The highest ratings I could find for regional WA in recent years were the 2015 AFL GF (involving West Coast, who lost) & the 2013 AFL GF (involving Fremantle, who lost)
Interesting article from TV Tonight:
Looking at networks coding āwinner announcedā for ratings, when some arenāt even at least 15min.
Including 2 of the top 4 non-sport programs of 2016 - MKR & MasterChef.
This is an interesting way of looking at the total audience of drama series which is much bigger than overnight ratings suggest
They appear duds but these Australian made dramas are rating two million viewers a week
Regional rating removed from post; see link for details.
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Itās a great article & so true.
Networks really are looking at all the figures added up, to get the best picture of a programs performance.
Especially expensive Australian dramas.
However David Mott is correct, everyone knows people fast forward with consolidated (DVR recordings).
Also not all programs on VPM (online catch-up) have embedded ads
(e.g.) Ch 10 programs - for some reason Iāve discovered?
Tenplay certainly does unless you have Adblock activated.
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I never realised only 3500 homes in metro areas were surveyed. You can see why networks look at twitter responses. It better reflects the actual number. That survey number for OzTam is extremly low and couldnt get anywhere near an accurate figure.
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I doubt the the networks are really that interested in the regional numbers, especially given that the existence of regional ratings is hardly something new that has just been discovered. The only reason network PR people might have ignored them until now is that they are looking for spin to make the overnight numbers look better. Fair enough that ratings success is determined by the consolidated figures though. They also seem to have forgot to mention performance in key advertising demos.
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OzTAM claim that as a percentage of the potential viewing audience sample, 3,500 is enough to give one of the most accurate estimates in the world.
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Of course they will claim that though. Is it really the case though?
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One thing to consider is that, even, in early prime time, only about 25% of people are watching live FTA. So that is potentially less than 1,000 peopleās viewing being counted, spread across 5 cities, 16 or so channels and then broken down into demographics. How many are being counted when watching out of peak hours?
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Thats my whole point. It isnāt a large sample. How can it be that accurate? Even if it is better than other countries it is understandable that networks take to social media to see how the shows are really fairing.
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Interesting that people discuss the merits of coding for finals but not when it comes to the Melbourne Cup where the 5 minutes of the race (rather than the afternoonās coverage) has been reported as such since the start of OzTAM and even before that. Iāve never seen the race coded as a separate entry in a TV guide or in the EPG so this may even be the first instance of coding for just part of a program for the purpose of TV ratings reporting.
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Like you said though, thatās always been the way with the Melbourne Cup.
Media, etc. always want to know the people who watched the RACE & unfortunately for OzTam itās only a few minutes.
Whether itās right of wrong in that case, I donāt know.
With billions of dollars at stake i would expect that networks and advertisers would equally insist that OzTam complies with best industry practice to ensure the accuracy of the data, and apparently our sample sizes are bigger per capita than other overseas markets.
Also those 3500 are not selected at random, there is a science to ensure that the sample size is reflective of the broader population. Therefore increasing the sample size is not going to make any discernable difference to the outcome.
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Exactly 
And complex algorithms to work out the viewership of a program.
(e.g.) One household watching Family Feud (for example) doesnāt necessarily mean thereās another 10,000 people watching the same program in their region, etc.
Also, when OzTam randomly select the new panels (via phone call), they ask them a series of questions, to find the most appropriate household (how many TVs, how many family members, ages, f you watch TV often, etc.).
I think Australiaās ratings system is a relatively accurate TV audience measurement system.
NB/
I still after all these years, have never been able to figure out why Melbourne rates higher than Sydney for nearly every program on average (considering each citiesā population). I can only imagine Geelong has something to do with it, rather than āMelbourne just watches more TVā?
They donāt call it Melboring for nothing. 
Sydney people have better things to do than sit at home and watch telly. 
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I canāt imagine that Geelong makes any more or less of an impact to the size/ratings in the Melbourne TV market than the Central Coast region does in the Sydney TV market or the Gold Coast does in the Brisbane TV market. Especially when the population of the latter two adjacent areas is actually larger than that of Geelongās.
Well rather than just guessing, you could just look at the market sizes - http://www.oztam.com.au/documents/Other/Metro_Universe_Estimates_2016_OzTAM%20161215.pdf
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I doubt the the networks are really that interested in the regional numbers, especially given that the existence of regional ratings is hardly something new that has just been discovered. The only reason network PR people might have ignored them until now is that they are looking for spin to make the overnight numbers look better. Fair enough that ratings success is determined by the consolidated figures though. They also seem to have forgot to mention performance in key advertising demos.
@TV.Cynic Iām not sure that is true. Regional TV markets make up about 25% of national TV ad spend a year (metro about $3b, regional about $1b)
And considering the networks collect between 35 % (Ten/Win) and 50% (Nine/SCA) of that revenue through affiliation deals - it is very much in the networks interest that their shows rate well Australia wide.
For Nine, Seven and Ten - every 1% share up or down in regional Australia represents about $10m in annual revenue.
That is some sizable amount of coin and revenue from the networks in regional areas.
If SCA/Nine has 30% of the market share - that is $150m a year in ad revenue from regional ratings for Nine. Significant.
They donāt call it Melboring for nothing.
@JBar @LukeMovieMan @SydneyCityTV
Itās two things.
The Melbourne (4.975m) and Sydney (4.998m) TV markets are basically the same size. Youāre talking a difference of 24,000 people to or markets of 5 million people - or a differential of 0.48%. Negligible.
With MEL metro area growing much faster than SYD - MEL will be the largest TV market in the nation in 1-3 years.
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