Nine's latest season of Married at First Sight (MAFS) has proved to be a ratings "juggernaut" in 2019. As it continues to exceed expectations for the network, AdNews breaks down the season's performance at the halfway point.
The reality dating show continues to improve on both linear broadcast and broadcast video on demand (BVOD) ratings when compared to last year's season.
The show continually draws in more than 1.1 million overnight viewers, and on multiple occasions has hit 1.4 million or more.
Total audience across TV and digital is up 8.8% year-on-year. All platforms -- TV overnight, live streaming and on-demand catch-up -- is also higher.
However, time shift and encore are down slightly, as viewer behaviour moves toward the network's BVOD platform 9Now.
On OzTAM's video player measurement (VPM) scores, MAFS is tracking ahead of this time last year, around 70% higher across each metric (minutes, stream starts and average VOD and live VPM).
Live viewing on 9Now is up 199%, while catch-up viewing is 65% higher and total minutes viewed has climbed 70%, compared to the same time last year.
The first dinner party for the season has been not only one of the highest viewed TV episodes this year, but it also remains the second highest BVOD program, with a VPM rating of 459,000.
Nine chief sales officer Michael Stephenson told AdNews MAFS was an "incredibly powerful" marketing platform for brands, creating conversation and communities at scale, while also dominating the "national watercooler conversation" for three months.
Brands were able to find ways to leverage the conversation around MAFS to get their message across to massive audiences on every platform, he said.
“MAFS has clearly been the breakaway success of early 2019. Record audiences are consuming Married live and on demand, on television, on mobiles, on tablets and on desktops with some episodes on 9Now delivering more than 450,000 people," Stephenson said
"We could not be happier with the success of Married at First Sight and more broadly the impact that it has had on our broader schedule."
Based on audience segment growth, MAFS has also seen steady growth in each of Nine's key categories, including 9.8% growth in people 25-54, 2.2% in people 16-39, 8.5% in grocery shopper + child and 8.9% in total people.
Below is a chart that shows the growth in comparison to the first 20 episodes of 2018 and 2019's seasons:
"The power of Married is its dominance in the key demo’s that advertisers buy – 25-54s, 16-39s and Grocery Shopper with Child. The combination of the Australian Open and MAFS has given Nine its best start to the year in many years," Stephenson said.
"Married gives us the ability to promote even more new Australian content coming soon including The Voice, Lego Masters, Talkin’ About Your Generation and Australian Ninja Warrior."
The Platform Agnostic Ratings for Content report on TV overnight and rolling VPM ratings, highlighting the 8.8% year-on-year growth:
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