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2017 ratings: Seven & Nine go down to the wire

Seven wins Total People, Nine wins Demos -and the primary channel split is just 0.1%.

  • Seven network wins the year in Total People
  • Nine network wins in Demographics
  • Nine, SBS up. Seven, TEN, ABC down.

In what turned out to be a very tight tussle between Seven & Nine, the 2017 ratings year has seen Seven win by a narrow margin. But Nine has won the advertiser-friendly demographics.

Symbolic of the tug-of-war, Seven led the first half of the year with My Kitchen Rules, while Nine took over in the second with The Block dominating.

On the primary channel it went down to the wire in November where The Good Doctor‘s strength at the same time as Family Food Fight‘s moderate levels gave Seven the upper hand.

The AFL Grand Final tops the year in the 5 city metro at 2.72m viewers. However if regional audiences are added in the State of Origin III wins at 3.71m vs AFL Grand Final 3.57m.

The Block “winner announced” was the top non-sport audience at 2.53m and Australian Ninja Warrior is the highest new show of the year.

TEN’s tricky ownership struggles aside, The Bachelorette “final decision” pulled their biggest audience all year at 1.7m viewers.

The top Australian drama of the year was the recent Doctor Blake Mysteries telemovie at 1.07m (with more Consolidated numbers to come).

Nine and SBS increased their share while Seven, TEN & ABC all lost ground compared to 2016.

Shares:

5 City Metro, Weeks 7 – 48 excluding Easter, 6pm – midnight. incl. Consolidated 28 Day data.

Network: (2016 in brackets)
Seven: 29.5  (30.2)
Nine: 28.0 (26.7)
TEN: 18.0 (18.8)
ABC: 17.2 (17.6)
SBS: 7.3 (6.8)

Primary Channel:
Seven: 20.0 (20.7)
Nine: 19.9 (18.3)
TEN: 12.6 (13.5)
ABC: 12.3 (12.6)
SBS: 5.3 (4.8)

Multichannels:
7TWO: 3.6 (4.0)
7mate / 9GO!: 3.5 (3.7 / 3.9)
ABC2 / ONE: 2.9 (3.0 / 2.8)
9GEM / ELEVEN: 2.5 (2.5 / 2.5)
7flix: 2.3 (2.0)
9Life: 2.1 (2.0)
ABC News: 1.4 (1.3)
SBS VICELAND: 1.0 (1.0)
SBS Food Network: 0.9 (0.9)
ABC ME: 0.7 (0.6)
NITV: 0.2 (0.2)

25-54
Nine: 30.3 (28.7)
Seven: 28.9 (29.9)
TEN: 22.5 (23.0)
ABC: 11.8 (11.8)
SBS: 6.4 (6.6)

18-49
Nine: 30.7 (28.7)
Seven: 28.8 (30.0)
TEN: 23.3 (23.8)
ABC: 11.3 (11.2)
SBS: 6.0 (6.3)

16-39
Nine: 30.3 (28.4)
Seven: 29.1 (30.6)
TEN: 24.0 (24.6)
ABC: 10.9 (10.5)
SBS: 5.8 (5.9)

Top 20:

5 City Metro, Weeks 7 – 48 excluding Easter, 6pm – midnight. incl. Consolidated 28 Day data.

1 SEVEN’S AFL: GRAND FINAL: ADELAIDE V RICHMOND Seven Network 2,723,000
2 SEVEN’S AFL: GRAND FINAL: PRESENTATIONS Seven Network 2,722,000
3 THE BLOCK -WINNER ANNOUNCED Nine Network 2,533,000
4 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 3RD -MATCH Nine Network 2,523,000
5 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 2ND -MATCH Nine Network 2,404,000
6 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 1ST – MATCH Nine Network 2,374,000
7 RUGBY LEAGUE GRAND FINAL Nine Network 2,310,000
8 AUSTRALIAN NINJA WARRIOR -FINAL STAGE Nine Network 2,248,000
9 AUSTRALIAN NINJA WARRIOR -GRAND FINAL Nine Network 2,185,000
10 THE BLOCK -GRAND FINAL Nine Network 2,049,000
11 SEVEN’S AFL: GRAND FINAL: ON THE GROUND Seven Network 1,975,000
12 SEVEN’S AFL: GRAND FINAL: POST MATCH Seven Network 1,973,000
13 THE 2017 MELBOURNE CUP CARNIVAL: MELBOURNE CUP-THE RACE Seven Network 1,821,000
14 AUSTRALIAN NINJA WARRIOR -SUN Nine Network 1,813,000
15 AUSTRALIAN NINJA WARRIOR -LAUNCH Nine Network 1,793,000
16 THE BACHELORETTE AUSTRALIA GRAND FINALE – THE FINAL DECISION Network Ten 1,701,000
17 AUSTRALIAN NINJA WARRIOR -MON Nine Network 1,651,000
18 AUSTRALIAN NINJA WARRIOR -TUE Nine Network 1,644,000
19 MY KITCHEN RULES-WINNER ANNOUNCED Seven Network 1,606,000
20 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 1ST – PRE MATCH Nine Network 1,541,000

Seven*:

  • AFL Grand Final: 2.72m
  • Melbourne Cup 1.82m
  • My Kitchen Rules: winner announced 1.61m
  • The Good Doctor: 1.31m
  • House Rules: winner announced 1.23m
  • Little Big Shots: 1.22m

Director of Programming, Angus Ross, said: “We move into 2018 after confirming our leadership for eleven consecutive years. We have leadership in breakfast and morning television, news and primetime. We have strong franchises coming back. We have a deep and strong slate of new programmes for 2018. We have the biggest sports events. We are looking forward to growing our audiences and reaffirming the undeniable audience delivery of free to air television.”

Nine*:

  • The Block: winner announced: 2.53m
  • State of Origin III: 2.52m
  • NRL Grand Final: 2.31m
  • Australian Ninja Warrior: final stage 2.25m
  • Married at First Sight: finale: 1.52m
  • The Voice: winner announced: 1.36m

Hugh Marks, Chief Executive Officer of Nine Entertainment Co., said: “Our results this year speak for themselves. To be the number one network with all key demographics is the outcome of a lot of hard work by a team that I believe to be the best in television.

“These are not results we take for granted. If anything, they spur us on to continue to create even better content that will resonate with Australian audiences. We thank our viewers for watching and do not take their support lightly.”

Michael Healy, Nine Network Director of Television, said: “Making engaging content that entertains, informs and stimulates is at the heart of what we do. We are enormously proud of the slate we put to air in 2017. We will continue to push ourselves even harder to produce innovative television that can be enjoyed by viewers on a device and at a time of their choosing.”

TEN*:

  • The Bachelorette: final decision: 1.7m
  • MasterChef Australia: winner announced: 1.39m
  • The Bachelor: final decision: 1.17m
  • I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here: winner announced: 1.13m
  • Supercars Championships: Bathurst: Podium 1.03m
  • Australian Survivor: winner announced: 965,000

Network Ten Chief Executive Officer, Paul Anderson, said: “Consistency and innovation in our content and the distribution of that content were the hallmarks of Network Ten in 2017.

“From Sophie Monk in The Bachelorette Australia and Casey Donovan in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, to the summer television season that is the KFC Big Bash League and the enduring success of MasterChef Australia, 2017 was a year of solid achievements for Ten. Many of our key domestic shows increased their audiences this year – across all screens – and our online and social media channels powered ahead.”

Network Ten Chief Content Officer, Beverley McGarvey, said: “We started 2017 with the clear objective of nurturing and growing our key franchises as well as building our audiences in different dayparts and on different platforms. We achieved all those goals and we will build on that strategy further in 2018.

“Gogglebox, The Bachelorette Australia and Have You Been Paying Attention? recorded their biggest audiences ever this year, while several others grew their year-on-year audiences or commercial shares including I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, the KFC Big Bash League, the Rebel Women’s Big Bash League and Studio 10.

“Many of those shows – plus MasterChef Australia, The Bachelor Australia, Offspring, the Bathurst 1000, TEN Eyewitness News First At Five and others – dominated their timeslots in our core target market of people 25 to 54,” she said.

* 5 city metro, Weeks 7-48 (excl Easter) includes 28 Day Consolidated data (and 7 Day as applicable).

© OzTAM Pty Limited 2017. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM.

13 Responses

  1. Great Summary David.

    Its always interesting to see how the networks spin it with demos and all the other parameters they can dream up, but simple fact is that more people watched Seven across Australia than Nine and poor old Ten is fighting it out for a distant 3rd with ABC.

    It will be an interesting year next year with Seven seemingly getting it’s programming mojo back around some big events and shows like Spartan. It is doubtful that Nine will catch Seven as they dont seem to be doing to much new stuff but it will also be interesting to see if Ten with CBS backing can launch some new product with substance and get away from rubbish like Batchelors and d grade Celebs and maybe pick up some ground on Nine…..

    1. The fact is that by winning viewers under 55, Nine has increased its share of ad revenue amongst the 3 commercial network to 39% last report, and was winning. While Seven West, encumbered with print media and over priced TV output deals is losing millions. Yes Nine would want to beat Seven and Network Seven for total viewers, and were already boasting about leading Seven’s main channel before The Good Doctor appeared out of nowhere, they won’t be too unhappy. Ninja will make Nine a lot of money in 2018. Spartan will have to succeed and make it to 2019 before it can.

  2. Great wrap David, thank you. It was a Nine’s best year in a decade, unfortunate they couldn’t take out main channel in the end, shows it truly is a race until the very end. Interesting to note in recent years with the current environment, sport (the AFL Grand Final) seems to always top the year now, used to be winner announced, et al.

    1. Only it didn’t top the years sports ratings, unless Australians who live outside ofc5 major cities aren’t real people. I think you’ll find either the state of origin or nrl grand final have topped the National ratings most years in the last decade.

      1. Both views are correct. The national vs metro debate is a long one, and while metro is the current standard, alas the industry has been to slow to address this. But let’s avoid coding wars in debates about the ratings system thanks.

        1. I had no intention of starting a war of sporting codes. I’m just merely stating that more Australians watched the state of origin than the afl grand final. I don’t understand why regional viewers are excluded, are they not as important?

          1. Regional figures are always separate to metro until such time as OzTAM + RegionalTAM decide otherwise. At present not all regional areas are covered by RegionalTAM nor are they equal in all areas. OzTAM has same coverage in 5 cities so advertisers prefer the consistency.

  3. Reading this you could be forgiven for thinking we are a nation of sports nuts…..I’m wondering just what country our house is actually in, not one skerrick of sport was watched in our house and we are big tv watchers.

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