Karl Stefanovic flies out for wedding but Seven flies high with ratings

As Karl Stefanovic flew out for his star-studded wedding, the Nine star's rivals at Seven were celebrating the network’s 12th straight ratings year win.

Nine Network Today show host Karl Stefanovic took a low profile at Sydney Airport last night when he flew out with Jasmine Yarbrough for their wedding in Mexico later this week. Picture: Media Mode

As Nine breakfast kingpin Karl Stefanovic jetted out yesterday for his star-studded wedding to fiancee, Jasmine Yarbrough, at an ­exclusive Mexican resort this week, his rivals at Seven were celebrating a win in the hotly contested television ratings.

Seven’s line-up, including Sunrise and Better Homes and Garden, plus news and AFL coverage, ensured the network was the most-watched TV network for the 12th straight year.

Seven director of network programming Angus Ross welcomed the result, while rival Nine Network’s main channel — Channel Nine — secured top spot in the key 25-54 age ­demographic, popular among ­advertisers.

MORE: Media Dairy — Academic in line for ABC chair

“The fact is more people watch the screens of Seven. More men, more women, more young people, more of every key demographic,” Mr Ross said.

“And with the AFL and cricket locked up until 2022, Seven can guarantee those mass audiences, and certainty for our advertisers, for years to come.’’

Seven won the free-to-air cricket broadcast rights earlier this year as a program anchor for the summer and early next year. It now shares the cricket broadcast rights with subscription television service Fox Sports.

This year’s top raters - metro

Excluding the Commonwealth Games in April, Seven’s network share reached 30.4 per cent of the total TV audience (which includes digital channels), beating Nine’s 27.4 per cent and Network Ten’s 17.4 per cent. Public broadcasters, ABC and SBS reached a network share of 17 per cent and 7.8 per cent, respectively, according to figures from audience measurement research firm OzTAM.

Seven pulled ahead in the breakfast television rivalry, with Sunrise averaging 454,000 national viewers to Nine’s Today’s 347,000. Media buyers have said the focus on Stefanovic’s private life through the year has been a turn off for some female viewers.

Seven had five of the top 10 shows, including its coverage of the AFL grand final presentation, which was watched by 3.33 million people across Seven’s main ­channel and its affiliate regional networks Still, Nine and its regional affiliates carried the highest rating show by audience (3.44 million): the opener of the State of Origin rugby league series.

Other top shows included the announcement of the winner in popular Nine series The Block (2.89 million), while Seven scored nationally for the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meg­han (2.64 million) and the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games opening ceremony (2.79 million).

Nine’s chief sales officer, ­Michael Stephenson, was pleased with wins across key audience segments: “We have again­ ­delivered where it matters with marketers: No 1 in the key demographics on the primary channel.”

In the key 25-54 demographic, Nine’s main channel share ­accounted for 20.8 per cent of total share. Seven had 20.0 per cent and Ten had 16.0 per cent. Ten, under the eye of new US owners CBS for the past year, has laid claim to being the under-50s network.