Seven wins Aussie ratings war

Seven Network has won the annual ratings battle fought by Australia’s commercial channels, beating fierce rival Nine into second and Ten into third.

Seven won a 40.2%overall share in the 2013 ratings year, comfortably ahead of Nine with 37.4%. Third-ranked Ten had a 22.4% share through the ratings year. Nine did win the most viewers in the coveted 25-54 demo, however.

In primetime, Seven had a 30.7% share ahead of Nine with 28.6%. Public broadcaster the ABC came in third with 18.1% of the primetime audience through the year, ahead of Ten with 17.2%.

The most-watched single programme was My Kitchen Rules (pictured) on Seven, which had an audience of 3.3 million in the main cities. The Block: Sky High ranked second on Nine and won 3.2 million viewers. The X Factor and The Voice also made the annual top ten.

The most popular imported series was Downton Abbey ahead of NBC crime series The Blacklist. The Big Bang Theory, Revenge and New Tricks rounded out the international top five.

Ratings data in Australia is compiled by OzTam.