TV news ratings war: Is the first casualty truth?

Television's news ratings war is always interesting as the main players juggle numbers to advantage.

Two different sets of ratings show TV3's 6pm bulletin, 3 News, gained on One News in June. One particular measurement shows the channels almost neck and neck.

The news hour is an important battleground. It is consistently the most watched time slot on both channels and attracts the highest advertising rates.

No matter which measurement is used, 3 News is gaining. 

TVNZ prefers Nielsen's figures for all people over the age of four, which shows 3 News's average audience jumped 25,000 people from May to June, to 380,000, or a 24% share. Meanwhile, One News dropped 12,000 people to a 696,000 average audience, for a 44% share.

TVNZ daily programmes editor John Gillespie played down the change.

He says May, at 708,000 average audience, was an exceptionally high month for One News. February's figure was 580,000.

"It’s not uncommon for news numbers to go up and down during the month as viewers interest in news stories gain or wane throughout the month. And to be fair, 1.7% is hardly a drop in numbers – it’s within the margin of error."

TV3 prefers Nielsen's 25-54 age range figures, which it says is the industry standard and crucial for advertisers.

Those figures – consolidated to include "time-shifted" views on My Sky, MyFreeview and hard drive recorders – show 3 News at 194,600 average audience for June, just behind One News, at 197,700. One News lost 6500 average viewers from May.

Both channels have lost viewers on a year ago, according to TV3's figures – One News had 218,500 average audience in June 2011 while 3 News had 201,900.

TV3 director of news and current affairs Mark Jennings says June was a big month for news, with key stories about ACC, Kim Dotcom, Hekia Parata's backdown, state-owned asset sales and the Scott Guy murder trial.

"I think it is fair to say we edged out One News on most of them. 

"The gap between us in June was only 3000 viewers ... so, really, it is neck and neck.

"The encouraging thing, though, is that we are still growing month on month. "

TVNZ's figures in May and June highlighted some other interesting shifts in audience between the channels.

TV One's Tonight surged ahead of TV3's Nightline, opening up a 60,000 audience lead. In May, the programmes had roughly the same number of viewers.

In the mornings, TV One's Breakfast increased its dominance over 3 News Firstline – 111,000 average viewers compared to 31,000 – and Close Up (477,000) still has a wide margin over Campbell Live (248,000).