The Seven network has taken Nine to court to try to stop the rival network claiming Today won the breakfast TV ratings for the first time since 2003.
Under consumer protection law Seven filed a misleading or deceptive conduct claim against Nine on Wednesday, four days after Nine said the Today show had “triumphed in the 2016 ratings year to regain the crown as Australia’s favourite breakfast program”.
Nine’s publicity release on Saturday claimed hosts Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson had won 21 of the 35 weeks of official ratings this year. It claimed a metropolitan ratings victory and posted photographs of Stefanovic, Wilkinson and the crew on social media.
“My personal congratulations and admiration goes to our hosts Lisa Wilkinson and Karl Stefanovic, along with the best team at breakfast – Sylvia Jeffreys, Tim Gilbert, Dickie Wilkins, Steve Jacobs and Ross Greenwood – along with all our friends and colleagues who contribute to make it a great show on air,” Nine’s director of news and current affairs, Darren Wick, said.
But Seven was quick to spoil the party. It said Sunrise was still Australia’s number one breakfast show because it still had the highest ratings across the city and regional centres. Nine had used ratings from the five mainland cities.
Seven said the combined metropolitan and regional audiences for the official ratings year to date had Sunrise averaging 539,000 viewers to the Today show’s 470,000.
“Sunrise is clearly Australia’s most watched breakfast television program, taking in the entire country not just a market here and there,” a spokesman for Seven said.
“The one indisputable fact is that more Australians watch Sunrise than any other breakfast television program.”
Commercial television has traditionally separated the five capital city or metropolitan ratings from the regional ones because the most lucrative advertising revenue comes from the metropolitan market. Advertisers are charged a rate according to the audience in the metro or regional areas.
It’s not the first time Seven and Nine have slugged it out in court. A year ago Seven lost its legal bid to stop Nine broadcasting its new cooking show, The Hotplate, which Seven alleged was a copy of reality TV hit format My Kitchen Rules.
In that case the federal court dismissed Seven’s application for interlocutory relief which would have forced Nine to pull the remaining episodes off air.
The breakfast ratings – although relatively small compared with prime time – have always stirred up an intense battle between Seven and Nine.
The travails of the hosts have taken up acres of space in the tabloids and so exalted is their spot on the breakfast couch they are among the highest paid personalities on television: Stefanovic’s salary is rumoured to be as high as $2m.
Historically the Today show was on top until Melissa Doyle and David Koch came along and toppled Nine in 2003.
Doyle stepped down in 2013 while Sunrise was still on top and was replaced by Samantha Armytage. The margin between the two shows has been small for the past few years.
Justice Jayne Jagot will hold an interlocutory hearing in the federal court in Sydney on Friday.
