Seven 35.8% primary share, 7mate 8.4%, 49.8% network share
TV ratings Gold again this week. Since the Opening Ceremony on Friday 23 July, Seven’s coverage of Tokyo 2020 has reached 16.6 million people on television and set new Australian streaming records on 7plus.
The top 22 most-watched entries on the Week 31 rankings belong to Seven.
The most-watched non-Olympic broadcast on Seven was the first week of Larry Emdur-hosted episodes of The Chase with an average of 742,000.
Sunrise had a huge week too, dominating breakfast TV ratings, with the Sunday and then Saturday episodes from Week 31 over 350,000. The weekday Sunrise episodes averaged 338,000.
Seven West Media’s Perth daily newspaper has been right behind the Olympic champs this week
Here is a summary of just some of the new Olympic TV rating records
Across the first week, the average full-day broadcast audience was up 59% in the capital cities on Rio 2016 and up 50% nationally.
From Friday 23 July to Friday 30 July, Seven recorded a prime time commercial free-to-air network share of 60.3%, with Channel 7 alone registering a 41.5% share. 7mate recorded an 11.8% commercial share, making it the #1 multichannel and #3 free-to-air commercial channel.
With a total audience of 3.69 million viewers nationally, including time-shift and BVOD audiences, the Opening Ceremony is now the most-watched program of 2021 TV ratings.
For the first time, Virtual Australia (VOZ) data shows that from the Opening Ceremony to 27 July, 18.3 million Australians watched Seven’s Tokyo 2020 coverage on television and 7plus, with 26% (4.9 million) of viewers engaging with 7plus for some of their Olympic viewing.
VOZ data highlights Seven’s coverage is popular with younger viewers, with 49% of people aged 18 to 39 (3.96 million) tuning in on Channel 7 and 7mate, and 24% of 18 to 39s (1.98 million) also watching via 7plus.
On 25 July, 7plus delivered the biggest day of streaming in Australian television history with 363 million minutes, shattering the previous record of 86 million on 14 July this year for a State of Origin rugby league match day, and 10 times more than the biggest day recorded for Rio 2016 (36 million minutes).
Ranked #1 in the Apple and Android app stores, in the past seven days 7plus has added more than 1.7 million new registered users, bringing its total number of registered users to more than 8.1 million.
Seven is currently #1 in the 2021 survey year and is set to win its 17th week of the 31 weeks so far in calendar 2021.
Seven West Media chief revenue officer and director of Olympics, Kurt Burnette, said: “The record-breaking reaction from audiences to our exclusive, live and free coverage on Seven and 7plus has surpassed all our expectations. Tokyo 2020 is delivering for our partners and sponsors what we said it would in every aspect, and more.
“It is reaching new and existing viewers in new ways across every available screen, while causing a massive surge in 7plus registrations along the way. The remarkable numbers show our innovative, comprehensive and quality coverage – backed by experienced and expert commentators – is keeping Australians engaged, entertained and informed at a time when it’s never been needed more.”
Nine 13.9% primary share, 19.9% network share
The broadcaster competed as best it could during the Tokyo Olympics. Nine’s TV ratings best were the Sunday and weekday 6pm editions of Nine News with audiences over 1,050,000.
The Sunday episode of Beauty and the Geek was Nine’s best non-news with 696,000. The other two episodes were close to 550,000.
A Current Affair was on 674,000 under the guidance of guest host Deborah Knight.
10 8.1% primary share, 13.6% network share
The Monday episode of Australian Survivor ranked best, sneaking into the top 50 at #49 with 627,000. Tuesday was not far behind on 618,000 while the ratings week started with the Sunday episode on 563,000.
Have You Been Paying Attention? was on 577,000 while its Tuesday companion program The Cheap Seats was on 288,000.
Both episodes of The Bachelor were in the 360,000s.
The Project 7pm averaged 409,000 for its Monday – Friday episodes.
ABC 8.1% primary share, 11.4% network share
Weekday ABC News at 7pm ranked #43 with 679,000.
7.30 had a weekly average of 547,000 as it was guest-hosted again by Laura Tingle.
The most-watched non-news shows were Ms Represented on 463,000, Grand Designs 457,000, Mad as Hell 430,000 and a Hard Quiz repeat on 413,000.
SBS 3.1% primary share, 5.3% network share
Who Do You Think You Are? was again the channel’s audience magnet with 257,000 watching Natalie Bassingthwaighte trace her family tree, looking for an ancestor who was a performer.
The doco Grace Kelly: The Missing Millions was next best on 225,000.
Top photo: Seven’s swimming commentary team – Basil Zempilas, Leisel Jones and Ian Thorpe
See also: Week 30 TV ratings: Olympics mixed with lockdown a bonanza for Seven