Olympics begin to lift Prime

11Aug08

Newcastle TV ratings week 32, 2008

Prime received a late week boost when the Beijing Olympics kicked off on Friday night. The Opening Ceremony and Day One coverage boosted Prime’s figure to their highest week result thus far in 2008, but still 8 points down leader NBN.

Amazingly, the most spectacular Opening Ceremony in Olympic history failed to win the ratings week, possibly due to the late start.

Southern Cross TEN look set to have a bad Olympics month with their audience plummeting to 14.4, their lowest 2008 result.

It will be interesting to watch the figures over the next two weeks, with Prime expected to win their first week of 2008 while the Aussies are racing in the pool. Week two of the Games could see the numbers back off though, and NBN will be ecstatic if they can limit the damage.

Most watched programs:

1  NBN Evening News Sunday  NBN  133000
2 Seven’s Beijing Olympics: D1 Primetime PRIME 115000

3 NBN Evening News Monday to Friday NBN 110000

4 Seven’s Beijing Olympics: Opening Ceremony PRIME 109000

5 Seven’s Beijing Olympics: D1 Fringe PRIME 103000

6 Friday Night Football NBN 101000

7 Sevens News – Sat PRIME 100000

8 A Current Affair NBN 98000

9 Animal Emergency NBN 97000

10 The Farmer Wants A Wife NBN 96000

Station Ratings:

Week 32
2008     Week 32
2007    Prog
2008    Prog
2007

NBN              35.6                   32.0             34.0          35.0

PRIME             27.6                   23.9             23.6          25.0

TEN              14.4                   19.3             18.8          17.8

ABC                17.3                 18.6              17.0          16.3

SBS                5.0                   6.3                6.5             5.9

Popularity: 1%