A better result for Seven this week with wins across all markets except Brisbane. It was Seven’s first improvement in three weeks, up 25,000 from week ten while for Nine its was the bulletin’s third consecutive drop, now down 45k from week eight.
Seven had its first win in Sydney for the survey, winning four out of five nights. Nine’s Sydney bulletin was down 29% on week 11 of 2022.
In Melbourne, Seven was up 10,000 against an unchanged Nine. Nine’s win in Brisbane included winning four nights with Seven having a win on Friday.
Seven Adelaide continued its good run to be the only bulletin on any network rating higher than last year. Seven Perth suffered its usual small drop as AFL on 7Mate tends to draw audiences away from the main channel.
Think this must be the first time in a while that Seven News has won a week in Sydney in the first half of a ratings year without the aid of sporting events, though they did win the first two weeks of 2021 when Nine had the Australian Open (which Nine execs would’ve hoped to give their news a lead-in boost).
A great result for Seven in week 12 with a win in all markets including for a second consecutive week in Sydney. Nine is Sydney continued to underperform, down 17% from 2022’s week 12. Seven Brisbane posted a nice gain to be up 18,000 to win every night of the week. Perth saw a familiar pattern where news numbers were dragged down competing with AFL.
Some more encouraging news numbers for the last week featuring daylight saving with both bulletins up +20,000 for their 5-city totals.
In Sydney, Nine took back a win after two consecutive losses up 4k from week 12 as Seven lost 8k in what was still a close contest.
Seven gained an extra 17k viewers in Melbourne with Nine up 8k; so Seven kept its winning streak going. Seven’s Melbourne audience was up 15% on week 12 of last year.
Seven dropped by 6k in Brisbane but a modest 2k increase by Nine wasn’t enough and Seven took out another week for a total of three wins to Nine’s four.
Seven Adelaide continued to perform better than 2022, up 3% on week 12 while Nine was down 15% for an easy win for Seven.
Both Perth bulletins improved after slipping last week with Seven up 15k and Nine up by. 12k.
The end of Daylight Savings Time brought the usual increase in news numbers across nearly all bulletins. Seven News was up by an average of 31,000 while Nine improved by 26,000 across the five-city market.
In Sydney, Seven took out another win across the hour that featured a tie for the 6.30pm segment with its biggest weekly audience since January.
Seven kept its winning margin in Melbourne posting its biggest audience of the year including +300k results on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Brisbane was Nine’s only market with a win, though a narrow one. The Adelaide market was unchanged while in Perth Nine got a small increase to its best result of the year.
News numbers are looking healthier this week with week-on-week improvements for all but one bulletin across the five cities.
Seven News did particularly well; up 46,000 to its best result for the year and first time over 900k for a bulletin in 2023. Nine was up a modest 9,000, dragged down by a drop in for Melbourne’s struggling bulletin.
Nine did better in Sydney posting a 2023-high weekly audience. That was despite Seven posting its highest rated bulletin of the year on Thursday.
Melbourne saw Nine’s situation get worse down 16,000 to a three-week low. Seven was notable for rating 7% higher than week 15 of 2022 while Nine was down 12%.
Seven posted its highest rating of the year Brisbane and by one of its biggest margins as well.
Adelaide featured Seven’s highest audience since January while for Nine it was it best week of the year.
Both Perth bulleted recorded 2023 highs with Seven up an impressive 21,000 from the previous week.
The survey is back on and most bulletins lost ground - some marginally and others with big drops.
In the five-city market Seven lost 55,000 viewers from week 15 while Nine lost an average of 10,000.
There wasn’t much change in Sydney where Nine’s winning margin was just 5,000 across the hour and only 1,000 at 6pm.
Nine got a bit closer to a still dominant Seven in Melbourne as Seven lost 16,000 viewers to Nine’s 2,000.
It was a split decision in Brisbane with Seven ahead at 6pm while Nine won at 6.30pm and ultimately across the hour. Seven shed 18,000 from the previous week to Nine’s 2,000.
Adelaide saw Seven (-3,000) maintain it lead over Nine (-8,000).
Perth saw Seven drop by almost 20,000 after gaining that much the week before while Nine edged up 1,000.
Compared to week 16 of last year Seven News was up 10% in Melbourne while Nine was down 10%. Seven Brisbane was down 14% while Nine Adelaide is down 22%.
A big week for Seven News, its best of 2023 so far with Melbourne the standout performer with two days over 300k at 6pm and one over 400k putting the bulletin 90,000 ahead of Nine at 6pm. It was also a good week in Brisbane, up 21k week-on-week for its best result of the year as well.
Overall Seven News was up 65,000 from week 16 while Nine was down 1,000. Seven also posted gains in Adelaide (5,000) and Perth (10,000) while Nine was largely unchanged across the markets with Brisbane down by 2,000 the biggest change.
Seven secured a rare clean sweep - winning all time slots in all markets. That was despite dropping 30,000 viewers from the previous week - mostly in Melbourne while Nine gained 15,000 mostly in Brisbane.
In Sydney Nine was down 16k giving Seven it third win in survey while in Brisbane Seven’s win ties the two bulletins at 5 wins each.
Compared to week 18 last year Nine Sydney was down 23% while Seven Brisbane was up 11%.
Another dominant win for Seven, spoiled by a couple of bad nights in Brisbane. Across all markets on all days, Seven won every where except Brisbane on Tuesday and Friday that’s 23 to 2.
Seven’s audience was up by 11k while Nine was up by 4k.
Seven recorded its highest average audience in Sydney in over 12 months including a win by 58,000 on Tuesday. Nine was down by 18% on the same week last year.
Nine improved by 14k in Melbourne but was still 35k behind Seven’s bulletin.
Nine won back a week in Brisbane after Seven won at 6pm but had a poor result on Friday to lose across the full hour and lose 13k viewers from the previous week.
Adelaide and Perth retained the status quo with Nine notable for being down 20% and Seven down 13% on last year’s results.
The cries for a local version of Tipping Point (and if the pilot proves successful, a locallly-produced one) might start getting louder if Nine continues to lose more weeks in Sydney in the months ahead. But can anyone remember if Seven fast-tracked a local version of The Chase in a desperate attempt to shore up its poor news ratings in 2015? This proved successful with a reformatted Deal or No Deal in 2004.
Seven News in Sydney has not won more than seven weeks in a ratings season since 2011 (14-26), and not outright since 2010 (21-1-18). But it is making up lost ground this year and it’s pleasing to see from a Sydney perspective.
While I don’t live in Brisbane I reckon Nine’s more superior sporting coverage gives them an edge, despite its sports presenter Jonathan Uptin only recently being appointed to the role.
It must also be noted that this year is a huge year for rugby league in Queensland with the addition of a new team (the Dolphins) and Origin time is also just around the corner.
Nine promote a story heavily across the previous night and afternoon. They also promote the story across the first half of the bulletin (in add breaks). To see that story you have to wait until about 6:55pm.
Seven have tried to emulate this strategy but IMO their story promotion isn’t as good.
BTW, the wait until 6:55pm is rarely worth the wait!!
