ABC in decline: Just 3000 West Aussies tune in for Michael Rowland’s last day on ABC Breakfast

ABC’s flagship morning TV program was watched by as few as 3000 West Aussies last week, as viewers and listeners tune out of the national broadcaster in droves. With ABC Radio Perth recovering from recording its worst audience share of just four per cent, new figures from TV ratings organisation OzTam showed ABC News Breakfast also languishing in WA. In a seven day period to Wednesday — which included the final week of long-time host Michael Rowland — ratings data showed the program was viewed by an average of just 4800 people at 7am. That dipped to a low of 3000 on Friday, December 6. In the evening of the same day, ABC Perth’s news bulletins fared little better. It fell to a low of 52,000, with more people watching Border Security on Seven. An hour earlier Seven News’ bulletin had nearly double the number of viewers, with 102,000. Nine News had even less than the ABC with 50,000. Sydney-led budget cuts last year forced a wave on unpopular changes at the ABC, including a proposal to scrap the State-based Sunday night news in favour of a national bulletin. The decision prompted backlash from several former senior ABC figures, as well as current staff, with top presenters Clint Wheeldon and Nadia Mitsopoulos dubbing the move “disgraceful”, warning WA would be ignored and given out-of-date Eastern-States focused news. ABC’s former WA political editor Peter Kennedy joined the revolt chorus telling The West Australian at the time: “The decision to axe the Sunday night news bulletin is appalling.” Following the outburst, former ABC managing director David Anderson was forced to make an embarrassing backflip, and dump the plans to axe the WA bulletin. The dire state of audience share for the national broadcaster in WA emerged after new radio ratings released this week showed historic low listener numbers for the last survey of the year. Breakfast host Mark Gibson slumped to 4.9 per cent — a ratings share believed to be the worst ever for the ABC’s early shift— suffering the biggest decline in the most-recent survey, falling from a 6.5 per cent share. Gibson’s audience numbers compares to a 8.1 per cent share from the same survey last year. It was following that result that Gibson’s predecessor Stan Shaw was dumped from hosting duties. Gibson’s 2024 started with a 1.5 per cent drop from Shaw’s final ratings and despite initially maintaining his audience share he has suffered an almost three point drop in the last two surveys. His paltry audience share was likely partially to blame for mornings host Nadia Mitsopoulos’ own ratings drop, which fell from a 5 per cent share for much of the year to just 3.2 per cent. Outgoing afternoons host Michael Tetlow failed to improve on his own historically low ratings which remained at 2.5 per cent. Drive host Jo Trilling — who will move to the afternoon slot next year — fell to a 4 per cent share. Trilling will be replaced in the drive shift by former 6PR host Gary Adshead. All four programs recorded their worst ratings share since 2015, with ABC now attracting just a 4 per cent audience share across the Perth radio market.

Top US drug cop’s chilling cartel warning for Australia

ABC in decline: Just 3000 West Aussies tune in for Michael Rowland’s last day on ABC Breakfast