ARIA telecast draws soft numbers, but hits target audience

Image: Rove and Kylie Minogue on the red carpet

Last night’s ARIA awards on the free to air Ten failed to turn in exciting figures.

Only 461,000 from the five metropolitan cities tuned in for the telecast, down from 574,000 last year. Despite the hysteria of the red carpet arrivals (“WHO DRESSED YOU?”), that part of the telecast drew even less, at 406,000.

But the Awards hit their target audience. They were the top rating draw with the 16—39 age group while the red carpet was #3. The actual awards ranked #4 in the 18 to 39 group.

It will also be interesting to see what the catch-up figures are for Ten. The ARIAs were one of the shows included on Ten’s new catch up service TenPlay on Telstra TV.

The ARIAs also ranked #1 on Twitter. Becoming the first Australian TV show to have a Twitter emoji created of the actual ARIA award, proved a successful one.

After all, 5 Seconds of Summer’s win of Best Australian Live Act, the result of a public voted Twitter live vote, drew over two million votes cast for the category.

But in terms of traditional free to air figures, the ARIAs only ranked #18 of the Top 20. It continues to face the problem of finding the right format for major viewers. There was certainly enough celebrity firepower as presenters.

Some of the acceptance speeches went beyond the usual thank yous. Tina Arena’s much acclaimed speech during her Hall of Fame induction, told commercial radio “Don’t meet your Australian quotas because you have to, exceed them because you want to”. She also addressed the inherent ageism in the music industry, defiantly stating, “Ladies over 40 are still in the game. We will decide when it is time for us to stop.” 

Matt Okine, who won Best Comedy Release, had some behinds shuffling uneasily at Star Sydney when he pointed out the lack of female nominees in the category. 

The ARIAs had the biggest audience in their hometown of Sydney with 162,000 viewers. Following were Melbourne (136,000), Perth (64,000), Brisbane (63,000) and Adelaide (37,000).

The red carpet event again had its highest reach in Sydney (142,000), then Melbourne (108,000), Brisbane (67,000), Perth (63,000) and Adelaide (25,000).