The 2015 ratings year concluded overnight with the Nine Network ranking #1 with the key demographics of People 25-54, 18-49 and 16-39.
It is the fourth consecutive year that the Nine Network has claimed the title of Australia’s most watched network with these demographics.
The Nine Network also had the greatest share of Total People in Sydney (30.4%) and Brisbane (28.9%).
In Melbourne, the Nine Network wraps the year with a 28.3% share of Total People, neck and neck with Seven Network (28.8%)
Michael Healy, director of television for the Nine Network, said: “We finish this year having achieved precisely what we set out to do. That is, to maintain our position as Australia’s leading network with the key demographics we target and the ones preferred by advertisers. Our strategy is bang on target. It is enormously gratifying to achieve this result for the fourth consecutive year.”
For the third year running Nine News is Australia’s No. 1 news service, recording an average nightly 5 City audience of 1.057 million, compared to 991,000 for Seven News – an average lead of 66,000 viewers each week night (more than double the average margin of 28,000 viewers in 2014).
Nine News 6.30 also dominated the 2015 ratings year, posting an average week night audience of 1.024 million across the five mainland capitals, compared to 942,000 for Seven News/Today Tonight – an average lead of 82,000 viewers each week night (double the average margin of 41,000 viewers each week night in 2014).
Nine News emphatically dominated across the entire hour in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
In Adelaide, Nine News is the only news service in the country to post year-on-year growth, increasing its audience by 11.6% in the first half-hour and 10.3% in the second half-hour.
A Current Affair has now firmly cemented itself in the 7.00pm timeslot and wraps up the 2015 ratings year with an average 5 City audience of 911,000 viewers each week night – well ahead of Seven (with an average 5 City audience of 823,000 viewers each week night 7.00pm-7.30pm) and Ten (average 5 City audience of 591,000 viewers each week night 7.00pm-7.30pm).
60 Minutes is once again Australia’s most watched weekly news and current affairs program, recording an average weekly audience of 975,000 in 2015 – ahead of Sunday Night (with a 5 City average weekly audience of 955,000).
Hot Seat concludes the year as the most watched program at 5.30pm with an average 5 City audience of 587,000 in 2015 – ahead of Seven (which averaged 524,000 viewers in the 5.30pm-6.00pm timeslot across the entire year) and Ten (583,000).
Today increased its audience year-on-year by 3.1% to record an average 5 City audience of 304,000, while Sunrise went backwards by 6.8% (329,000). Today won the breakfast battle in Sydney, tied in Brisbane and posted massive growth in Adelaide (up 22.9% year- on-year).
The Nine Network has also moved to measure all forms of viewing to accurately reflect the true numbers of people consuming its content.
“Overnight viewing figures only tell part of the story,” Healy said. “Viewers are now enjoying our content in a myriad of ways. This year we introduced an internal metric to measure this data and we look forward to an industry-wide format being available in the near future.”
Healy added: “So while Love Child might do 1.2 million in overnight figures, once you factor in time-shifted viewing, encore screenings and catch-up viewing you end up with an average audience well in excess of 1.7 million – a huge increase of 44 per cent on the overnight figures. As an industry we need to work harder to communicate this message.”
Nine’s social media impact continues to grow. This year the Facebook audiences of Nine News, Today and The Voice all surpassed one million fans.
Today’s Facebook page attracted more than 185 million video views in 2015, with more than 40 million alone for a video featuring Johnny Depp making a surprise visit to Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.
On Twitter, The Block boasted more than 36.4 million impressions across two series.
Source: Nine Network