{press release from SBS TV}
SBS has achieved its highest prime time summer audience share in five years.
For the ten weeks since 30 November 2008, SBS achieved an average prime time network share of 7.1 per cent, a rise of 0.1 share points (1.6 per cent) on the same period a year ago.
SBS has also grown its absolute audience in the high income-earning OG1 demographic by 2.5 per cent compared to last summer.
Established favourites – headlined by Top Gear, Food Safari, Iron Chef and Mythbusters – and new shows, including Carla Cametti, PD and Long Way Down, have led the way.
Top Gear has achieved record audiences, with the current series averaging nearly 1 million viewers each week (990,000).
Long Way Down is achieving audiences consistent with its predecessor, Long Way Round, and averaging 397,000 viewers weekly. Meanwhile, Food Safari and Carla Cametti, PD have grown SBS’s audience in their respective timeslots.
Food Safari has boosted SBS’s audience on Wednesdays at 7.30pm by 50 per cent compared to the timeslot average in 2008, while Carla Cametti, PD has improved the Thursday 8.30pm slot by an impressive 67 per cent.
SBS Director of Content, Matt Campbell, said: “SBS’s long-standing practice of airing quality programs straight through summer is a real point of difference, as our increased audience share demonstrates.”
SBS’s strong summer performance is a superb launching pad for the rest of the year, with upcoming highlights including: the Emmy Award-winning Mad Men; brand new series of gripping Australian dramas, East West 101 and The Circuit; a second madcap season of Top Gear Australia; all new Who Do You Think You Are?, and; a huge year of international sport including the 2009 Tour de France and 2009 Ashes Test Series.