SEVEN has narrowly beaten Nine in Australia’s free-to-air audience race for 2025, clinching the year on total television share while Nine dominated the most lucrative advertising demographics and Network 10 posted its strongest streaming performance yet.
Across the official OzTAM survey period – from February 9 to November 29 – Seven finished with a 29.4 per cent total TV share (6am to midnight), just ahead of Nine on 28.7 per cent. ABC ranked third on 21.5 per cent, followed by 10 on 12.6 per cent and SBS on 7.7 per cent.
While the margin was tight, the story of the year was clear: live sport, flagship news and long-running reality franchises remained the core audience engines – and streaming is now inseparable from the result.
Seven’s backbone remained sport and news. AFL coverage reached 17.58 million Australians across broadcast and 7plus Sport.
The AFL Grand Final (Geelong v Brisbane) was Seven’s biggest program of the year, drawing a 4.19 million total TV audience and reaching 6.4 million nationally.
Cricket delivered another surge, with the First Ashes Test in Perth reaching 6.2 million Australians and averaging 1.15 million viewers across sessions. The strongest session – Session 3 on Day 2 – pulled 1.49 million nationally.
In news and current affairs, Seven said 7NEWS reached 12 million Australians each month across bulletins.
Nine framed 2025 as a victory in the markets and demographics that matter most commercially. The network said it led the five capital cities and performed strongest among 25-54s and 16-39s, as well as key shopper segments.
Across all networks, 2025 confirmed the same truth: live sport continues to produce the largest national audiences, flagship bulletins remain crucial for loyalty and trust, and reality franchises still deliver consistent mass viewing – now increasingly amplified by streaming.
