Men’s final of the Australian Open secures a ratings win for Nine

The four-hour Australia Open final between Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem saw Djokovic take the title, and Nine take the night.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates after victory against Austria's Dominic Thiem during their men's singles final match. Picture: AFP/Manan Vatsyayana

The Australian Open mens final secured a national ratings win for Nine on Sunday as more Australians tuned in to watch the blockbuster men’s tennis final than any other program on Sunday.

The four-hour battle that saw Novak Djokovic retain his status as the King of Melbourne Park attracted 1.524 million five-city metropolitan viewers on Sunday night.

The final came out on top as rival commercial free-to-air networks filled the minors in the timeslot.

Channel 10’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here finale was second in the timeslot with an average 884,000 in five cities, and Seven’s launch of a revamped My Kitchen Rules debuted to its lowest ever series ratings with 498,000 viewers in five states.

The official ratings season launches next Sunday — February 9 — but the battle for eyeballs begins in earnest tonight, with Nine aiming to consolidate its early wins with the return of reality ratings juggernaut Married At First Sight, and Ten unveiling its new season of Australian Survivor.

But despite the high ratings — the tennis won the night — Nine’s overall viewers were slightly down from the 2019 men’s tennis final.

The match that saw Austrian Dominic Thiem lose to Djokovic after he dropped three sets of five was also the most watched program on Sunday across every age group.

Last night’s thrilling five set men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem had a TV viewing audience which peaked at 2.672m (metro: 1.943m reg: 728,000). Throughout the match there was a national average audience of 2.019m (metro: 1.524m reg: 495,000) #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/REhbNlK4WT

— Nine Comms (@9Comms) February 2, 2020

Last year’s Australian Open blockbuster, where Djokovic toppled Rafael Nadal, attracted 1.589 million metropolitan viewers – 65,000 more viewers than this year.

Melbourne proved it was not only a battleground for Djokovic, but for the battle between Nine and Seven for the highest 6pm News ratings.

About 60,000 more Australians watched Nine News at 6pm than Seven News in Melbourne.

The distance between major news networks narrowed in Sydney, where Nine just won with about 4000 more viewers than Seven.

Viewers in Brisbane preferred Seven News over Nine, though daylight savings is still in place and viewers may have been lost to the tennis on Nine’s second channel.

Serbian Novak Djokovic talks about his win at the 2020 Australian Open. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

Overall, 804,000 Australians in capital cities on the east coast watched the 6pm news on Nine compared with 789,000 who tuned into Seven News.

In Perth and Adelaide, Seven news secured victory as preferred news program on Sunday.

Sunday night saw the start of the new ratings season for free-to-air television networks, where Seven, Nine and Ten are expecting reality shows to be a hit with viewers in the first quarter.

Seven’s 12-year ratings dominance is over, and TV and advertising executives will be closely watching which network moves ahead in the ratings race ahead of the rollout of VOZ, that will measure viewing on TV sets, computers, tablets and smartphones.