The Seven Network has won the TV ratings battle for the third year running, but Network Ten boasts the highest rating TV events of the year, thanks to MasterChef Australia and the AFL grand final.
With the official ratings period now wrapped up, Seven is the clear winner, scoring the highest audience share across the board, with or without its digital channels.
The networks disagree about using multi-channel figures, with Nine and Ten keen to use them but Seven not.
Excluding multichannels, Seven finished the year with a 28.8 per cent share, followed by Nine with 26.8 per cent share and Ten with 22.2 per cent share.
ABC was next with a 16.4 per cent share and SBS with 5.8.
Seven is claiming wins in all the major demographics but Nine claims to have won the 25-54 demographic and Ten the 18-49 age group.
Network Ten scored the most watched event, thanks to breakout hit MasterChef Australia,
A record-breaking 3.725 million Australians watched Julie Goodwin crowned the winner.
Ten also scored big with the AFL grand final, with more than 2.8 million tuning in.
The next most watched event of the year was the Melbourne Cup on Seven (2.67 million), followed by the premiere episode of the second series of gangland crime drama Underbelly (2.58 million)
The rugby league grand final, on the Nine Network, drew 2.582 million viewers.
The ABC couldn't compete with the commercial networks but did rake in many viewers with the British detective drama Midsommer Murders on Sunday nights.
Seven's win comes thanks to a long list of popular programs, such as Packed To The Rafters, Border Security, World's Strictest Parents and its news bulletins.
Seven's head of programing Tim Worner said they were looking to local content to build themselves further next year.
"It's great to win again and it's a great reward for the group's hard work but we're not wasting time doing cartwheels in the carpark," Worner said in a statement to AAP.
Nine is confident of increasing its audience with shows such as Top Gear, which was poached from SBS, regular Hey Hey It's Saturday specials, US sci-fi series V, its Winter Olympics coverage from February and digital station Go!
"It's been a strong year for Nine where we've put more bricks in the wall. We've now got the structure from which we'll grow in 2010 with the best slate we've enjoyed for years," Nine chief executive David Gyngell said.
Ten will be again counting on MasterChef, with a junior version also added into the mix, and its digital sports channel ONE.
AAP kaf/it
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