Seven managed to pick up some extra viewers in Sydney and Perth, with the bulletin up 16k in the 5-city market while Nine dropped by 37,000.
The end of the year saw another easy win for Seven with 50 weeks won. The two weeks that Nine won were in January in what looked like it might have signalled a bigger shift in viewing patterns.
The biggest change was a shift to Seven in Melbourne. Smaller movements saw Seven do better in Sydney and Nine increase its lead Brisbane. In Adelaide Nine was notable for its first weekly win in a ratings period since 2006.
The 2020 weeks won:
More analysis of the audience numbers on a day that isn’t Christmas.
Compared to the 40-week ratings period numbers posted above the calendar year averages were about 6% lower for both bulletins in the 5-city markets.
Compared to the 2020 Calendar Year there were some big fluctuations, tempered by the Sydney market that had a bigger news year than most. Nine Adelaide a stand out performer across the year.
Here we go again with another tallying of the weeks won across the year. Most bulletins posted moderate gains from the last week of 2021 (that featured low-rating Christmas Day). Seven News was up 54,000 and Nine was up 58,000 on average.
Brisbane delivered the closest result with a split between 6pm won by Seven and 6.30 by Nine. Despite a couple of daily wins in Adelaide for Nine, Seven took out the week.
This appears to be the general trend.
7 is often weaker in Brisbane at 6.30, but stronger in Melbourne for that half hour.
Not sure what implications that has for Home and Away as a lead in.
Seven News won the week in Melbourne despite having cricket as genuine lead-ins only on Sunday and Monday, when the Boxing Day Ashes test finished early.
I think Nine will win more nights in Adelaide in 2022 and eventually claim a week.
Table shows average ratings per day for full hour 6 - 7pm, Seven top row and NIne second row of each segment. This information especially useful in markets where readers’ rosters are not Monday to Friday.
The last row shows the average audience for each market for the entire week.
Over 100,000 extra viewers in week 2 for Seven News and 120,000 on average each night for Nine. While all except one bulletin were up, Nine Melbourne had the biggest increase of 54,000. Overall, a pretty good result for Nine to manage three east coast wins despite Seven having the Ashes as a lead in on three nights. Problematic results for Seven in Brisbane where the bulletin often gets off to a winning start then viewers switch off for the second half hour.
The average drop last year from 6pm to 6.30pm (Mon-Fri) for Seven News Brisbane was 10,000. Nine managed to keep the drop across the bulletin to 3,000.
Not the best week for Nine News in most markets with the afternoon tennis lead in to news less popular than Nine’s regular line-up. Seven won all markets at 6pm except the home of the AO in Melbourne. In Sydney Nine made up enough ground to just win across the hour.
Compared to week 3, Seven was up 22,000 while Nine dropped an average of 49,000 each night. Melbourne bucked the trend where Seven was down 24k and Nine up 10k also coinciding with the return of Peter Hitchener.
Big win for Seven in the final week of unofficial summer ratings. While Seven was steady across the markets Nine dropped 86,000. Biggest movement was in Melbourne, down 63k week-on-week while Brisbane was down 19k and Sydney dropped 15k to see a rare win for Seven in that market.
Compared to week 6 of 2021, Seven in Sydney was up 16%, Brisbane 15% and Adelaide 11%.
I think it was inevitable that Seven News Melbourne numbers would improve this week without the Australian Open. Nine still ahead in this market but it will be interesting to see how things go with the Winter Olympics this week.
In a good start to the unofficial ratings survey period, Seven won all markets across the hour. However, the results were dominated by falls with Seven News down 15,000 from the previous week while Nine dropped 33,000.
The biggest changes were a 20k increase for Seven Melbourne and a 18k fall for Seven Brisbane. Otherwise, some close results across the east coast promise an interesting survey.
It is an unofficial ratings period not officially recognised by OzTAM. Just used between the networks.
From OzTAM
Please note shaded weeks relate to the traditional 40-week survey calendar (weeks 7-48, excluding Easter) and are provided as a courtesy to OzTAM clients who continue to trade on that basis. It is up to broadcasters and their clients to determine the time bands on which they negotiate.
OzTAM publishes ratings data 365 days per year and declares no official ratings period: every day is an official OzTAM ratings day.
