Just as Chris Gayle was smashing the equal-fastest fifty in the history of Twenty20, Ten’s Big Bash coverage was also breaking records, scoring its first million plus audience for a non-finals game.
It was also the opening night of the Australian Open tennis, where a win by Australia’s Nick Kyrgios managed a five-city audience of 644,000. It was a disappointing result compared to previous years where Seven has come to dominate the night with network share above 30%.
Last night, less than two per cent separated the three commercial networks with Seven’s multichannel coverage in third place with 24.6%. Ten was second with 25.3% and Nine’s non-sport alternative topped the night with 26.0%. ABC also did well with 18.3% and SBS had 5.8%.
Nine News (1,157,000 and 1,141,000) was the dominant news bulletin despite Seven’s tennis lead in with A Current Affair winning the 7pm spot as well with 902,000. To Catch a Smuggler that followed had 566,000 while Ocean’s Eleven made the top twenty on 439,000. Earlier, Hot Seat had 526,000.
For Ten, The Adelaide Strikers’ win in the Big Bash recorded 1,015,000 metro viewers including ONE in Perth after 820,000 watched session one while the post match game had 419,000. Earlier, Ten Eyewitness News had 536,000, Family Feud 498,000 and The Project 611,000 and 392,000.
Seven News (945,000 and 842,000) was Seven’s best with the blanket tennis coverage including 644,000 for the night session, 315,000 for the day and 249,000 for the late night session.
Back Roads continued its good run for ABC with 808,000 while ABC News (789,000) and 7.30 (707,000) also made the top ten. New Tricks was next best with 688,000 and Exile managed 355,000.
In Search of the Dark” End of Physics? with 169,000 was the best for SBS.
Today (319,000) was well ahead of Sunrise (275,000) with the extended session of Sunrise that followed on 200,000.
See Monday 18 January 2016 for a more detailed look at the ratings numbers in the Media Spy forums.
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