Seven serviced its ageing demos and monarchists with a broadcast of the Trooping of the Colour from 8.30-11.50 pm-ish on Seven’s main channel and the 7TWO digital channel. It averaged 419,000 nationally over three hours and change, and is why Seven easily won the night in total people and the main channels. The broadcast split was 489,000 from 8.30-10.30pm and 340,000 from 10.30pm to the end of the broadcast at around 11.50pm.
The demos tell the story — just 56,000 people in the broad 25 to 54 group (the core TV viewing sector) watched the Trooping ceremony and a further 6000 from 16 to 25 in the five metros audience of 307,000 people for more than three hours. The age groups of the overwhelming majority of the audience were so old they didn’t figure in the ratings breakdown on Friday morning.
Tonight Seven has saved on the cost, with no broadcast from the Old Dart but a cheapo movie — the 2006 effort The Queen with Helen Mirren playing HM2 and Princess Diana playing herself. Bet you that won’t beat the AFL game tonight between the Cats and the Dogs.
Viewing warning: Seven continues the celebrations Saturday night with a 7TWO program running three-and-a-quarter hours on the Platinum Jubilee, and Sunday night it’s back to a direct broadcast from London for three hours and 20 minutes on the Platinum Party at the Palace. Will Charles and Camilla get down and dirty? And can Kerry Stokes, Seven’s major shareholder, be knighted for services to the monarchy in Australia?
Last night’s highlight was Eric Campbell’s tenacious ABC Foreign Correspondent story on Vlad Putin — 648,000, and the 10th most watched program on the night. Deserved a longer runtime on a far better night — Sunday at 7.40pm?
Network channel share:
- Seven (31.0%)
- Nine (24.5%)
- Ten (18.3%)
- ABC (18.0%)
- SBS (8.3%)
Network main channels:
- Seven (20.7%)
- Nine (16.9%)
- ABC (12.3%)
- Ten (11.8%)
- SBS ONE (4.2%)
Top 5 digital channels:
- 7TWO (6.3%)
- ABC Kids/Plus (3.4%)
- 10 Bold (3.1%)
- 10 Peach (2.8%)
- 9Life (2.3%)
Top 10 national programs:
- Seven News — 1.502 million
- Seven News 6.30pm — 1.394 million
- Nine News — 1.121 million
- Nine News 6.30pm — 1.073 million
- 7pm ABC News — 982,000
- The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 868,000
- A Current Affair (Nine) — 814,000
- 7.30 (ABC) — 774,000
- Home and Away (Seven) — 765,000
- Home and Away late (Seven) — 701,000
Top metro programs: none with a million or more viewers.
Regional Top 5: Seven News, 554,000; Seven News 6.30pm, 522,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 334,000; Home and Away, 333,000; 7pm ABC News, 312,000.
Losers: Republicans!
Metro news and current affairs:
- Seven News — 947,000
- Seven News 6.30pm — 873,000
- Nine News — 831,000
- Nine News 6.30pm — 800,000
- 7pm ABC News — 670,000
- ACA (Nine) — 566,000
- 7.30 (ABC) — 536,000
- Foreign Correspondent (ABC) — 471,000
- The Project 7pm (Ten) — 375,000
- 10 News First — 318,000
Morning (national) TV:
- Sunrise (Seven) — 402,000/231,000
- Today (Nine) — 285,000/193,000
- News Breakfast (ABC) — 274,000/177,000
- ABC News Mornings — 262,000
- The Morning Show (Seven) — 237,000
- Today Extra (Nine) — 153,000
- Studio 10 (Ten) — 48,000
Top 5 pay TV programs:
- NRL: Gold Coast v North Queensland (Fox League) — 169,000
- Trooping the Colour (UKTV) — 110,000
- NRL: Late Night With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 72,000
- Grand Designs Australia (LifeStyle) — 51,000
- Credlin (Sky News) — 50,000
