ABC wins NSW election night broadcast battle

ABC’s television coverage of the NSW election on Saturday proved to be the most popular with Sydney viewers.

Gladys Berejiklian is greeted by former PM John Howard and current PM Scott Morrison on election night. Picture: AAP

ABC’s television coverage of the NSW election on Saturday proved to be the most popular with Sydney viewers.

The public broadcaster’s attracted 149,000 viewers, the third most popular free-to-air TV program after Nine and Seven’s news bulletins on Saturday evening, which had 196,000 and 155,000 viewers respectively.

Nine’s election analysis and live results programs were the fourth and fifth most popular shows in Sydney, with 129,000 and 117,000 viewers, respectively.

ABC’s election night live and call of the board programs came in sixth and seven place, with 104,000 and 102,000 viewers.

Seven’s election coverage, which included radio king Alan Jones and One Nation’s Mark Latham rated in eighth place with 98,000 viewers.

ABC’s election analyst Antony Green was first to declare Liberal Party’s Gladys Berejiklian as the victor against Labor’s Michael Daley. He made the call just after 8pm on Saturday night, more than two hours after voting booths around the state closed for the votes to be counted.

ABC news director Gaven Morris published a tweet on Saturday at 816pm, which said “We think the government has been returned @AntonyGreenABC calls it and says the Liberal/National coalition might retain an overall majority.”

“We think the government has been returned” @AntonyGreenABC calls it and says the Liberal/ National coalition might retain an overall majority. #NSWVotes @abcnews

— Gaven Morris (@gavmorris) March 23, 2019

Twitter was awash with comments and congratulatory messages to Ms Berejiklian, who sent a simple tweet at 11.37pm saying ‘Thank you NSW!’

The front page of the Sunday newspapers in NSW were plastered with Ms Berejiklian’s smiling face, with The Sunday Telegraph’s headlining its edition ‘GLADIATOR’. The paper, which is published by News Corp, said she was the first woman elected to the top job in NSW and that Mr Daley’s Asian gaffe hurt the party in key seats.

Nine Entertainment’s The Sun-Herald newspaper described Ms Berejiklian’s victory as a ‘historic win for Premier’, also noting that she becomes NSW’s first elected female premier after the Labor vote collapsed. The paper also ran a small picture of Mr Daley, who declared on Saturday night that he would continue to lead the Labor Party in NSW, despite the loss.

News Corp also publishes The Australian.