Newcastle TV ratings 2009 final

30Nov09

Source: The Newcastle Herald – James Joyce

Home-style cooking, home-made crimes and daggy old variety television were the flavours of the TV year in Newcastle and viewers can expect more of the same in 2010.

The official 2009 ratings survey finished at the weekend with NBN holding on to its crown as Newcastle’s No.1 station.

NBN’s nightly news bulletins, rugby league telecasts and crime drama Underbelly 2: A Tale of Two Cities made it a clear winner in its home market, capturing 32.9 per cent of prime-time viewers.

Two reunion episodes of Hey Hey It’s Saturday also boosted the Nine Network owned station. The Daryl Somers comeback shows drew more than 97,000 viewers each to most-watched programs.

But the hottest new show of the year was dished up by Southern Cross Ten. Kitchen contest MasterChef Australia helped make third-ranked Ten Newcastle’s most improved station in 2009, with a 20.3 per cent audience share (up 1.5 percentage points).

The biggest loser was second-placed Prime, which saw its share of the Newcastle audience go backwards (down 3.8 points to 20.6 per cent) despite feeder network Seven winning the No.1 ranking nationally for the third consecutive year.

According to national OzTAM data, Seven won the 2009 ratings race with 28.8 per cent of viewing between 6pm and midnight, followed by Nine with a 26.8 per cent share, Ten with 22.2, ABC1 16.4 and SBS 5.8.

Newcastle ratings data showed viewers in the region watched more ABC1 (with 19.1 per cent share) and SBS (7.2) that capital city viewers.

The highest-rating regular show was Underbelly 2 starring Matt Newton. The underworld drama averaged more than 124,000 Newcastle viewers and was the only regular show to average more than 2million viewers nationally. A third series, Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile, is in production for next year.

Ten had two of the year’s top new programs, in MasterChef Australia and Shaun Miscallef comedy quiz Talkin” Bout Your Generation.

NBN chief executive Deborah Wright said her station’s result showed that regional viewers preferred local and Australian content.

Another highlight of the year was the outstanding performance of the NRL with the region’s most watched program this year being the NRL final, with 389,000 viewers.

OUR FAVOURITE SHOWS IN 2009

TOP PROGRAMS OVERALL IN NEWCASTLE

2009 AUDIENCE SHARES*

* Pecentages (2008 in brackets)
(Source: Regional TAM/AGB Nielsen Media Research) 8/2/2009-28/11/09 (Excluding Easter Non-Ratings Weeks)

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