Halfway point: What people are watching on TV in 2022

Seven will be hoping the Commonwealth Games will continue to break streaming records when it airs later this month.

Reality sells, and it’s big online

Reality programs have been a key part of a television networks programming lineup for decades. But as linear TV viewing slowly declines, networks must think about reality programs that might also be popular online.

Married at First Sight – the juggernaut reality program that launches Nine’s ratings year – had its lowest program launch on linear TV in four years. But when looking at total television audiences, which includes live and catch-up viewing on 9Now, the program has more viewers than last year. OzTAM data shows that almost half a million viewers are watching each episode on 9Now, which boosted the show’s average audience by 2 per cent for the year to 2 million viewers.

Seven’s reality shows SAS Australia and Big Brother were also popular online. OzTAM shows that SAS Australia’s overnight audience grew by more than 50 per cent when including people who watched the episodes on 7Plus, while it grew 46 per cent for Big Brother.

For Network Ten, its game show Have You Been Paying Attention? is the broadcaster’s most popular show. Its average overnight audience – 661,000 – increases by 65 per cent from the overnight audience when including viewers from platform 10Play (its largest ever online audience). Ten’s reality shows Gogglebox Australia and Australian Survivor grew by almost 80 per cent from the overnight linear TV figure. Ten’s linear TV numbers are considerably small when compared to rival networks Seven and Nine.

Live, one-off events

Australian viewers still flock to the television screen for major events, and the data shows it. The Shane Warne Memorial – which ran across all three commercial television networks – attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers. Seven’s coverage of the concert for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee is among its highest ranked programs of the year so far and its program Hey, Hey It’s 100 Years, which looked back at Australia’s most successful and longest-running variety show, was more popular than some of its key reality shows such as Dancing with the Stars and SAS Australia.

Total audience

Television networks enjoy celebrating major audience wins, but they are mostly focused on how much money they can make from these shows. One way to do this is to ensure that the majority of viewers are watching a network.

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Advertisers buy slots on television based on specific demographics because they are looking to target a particular group of people. When a television program caters to a specific demographic, it can be more suitable for an advertiser than a high-rating program.

Nine, Seven and Ten traditionally schedule programs on a 40-week ratings’ year. That year begins in February and ends in November, with a small break over the Easter period. Based on these figures, Seven has the largest metropolitan commercial network share at 38.9 per cent at the end of the 27th week of 2022. Nine is behind it on 38.5 per cent and Ten – which positions itself as a network for younger audiences – is well below its rivals on a 22.6 per cent share. Based on calendar-year figures, Nine is the leading network with a 39.3 per cent share of audience. Seven Network is not far behind on a 38 per cent share and Network Ten is at 22.7 per cent.

When Seven acquired its regional affiliate partner Prime earlier this year, it decided to measure its performance based on a national figure that combines metro and regional data. According to this metric, Seven leads on a 40.5 per cent share, ahead of Nine’s 37 per cent.

The online television app with the largest portion of viewers for the calendar year so far is 9Now, with a 39.3 per cent share. Nine is the owner of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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