear in the overnights (or any top 20 list). And half the TV audience is over 50, even higher later in the week.

    OZtam accurately reflects what people watch on TVs.

  8. SBS1 are thinking that they are becoming a secondary channel and need to stop that, but it won’t work.

    There is a repeat of Vikings on its usual night of Thursday 8:30pm SBS2 so it will probably total the same number of viewers as it did before.

    We now have lots of channels but only three (7,9,2) that can put together blocks of content that a household can watch in the lounge room for a few hours (The Short Head). And they stagger shows to stop force people to record stuff on other channels.

    The rest are the Long Tail from which people pick-out what they personally like with DVRs or online.
    In the US digital fragmentation for <50s is more advanced due to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Even Sunday night viewing is declining there as people watch their favourite shows online.

  9. Well the problem for 10 is simple, people turned off and are just not watching the channel any more. Simple example of this, one of the better shows currently on TV, The Good Wife did not make the top 20 last Wednesday which means they got something north of 440k.

    Last night Revenge got 921k for what can only be described as a very poor episode for what was being worked towards for almost 3 series. I mentioned last week they ran out of story line after the first series and are now just making up stuff to fill the hours.

    But that is the problem for 10, how they turn it around I don’t know. I think the writing is on the wall…

  10. “What were SBS thinking? They put one of their best shows on an overcrowded night up against MKR, The Block, Love Child, Revenge and Secrets & Lies. How could anybody be expected to watch (or even record) everything on a Monday night?”

    Agree @J Bar !
    Strange decision.
    I will have to resort to watching the repeats on Saturday nights if I’m home.

  11. What were SBS thinking? They put one of their best shows on an overcrowded night up against MKR, The Block, Love Child, Revenge and Secrets & Lies. How could anybody be expected to watch (or even record) everything on a Monday night?
    They had done such a good job building up Thursday nights for quality drama and Monday nights for comedy. Why abandon that?

  12. For all the complaining about Oztam I can’t see any problems with the way they go about measuring audiences. What could they do differently or better? They have more boxes in Australia as a percentage of population than many other countries. It would be great if, as tv’s are increasingly connected online we could voluntarily agree to send our viewing habits in for ratings purposes but I can’t see that happening. What we have is a flawed system but I don’t see how it could be made better.

  13. I’m really enjoying Secrets and Lies and know plenty of others who are as well. It’s a gripping, clever drama that really sucks you in.

    I’ve got to agree with the sentiment about Oztam. Surely it’s time for a complete overhaul with all the changes to our viewing habits? David, are there any plans to update our ratings system in the near future and if not, why not?

    1. OzTAM is owned by three commercial networks, so they are presumably happy with it. We also have more ratings boxes per capita than the US. There are plans to include catch-up viewing and hopefully to merge regional viewers (rather than the current separate figure) but won’t happen Overnight. Pun intended.

  14. Modern Family ads alone, are enough, its not very funny.

    Secrets and Lies, is there anymore to this story than watching Henderson, change his shirt, drive around and peek out of his windows, like a deranged Gladys Cravitz????

  15. @josh. Big reason is after hours of news and curreny affairs peopke just want to blob out in front of the tv. That is why The Block and MKR get the 1.5m plus viewers and the scripted dramas and other shows dont get great numbers at 7:30pm.

    I dont agree with with it, but I entirely see how it is possible.

  16. Josh777 while I agree that the OzTam figures are sometimes surprising, I really don’t think it’s that inconceivable that people watch The Project and then move across to one of the reality juggernauts on 9 or 7.

  17. Josh, I’ve been on that bandwagon for a while now. It does seem odd that, in conversation with friends, colleagues etc. I know of many people who watch SBS shows like Vikings, The Returned, Rockwiz, The Walking Dead, Lilyhammer, even the omnipresent WW2 documentaries.
    But OZTAM will then report viewing figures in the low thousands.

    I also don’t know anyone that’s watching Secrets and Lies, yet somehow it’s getting viewing figures (slightly) better than the aforementioned SBS shows.

    Either OZTAM’s figures are skewed, or something far more nefarious is going on…

  18. How does Modern Family drop following The Project? I think I’m joining the “OZTAM isn’t a good enough representation of actual viewing” bandwagon as I just don’t see how that is possible.

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