ABC dines happily on the News Breakfast of champions

It was Seven’s night again, but the most interesting development has been the weakness in audiences for Sunrise and Today while the ABC’s News Breakfast has had solid numbers.

Sunrise’s audiences have dipped under 400,000 nationally from 7am to 9am on several mornings in the past week or so (post-Easter/Anzac Day) but Today’s have drifted under 300,000 nationally and under 200,000 in the metros, and then dipped further to the point where on Wednesday it had 265,000 nationally and 170,000 in the metros, one of its lowest audience figures outside holidays for a year or more.

News Breakfast has remained firm at about 270,000 to about 300,000. So far this week it has beaten Today nationally, and the metros on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning — three wins in three mornings in a row in the metros is relatively rare for News Breakfast. It’s not yet a trend, but if it continues into next week Nine management will start getting antsy.

And over at Sky News and its after dark barkers, smiles all round as Piers Morgan had another poor night — 47,000 and out of the top five after 55,000 and a top-five finish on Tuesday night. Peta Credlin (55,000), Andrew Bolt (72,000) and Paul Murray (66,000) all had better figures last night.

Network channel share:

1. Seven (31.4%)
2. Nine (27.6%)
3. ABC (17.1%)
4. Ten (16.2%)
5. SBS (7.8%)

Network main channels:

1. Seven (22.9%)
2. Nine (18.4%)
3. ABC (12.7%)
4. Ten (10.4%)
5. SBS ONE (4.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. 7TWO (3.7%)
2. Gem (3.2%)
3. 10 Peach (3.0%)
4. GO (2.6%)
5. 7mate (2.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 1.5357 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.447 million
3. Nine News — 1.127 million
4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.088 million
5. The Voice (Seven) — 1.011 million
6. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 883,000
7. 7pm ABC News — 882,000
8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 850,000
9. Home and Away (Seven) — 822,000
10. Travel Guides (Nine) — 811,000

Top metro programs: none with a million or more viewers.

Regional top 5: Seven News, 579,000; Seven News 6.30, 546,000; The Voice, 359,000; Home and Away, 338,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 319,000.

Losers: Hard Quiz turns losers into winners…

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News — 956,000
2. Seven News 6.30 — 901,000
3. Nine News— 846,000
4. Nine News 6.30 — 822,000
5. 7pm ABC News — 589,000
6. ACA (Nine) — 586,000
7. 7.30 (ABC) — 485,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 332,000
9. 10 News First — 285,000
10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 200,000

Morning (national) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 384,000/234,000
2. News Breakfast (ABC) — 288,000/192,000
3. Today (Nine) — 265,000/170,000
4. ABC news mornings — 248,000
5. The Morning Show (Seven) — 213,000
6. Today Extra (Nine) — 138,000
7. Studio 10 (Ten) — 40,000

Top 5 pay TV programs:

1. Gogglebox Australia (LifeStyle) — 138,000
2. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) — 99,000
3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 72,000 
4. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 66,000
5. Credlin (Sky News) — 55,000