HD Ratings: Queen’s Death Divides Viewers

The networks’ upending of their schedules over the weekend to accommodate rolling coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death didn’t deliver princely ratings.

Because TVNZ 1 and Three opted for blanket coverage, and Prime to a lesser extent with specials, viewership of  the same event was spread over several channels, hence none scoring especially highly.

Most viewers in the core commercial demographics followed the 1 News presentation, which averaged 1.3% of 25-54 year-olds from midday-6.00 Friday vs 0.4% for Newhub’s from midday-4.30.

The latter’s 4.30 bulletin won its slot but TVNZ 1 again had the edge from 5.00-6.00.

1 News at 6pm averaged 6.5% of 25-54s and Newshub Live 5.1%.

Thereafter TVNZ 1 easily dominated the rest of the night. Even so, TVNZ 1’s 25-54 share for the night was only 26.4% – well ahead of Three’s 16.2% but still down on the previous Friday’s 29.4%.

Breaking news about the Queen’s passing did dent the appeal of TVNZ 2’s light-ent line-up, which won the 7.30-9.30 zone the previous week in both key demos.

Interest in TVNZ 1’s coverage peaked at 7.2% of 25-54s, when the news hour opened. With viewers aged 5+, the average was 13.0% at the same time and 5.3% from 6.00-10.30.

On Saturday, TVNZ 1 led the daytime coverage in the 25-54 stakes but Three’s primetime documentaries, A Tribute to Her Majesty the Queen (2.4%) and The Proclamation of His Majesty the King (2.6%), won their slots.

Sky’s NRL coverage averaged 2.5% over roughly the same period.

Note: These overnight ratings exclude viewership of the networks’ +1 SD channels.