Seven News had a uniform set (the twisted metal set) across the metro markets in the noughties (first introduced in Sydney in Feb 2005 then Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in that order), during which it became number one nationally including in the key Sydney and Melbourne markets.
Prior to that, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth had the blue TV wall set (as seen behind the sports presenter).
And obviously now, Nine News has had its current set in all five metro markets for over eight years (Perth was the first to receive it (Sep 2016), followed by Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane in that order). All the while, Nine News has been number one across the east coast during this period.
Nine had its second straight clean sweep of the metrics nationally. All average ratings were down including Nine by 47,000, Seven by 31,000, ABC by 20,000 and 10 by 9,000.
It was a poor result for 10 compared to last year, down 9% while Nine was up 10%. All services benefited from significant increased BVOD viewing.
Many bulletins lost viewers from the previous week though a few improved including Nine Melbourne by 16,000.
Compared to 2024, Nine continued to do well in all markets including a 50% improvement in Perth. 10’s results were down 15% in Brisbane and Perth with Adelaide the only market to gain viewers from the previous year.
Seven News had another third place in Sydney with barely more viewers that Seven’s underperforming Brisbane bulletin. A shocking result that surely will have to be addressed
Amazing what some bad weather can do to news ratings with all bulletins except Nine’s improving on last week and the general downward trend at this time of year. ABC got a huge 63,000 boost from last week, Seven was up by 41,000, 10 by 16,000 with Nine going backwards by just 2,000.
All bulletins were also up on week 43 of last year with ABC the most improved by 18%. An increase in BVOD was again a big contributor.
Most metro bulletins also improved. Nine bucked the trend and dropped 20,000 while ABC was up 46,000, Seven by 38,000 and 10 by 15,000.
Compared to the equivalent week last year Nine improved across the board. Seven News was third in Sydney, losing audience from last year as ABC News posted a big gain. 10 News Perth continued to underperform seemingly a victim of Tipping Point’s success out west.
Some big weather events pushed ratings higher on some days, but there was a small decrease from the previous week overall for Nine (-3,000) and Seven (-4,000) while 10 got a 2,000 boost. ABC, dropped significantly, down 42,000.
Nine was up 14% from the same week last with ABC and Seven also improved while 10 News was slightly lower. BVOD was a significant driver of the gains.
Nine improved by 16,000 from last week and in most markets. 10 was slightly higher including up by 8,000 in Brisbane while Seven lost 14,000 and ABC dropped 22,000. All bulletins did better in Brisbane “thanks” to the weather while all went backwards in Adelaide.
Nine continued to improve from last year (that did not include BVOD) in all markets including by +30% in Sydney and Brisbane. Seven, by contrast lost audience in its two underperforming markets of Sydney and Brisbane. Perth was a standout for Seven - up +20%. ABC News Sydney and Perth were also notable for big gains. 10 Perth problems continued compared to 2024’s performance.
Nine News rated lower than last week in the metro ratings as well by 6,000 viewers. Seven (+8,000), 10 (+14,000) and ABC (+22,000) improved week-on-week.
Nine News, however, was up over 20% on the equivalent week of 2024 with other bulletins also improved. Seven News Sydney stood out for posting the biggest drop in audience while several bulletins posted significant improvements. That included 10 Perth that had been going backwards in recent weeks. Nine Adelaide and Perth plus 10 Adelaide showed the biggest gains from last year - all up about one third.
All bulletins suffered significant drops in audience from last week. Seven dropped the most, down by 70,000 while Nine dropped 60,000. ABC was down 42,000 with 10 down 37,000. That was about a 10% drop for 10 with the others down about 5% week-on-week.
10 was also down compared to the equivalent week of 2024 by 6% while the other bulletins had higher audiences.
Most bulletins dropped from last week in the metro markets with Seven down by 42,000. Nine Adelaide was notable for lifting its audience despite sacking one of the news presenters at the beginning of the week. The bulletin picked up 4,000 while Seven dropped 10,000 on average.
Compared to 2024 (that did not included BVOD) all Nine bulletins rated higher including Adelaide and Sydney that were up +30%. Seven Brisbane underperformed against the local competition while 10 Perth was again lower year-on-year.
For the final week of the unofficial survey, one where Seven claimed a win nationally, Nine News won by all measures. Nine was up by 23,000, ABC by 25,000 and 10 by 2,000. Seven, dropped a huge 117,000 and posted its lowest rated week of the year so far.
After last week suffering a 128,000 drop, ABC News bounced back in week 50, up 111,000 while 10 (up 6,000), Nine (2,000) and Sven (2,000) showed small increases. Seven was the overall winner in average audience watching.
ABC was up 12% on the equivalent week of 2024. Seven and Nine also improved with 10 slightly lower based on average viewing. BVOD continued to be a significant driver of viewing.
All bulletins were higher than week 50 of last year with ABC posting the biggest gain. 10 News suffered a drop in Melbourne and continued to underperform in Perth.
Seven picked up 35,000 extra viewers compared to week 49. ABC also did well with 22,000 more, 10 was up by 9,000 and Nine by 2,000. ABC News in Melbourne and Sydney narrowed the gap to Seven’s bulletin.
A lot of considerations factored into this week’s tables including the events at Bondi Beach at the start of the week, the start of the 3rd test as a lead in to news and the start of the BBL.
Seven News saw its average audience surge, increasing by an average of 177,000 nationally while Nine’s bulletin increased by 81,000. 10’s bulletin that was impacted by competition from cricket in several markets was steady. ABC’s bulletin faced competition from BBL as well as special news programming on Monday and dropped 45,000.
Compared to week 51 last year 10 was down 8% while all other networks posted significant gains.
Seven and Nine’s bulletins posted significant gains over the previous week; 10’s News dropped against cricket except in Brisbane where the competition was The Chase all week while ABC was down in most markets as well.
10’s bulletin was also lower than the equivalent week of 2024 while the other bulletins were significantly higher.
For Seven, Nine and ABC the final ratings week delivered their lowest result of the year. That was despite Seven’s Friday bulletin being their third highest weekday result of 2025. 10 bucked the trend and was up 4,000 on last week.
Across the week Nine posted a 11% improvement on last year’s while there wasn’t much change for the other bulletin averages.
That’s a wrap for 2025. I think the exercise, while labour intensive, was worthwhile. It was the year of BVOD which saw all networks make significant gains helping to make the year-on-year numbers look healthy. It shows no sign of reducing and is gaining more momentum.
Briefly, Nine had a very good result with year-on-year improvements in all markets. Adelaide and Perth had their best results for many years.
For Seven, their best result came in BVOD where they have slowly been reducing the advantage Nine had enjoyed. Adelaide and Perth continued to shine though the winning margins were reduced. Melbourne was more competitive but Sydney and Brisbane significantly underperformed.
10 had a mixed year with encouraging early gains. The came the change to the lead out with 10 News+ taking over from DOND at 6pm. That saw numbers plateaux and in some cases fall. Brisbane and Adelaide stood up the best while Perth went backwards in a big way.
ABC was inconsistent but overall improved especially in Sydney were it challenged for second place.
While Seven had a small rise (4,000) and 10 had a small drop (2,000) in audience from the previous week, Nine was up an impressive 57,000.
That also saw Nine up 11% of the first week of 2025.
As mentioned in the daily ratings reports I believe that ABC has consistently had a coding error across the week - the 7pm news has been coded the same as one of the other bulletins during the day so that we are seeing a average of the two in the average audience plus an inflated reach number.
The results this week largely reflected the big lead-in that Seven News received from the Ashes resulting in a big win in all metrics.
Otherwise, all bulletins rated higher than the previous week including Seven by a massive 332,000, Nine by 142,000 and 10 by 31,000. (ABC News couldn’t be assessed due to coding errors).
Compared to Week 2 of 2025, Seven was up 19% helped by a huge BVOD boost . While Nine and ABC also improved, 10 dropped 9%.
