HD Ratings: Olympics Early Winner for TVNZ 1

TVNZ 1’s Olympics coverage on Saturday blitzed the competition in all the demographics but Sunday’s proved vulnerable to Three’s The Block NZ.

In the demo that matters most to the network, 25-54 year-olds, Saturday’s games coverage peaked at 6.3% in the 8pm hour.

It averaged 6.0% over the hour,  5.7% between 9.00 and 10.00, and 5.9% from 7.00-8.00.

TVNZ 1’s saturation reportage dwarfed that of Sky Sport 3 and 4, which, over the same primetime period, topped 1.0% of 25-54s in only one quarter-hour segment.

TVNZ 1’s Sunday coverage faced stronger free-to-air competition than Saturday movie re-runs.

The Block NZ averaged 5.2% of 25-54s to win its slot, vs 3.5% for TVNZ 2’s MasterChef Australia; in the 18-49 demo, Block averaged a timeslot-wining 4.0% and MasterChef 2.2% (vs 3.3% for the first hour of the Olympics).

The Olympics also took a post-9.30 hit from the second half of TVNZ 2’s Central Intelligence re-run in both core commercial demos.

Overall, Central Intelligence averaged 2.8% of 25-54s and 2.1% of 18-49s vs just 1.7% / 1.5% for Three’s FTA premiere of Hustlers.

Three had more success with its umpteenth re-run of Jurassic Park on Friday night, which averaged an amazing 4.4% of 25-54s and 3.5% of 18-49s.

Such was the popularity of the 28-year-old blockbuster that it even out-rated TVNZ 1’s The Repair Shop in the 18-49 demo and averaged more 25-54s in its first half-hour.

TVNZ 2’s Shortland Street won its slot in both key demos while lead-out Wipeout averaged 2.8% / 2.4% and Have You Been Paying Attention? 2.6% / 2.4%, with the latter averaging roughly twice as many viewers as the final of TVNZ 1’s Celebrity Best Home Cook.

Meanwhile, Prime’s 7.30 broadcast of Hotel Transylvania averaged 0.3% of 25-54s and 0.1% of 18-49s.

On Thursday, TVNZ 2’s MasterChef, Police Ten 7 and A Current Affair dominated their slots in the major demos.