Nightly free-to-air TV bulletins buck trend
The good news for broadcasters is that the evening bulletins have reversed the trend of declining free-to-air TV audiences, with the numbers up year on year, and some of the best ratings figures since 2022.
Industry observers say the second presidential term of Donald Trump, local climate events and the upcoming Australian federal election have helped grow TV news audiences in the first quarter of 2025, even as audiences drift away from the medium in favour of streaming platforms.
“In a time of world economic volatility, increasing natural disasters and political uncertainty, the increasing number of viewers for both 7NEWS and 9News is further proof of the enduring strength of free-to-air news,” Seven West Media news director Anthony De Ceglie said.
“It’s easily forgotten that almost every night in Australia the number one and two programs in the country are 7NEWS and 9News at 6pm, with millions of people tuning in every night. “When combined, the audience is only beaten (each year) by the AFL and NRL grand finals.”
Ten years ago, TV ratings were measured by the size of the metro market audience. In 2015, Nine and Seven both had 6pm news metro audiences close to one million nightly viewers, with Nine narrowly in front with 1.057 million on average across that year.
For the first 13 weeks of 2025, Seven holds a narrow lead across metro markets with an average audience of 836,592, compared to Nine on 829,511.
In the first 13 weeks of 2025, Nine now trails Seven at 6pm across metro markets only by an average of 7000 viewers. In the first 13 weeks of 2024, the gap between the two broadcasters was 48,000.
One change in recent years helping Nine is the growth in viewers watching via 9Now. Last year’s broadcast video on demand average audience for the 6pm news in the first quarter was 55,000. That figure for the same period this year is 81,000.
Seven’s 6pm News audience on 7plus reported similar growth – up from 34,000 to 51,000. While those numbers continue to be outstripped by linear broadcast figures, the growth for both is close to 50 per cent year on year.