ARIAs audience down on last year’s ratings

THE Aussie music industry was out in force on Thursday night for the ARIA awards, but TV viewers were more interested in watching a cruise ship documentary.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 26: Kylie Minogue and Ed Sheeran dance on the red carpet ahead of the 29th Annual ARIA Awards 2015 at The Star on November 26, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

AUSTRALIAN music industry heavyweights were out in force on Thursday night for the televised ARIA awards, but TV viewers were more interested in watching a cruise ship documentary.

The 2015 ARIA Awards ranked 18th on OzTAM’s overnight ratings with 461,000 viewers.

It’s not completely out of tune with last year’s ratings when 574,000 people watched the Aussie music awards.

Last year’s award show nearly doubled the ratings of the 2013 event, helped along by appearances from A-listers One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer and Katy Perry.

Ed Sheeran performs during the 29th ARIA Awards, at The Star, in Sydney.

Last year’s ARIA awards saw the event return to a main channel after being shunted to digital networks following the car crash 2010 event.

Since then the awards have changed networks and nights in an attempt to find more viewers to keep the event on TV.

The 2013 ARIA awards on Go! rated 337,000 viewers.

Ratings were 304,000 in 2012 and 369,000 in 2011.

Seven News (933,000) topped the ratings last night, while Inside Queen Mary 2 on the Seven Network was No. 9 with 642,000 tuning in to watch the cruise ship documentary.

Oshr Gunsberg seemed happy with the ARIA’s audience anyway:

Thanks to everyone that watched #arias last night - just got the ratings call YOU LITTLE BEAUTY!

— Osher Günsberg (@oshergunsberg) November 26, 2015

Originally published as ARIAs audience down on last year’s ratings