Nine takes out TV ratings crown as Seven makes inroads in second half of year

Nine Network has clinched the television ratings battle for a second year in a row thanks largely to the strength of its reality shows.

Nine had nine of the top 10 entertainment programs in 2020, including the fi­nales of The Block and Lego Masters.

Nine Network has clinched the television ratings battle for a second year in a row thanks largely to the strength of its reality shows, including The Block and Married At First Sight, as staunch rival Seven made inroads with its new-look program slate.

In what was a difficult advertising year, Nine took the top spot across five capital cities during the prime ad period of 6pm to midnight by 0.5 percentage points.

Nine accounted for 27.7 per cent of the free-to-air TV total evening metropolitan market in 2020, compared with Seven’s 27.2 per cent, and ViacomCBS-owned Ten’s 18 per cent. Last year, Nine and Seven held 29.5 per cent and 29.2 per cent respectively, and Ten 17.2 per cent. Nine also won by a bigger margin in the more profitable demographics of people 16-39 and 25-54.

Seven had the top program of the year, with the AFL grand final attracting more than three million metro viewers. Picture: Getty Images

The public broadcasters, ABC and SBS, both improved their audience share in 2020, with 18.4 per cent (up two percentage points) and 8.8 per cent (up 1.1) respectively.

Nine’s chief sales officer Michael Stephenson said it had been a “very rewarding” year for the network. “We have won all the demographics that matter to advertisers for the fifth consecutive year,” he said.

The TV broadcaster had nine of the top 10 entertainment programs in 2020, including the fi­nales of the The Block and Lego Masters, plus eight of the top 10 sport programs including the NRL grand final match and three State of Origin matches.

It was a mixed year for Seven with viewers snubbing its new dog grooming reality competition show Pooch Perfect, with actor Rebel Wilson, as well as long-running competition shows My Kitchen Rules and House Rules.

However, its ratings performance improved in the second-half of the year, under boss James Warburton’s content-led growth strategy. The new strategy kicked-off in June with new-look reality show Big Brother, followed by Farmer Wants A Wife and SAS Australia.

Seven’s programming boss Angus Ross said the new strategy had delivered solid results.

“From June on, we delivered the transformation of our prime time line-up, launching three highly successful tentpole shows in a row,” he said, adding that the shows also proved popular on its broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) streaming service 7plus.

Seven’s Pooch Perfect, hosted by Rebel Wilson, did not score well in the ratings.

The Kerry Stokes-controlled TV broadcaster also had the top program for the year, with the AFL grand final attracting more than three million metro viewers. It comfortably beat the NRL grand final on Nine, which had an audience of 2.1 million viewers.

Seven continued to dominate across breakfast TV with Sunrise, hosted by Samantha Armytage and David Koch, despite Nine bringing back Karl Stefanovic to host its breakfast show Today with ex-60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon. Seven’s evening news program consistently beat Nine’s offering during the year.

Ten executives were happy with its performance in the under 50s audience, which saw its prime time commercial share rise 3.7 percentage points to 29.7 per cent in that bracket.

 

Ten claimed five of the top 10 TV programs in the under 50s, including MasterChef, The Masked Singer, Have You Been Paying Attention?, I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! and Australian Survivor: All Stars. Its long-running cooking competition show MasterChef, featuring new judges, was a big hit, recording its biggest audience since 2016.

In the burgeoning BVOD space, Seven and Nine both claimed victory in 2020, using different metrics.