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The race that tops the nation

Ratings: 10's Melbourne Cup broadcast was down by half a million viewers on 2018 race.

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10’s broadcast of The Melbourne Cup led viewing on Tuesday, as is tradition, with 1.32m metro viewers. That included 662,000 viewing in Melbourne alone.

Once again this covers only those watching in homes and excludes offices, pubs and regional Australia. It also doesn’t include the growing audience watching on digital.

But the figure was well down on 2018 and recent years, using the same measurement:

2019: 1.32m
2018: 1.84m
2017: 1.8m
2016: 1.99m
2015: 2.07m
2014: 2.12m
2013: 2.17m

The Race also provided no discernible lift for 10’s primetime other than improving 10 News First to 430,000 (last Tuesday was 313,000) screening from 5:30 – 6:30pm AEDT, and the first portion of The Project at 306,000 (last Tuesday was 238,000).

In primetime The Block won is slot at 972,000 well ahead of The Amazing Race Australia (511,000), 7:30 (504,000), Bride & Prejudice (444,000) and Dream Gardens (343,000 from 8pm).

Numbers were again low from 8:30 with Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall (375,000), Love Island (315,000 from 9pm), The Rookie (306,000 from 9pm), One Born Every Minute (260,000) and Insight (219,000).

Nine network won Tuesday with 34.2% then Seven 24.6%, 10 18.1%, ABC 14.9% and SBS 8.2%.

Nine News drew 877,000 / 825,000 then A Current Affair (764,000) and Hot Seat (423,000 / 256,000). Botched was 183,000.

Seven News won its slot with 839,000 / 848,000 for Seven then Home and Away (528,000) and The Chase (477,000 / 300,000). House of Wellness was a shocker at a lowly 68,000.

The Project was 444,000 / 306,000 for 10. A Playing for Keeps repeat was just 90,000.

ABC News (665,000), Nigel Slater’s Middle East (177,000) and The Drum (155,000) also comprised ABC’s night.

On SBS it was Scotland From The Sky (190,000), Dateline (147,000) and SBS World News (123,000).

9GEM’s Death in Paradise led multichannels at 165,000.

Sunrise: 284,000
Today: 179,000
News Breakfast: 119,000 / 46,000

OzTAM Overnights: Tuesday 5 November 2019

36 Responses

  1. I don’t know if you can read that much into the ratings being down, every show on TV is down compared to other years and for other sport AFL GF was down 400,000 odd, NRL GF down 300,000 odd. Granted Bathurst was the odd one out with it being 50,000 up, however overall all TV’s including The Block are down, so pretty much being 500,000 down is on par with the AFL and NRL really.

  2. Very disappointed with channel 10’s Melbourne cup coverage. First of all they were 8 seconds behind SKY Racing and the camera angles were terrible and finally they could of given us more information of the protest in the cup. Had to wait 45 minutes before information came to hand,even Sky Racing beat them to the information

  3. no matter what spin Ten put on it thats a massive drop in audience . A lot of people boycotted watching it because of the ABC expose on the way the industry slaughters these horses .Ten would be disappointed.why did TEN pay such big dollars. They could have spent the money on the A league rights and got a more long term benefit for an entire season rather than a one off once a year race and one week of racing.

  4. 10’s coverage ratings were down for 3 reasons. Firstly they botched it last time they did it and people have memories. Secondly the racing public have no connection with the presenters. Thirdly, Racing.com is a professional racing service and delivers a quality product – albeit in SD!!!

  5. The once a year punters only want to watch the race. Most know the name of their horse, not the number. 10’s coverage only shows the number of the horse in the running, so many will have no idea which horse is which…

    1. which would no longer exist if there was no horse racing , iflicked between 10 and racing .com on fox which is 78 cause was not interested in what some no name reality tv celeb thought of the race

  8. I’m kind of glad that it hit a record low and hope it drops even more over the next few years. Horse racing is barbaric and isn’t a form of entertainment or sport it’s cruel. A horse fractured it’s pelvis yesterday and they all said it’s normal. It’s just sad how normalised this industry is and I hope things change in the future and we’re not racing at all.

  9. I think their biggest mistake was letting channel 78 broadcast also. I watched it on there because I am used to the presenters who i like and I also get pretty tired of all the fashion.

  10. I don’t understand why everyone is surprised about the ratings. Over 55’s don’t watch 10. Also a lot of people didn’t even know it was broadcast on ten. (Because they don’t watch the channel)

    1. TEN previously held Melbourne Cup broadcast rights from 1978 til 2001.
      Melbourne Cup race 2002 (on 7) was watched by 2.50m. It’s audience has been declining ever since.
      Who would assume which channel was broadcasting it? So easy to check with a remote and EPG.
      “The wake up call is real. Racing industry Betting industry”. “The event also had its lowest attendance in 25 years, as it appears many of Melbourne’s typical racegoers avoided this year’s event. Commentary from multiple news outlets overnight has also revealed a decline in corporate attendance and engagement, with those present at yesterday’s event also throwing their support behind better animal welfare”. (AdNews)

      1. All the media attention on mistreatment of race horses has given the public some insight. Realistically it could have contributed to the lower ratings. Attendance at the race itself was also down and the lowest since 1993. Protesters holding huge banners up reading ‘you bet, they die’ and ‘don’t bet on cruelty’ as people dressed to the nines walked in may have changed the vibe a little bit too.

  12. $105 million for 4 days of racing over 5 years is a huge layout ,that’s about 5.25M per day which includes the rumoured $1M per year for the lovely Francesca. I personally think they paid 50 percent too much.

  14. The reports when they got the rights were that ten paid top dollar. more than they paid for the entire Big Bash. and 40% up on what 7 offered. So to be 500k down would be a huge disappointment.

    The fragmenting audience explanation can only be pushed so far. The same has not happened to other major sporting events.

  15. Totally forgot the Melbourne Cup was on and had no idea of runners…that’s how interested I was ! I am a massive TAR fan but am finding TARA a bit boring, not sure if it’s the ‘challenges’ or the fact that the same team keep winning.

    1. I personally think the legs are too short and/or there isn’t enough variety to sort out the teams on a consistent basis… so we end up with similar results each time. Think about it, the upper echelon of teams haven’t really deviated from the lower ranked ones since the first episode split them into their current rankings… give or take a little…

      Plus I really don’t like Beau Ryan as host. That Todd Sampson to host suggestion last week was a marvelous one!

    2. It is fun to watch, but I think it is the lack of budget that really shows in the episodes. Also, they are skipping many of the little quirks that fans know and love. Beau is OK but I don’t think Todd would consider this show as a good fit for his world view.

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