The television ratings war has heated up, with Channel Seven hitting out at suggestions Channel 10's Big Bash League has dominated over the first week of the Australian Open.
While Channel 10's BBL coverage has been an undoubted success, Seven says it has still won the head-to-head battle over the opening week of the grand slam, pointing out that because its tennis coverage has been split over two channels – Seven and 7TWO – the combined audience must be taken into account.
Using the combined audience measure, on three of the five nights the BBL and Australian Open went head-to-head last week, Seven won the ratings battle between Channel 10 and ONE versus Channel Seven and 7TWO.
"The tennis has delivered yet again the most powerful performance in a crowded January sports calendar," Seven's director of programming, Angus Ross, said. "It dominates the television landscape. Seven has won the greater share of audience every night of the Australian Open tennis. It's our strongest start in four years.
"Across Channel Seven and 7TWO, we delivered great choice for viewers that has seen audiences peak over two million viewers. And across all of Australia we've delivered a greater combined national average audience last week of 1.16 million to Big Bash's 884,000."
On the opening night of the grand slam, an average combined audience of 985,000 tuned in, largely to see Roger Federer and Nick Kyrgios in action, compared to the 931,000 for the Adelaide Strikers-Melbourne Renegades game.
The Big Bash League won the ratings war on the second day, gaining a combined average audience more than 85,000 better than the Seven Network's Australian Open coverage.
The Kyrgios meltdown saw Seven gain a considerable victory on day three, enjoying a combined average audience that was more than 340,000 greater than Channel 10's coverage of the Sydney Thunder-Adelaide Strikers game.
The next time the two sports went head to head was on day five of the Australian Open, with the Heat-Renegades match grabbing a slightly larger share of the combined average audience.
The following night the Australian Open rated significantly higher, with a combined average audience of more than a million compared to Channel 10's 764,000 fo the Stars-Sixers contest just across the road at the MCG.
Since the start of the Australian Open, Channel 10's average audience for the Big Bash League has been 902,000.
That is less than Seven's numbers for its Australian Open coverage, which over the first eight nights averaged 1.16 million and 1.01 million on the five nights it went head-to-head with the Big Bash.
Date Channel Ten + ONE Seven + 7TWO
January 16 Strikers v Renegades (931,000) Kyrgios, Federer, Kerber (985,000)
January 17 Stars v Heat (985,000) Djokovic, Gavrilova (899,000)
January 18 Thunder v Strikers (803,000) Kyrgios, Murray, Tomic (1,148,000)
January 20 Heat v Renegades (1,027,000) Federer, Barty, Tomic (1,000,000)
January 21 Stars v Sixers (764,000) Nadal, Gavrilova, Raonic (1,024,800)
Average 902,000 1,011,360
