HDTV Movie Ratings: Australia, Twilight

It’s a big country, sport, and Saturday’s free-to-air HD premiere of Australia proved to be an even bigger movie for TV3.

It helped the network to win its first night of the new season after a week of big-gun disappointments, with such HD newcomers as Hawaii Five-O and An Idiot Abroad failing to fire.

But the Nicole Kidman-Hugh Jackman outback melodrama won its 8.30pm-11.30pm time slot in TV3’s most important demographics: 8.6% of 18-49 year-olds, 9.5% of 25-54 year-olds and 12.1% of household shoppers with kids.

And in each demo, viewership built towards the end of the three-hour broadcast, which is unusual for such a long movie (and even one as “butchered” in its presentation, as one reader claims).

Meanwhile, TV2’s FTA HD premiere of Twilight on Sunday also won its slot, although viewership curtailed sharply near the end.

It averaged 10.7% of TV2’s target audience, 18-39 year-olds, 10.2% of 18-49, 10.8% of 25-54 and 14% of HHS/kids.

The vampire hit opened with 11% of 18-39, peaked at 12.7% and dropped to 6.9% at the end; the other demos followed a similar pattern.