PRESS RELEASE
The Nine Network concludes the 2013 ratings year as Australia’s No. 1 network for news and current affairs, posting its best results in a decade.
NINE NEWS and A CURRENT AFFAIR have won the 2013 ratings battle against Seven News and Today Tonight across the 5 City Metro, along the East Coast, in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
In Sydney, Melbourne and along the East Coast, the wins were emphatic, with NINE NEWS and A CURRENT AFFAIR both winning all 40 out of a possible 40 weeks of ratings.
This is the third consecutive year that NINE NEWS has been dominant in Sydney. In Melbourne, NINE NEWS has won a staggering 102 consecutive calendar weeks. It is the first time since 2006 that NINE NEWS has won the ratings duel in Brisbane, having overnight clinched 21 of the 40 ratings weeks in 2013. And this year marks the first time since 2004 that NINE NEWS has beaten Seven News on a 5 City Metro level to reclaim the title of Australia’s most watched news service.
NINE NEWS has averaged 1.208 million 5 City Metro viewers each weeknight in 2013 (up 7.3% year-on-year), compared to Seven News which has an average weeknight audience of 1.176 million (down 2.7% year-on-year) – an average lead of 32,168 viewers each weeknight.
A CURRENT AFFAIR has averaged 1.012 million 5 City Metro viewers each weeknight in 2013 (up 1.1% year-on-year), compared to Today Tonight which has an average weeknight audience of 993,709 (down 6.8% year-on-year) – an average lead of 17,794 viewers each weeknight.
60 MINUTES is Australia's No. 1 public affairs program, posting a higher average weekly audience than any other news and current affairs program. 60 MINUTES enjoyed an average 5 City Metro weekly audience of 1.285 million – an average lead of more than 50,000 viewers over Sunday Night, which is down almost 10% year-on-year.
TODAY also wraps up the ratings year as the most watched program in the ultra-competitive breakfast slot in Australia’s two biggest markets of Sydney and Melbourne. TODAY has averaged 295,344 East Coast viewers each morning in 2013, compared to Sunrise which has an average daily audience of 280,376 – an average lead of 14,968 East Coast viewers each morning.
Darren Wick, Director of News and Current Affairs with the Nine Network said: “Channel Nine is an awesome news and current affairs machine to watch in action and I’m privileged to have a ringside seat. I’m incredibly proud of our people and personally thrilled at the level of success they have achieved. Every news team, every program at Nine, houses a unique set of characters – but every single person here has a commitment to the team they work with, and a dedication to our audiences to provide stories, segments, interviews and interesting moments that are always relevant, engaging and informative. On these points, we are unwavering. We have worked hard to win back the trust of our audiences. We are determined to never take that for granted.”