Rio qualifier gives SBS, Foxtel biggest audiences of year

THE Socceroos’ passage to Rio propelled Foxtel and SBS One to their biggest audiences of the year.

THE SocceroosÂ’ passage to Rio propelled Foxtel and SBS One to their biggest audiences of the year.

And in the battle of the renovation contests, the knock-off finally beat the original with Seven’s House Rules out-performing The Block Sky High nationally.

The live broadcast of the Socceroos’ late victory over Iraq on Fox Sports generated a massive 549,000 viewers and the delayed broadcast on SBS One averaged 1.117 million viewers in the five capital cities, according to preliminary OzTAM data.

It is Foxtel’s biggest audience this year and the best since its coverage of the London Olympic Games last year when its evening broadcast (6pm-10.30pm) regularly averaged more than 600,000 viewers, albeit across eight Olympic channels.

It is also Fox Sports’ biggest audience since its broadcast of the 2011 Rugby World Cup final (649,000), third biggest audience for the platform (the NZ versus Australia Rugby World Cup semi-final averaged 734,000) and the biggest ever for football on pay-TV.

SBS One’s average national audience of 1.5 million (1.1 million metro and 406,000 regional) was its best for the year for any program and its best for a Socceroos match since it secured the rights for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers at the end of last year. Last week’s qualifier against Jordan averaged 761,000 viewers on SBS One.

The battle on the commercial networks remains between the renovation contests. And Seven’s spin-off of My Kitchen Rules, House Rules, won a Pyrrhic victory last night by nabbing 1.159 million viewers while The Block Sky High averaged 1.131 million viewers.

It was not a knock-out blow, though, as the programs aren’t broadcast head-to-head and a higher-than-normal level of PVR-ed viewing will mean the consolidated viewing numbers are likely to change throughout the week. The Block Sky High also beat House Rules by 200,000 viewers down the east coast.

But it was enough to give Seven a nightly win with a 21.4 per cent channel share against Nine’s 18.4 per cent. Ten can thank NCIS (823,000) and Masterchef Australia (679,000) for keeping it in third place with a 14.5 per cent share against SBS One’s 14.0 per cent.

Nine’s Celebrity Apprentice is waning with only 596,000 viewers for its "boardroom" component, down on its 670,000-plus average in previous weeks. But most programs were down on last week, due to the soccer, including Packed To The Rafters which was down a mere 53,000 viewers to 1.081 million.

OZTAM OVERNIGHT RANKINGS, JUNE 19
1 NINE NEWS Nine 1,302,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,255,000
3 HOUSE RULES Seven 1,159,000
4 THE BLOCK SKY HIGH Nine 1,131,000
5 FIFA WCQ: AUS V IRAQ MATCH SBS ONE 1,117,000
6 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,081,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,073,000
8 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,029,000
9 HOME AND AWAY Seven 971,000
10 ABC NEWS ABC 881,000
11 NCIS Ten 823,000
12 HOT SEAT Nine 791,000
13 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 747,000
14 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 702,000
15 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 679,000
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