Sky said its debate reached a combined overnight audience of 410,000 unique viewers, which included 200,000 unique viewers on pay TV platform Foxtel, plus 210,000 viewers on its Sky News Regional service. This was the highest ever rated program on Sky News Regional, the network said.
Sky did not provide the average audience figures for the event.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during Seven’s ‘The Final Showdown’ leaders’ debate. Credit: AAPIMAGE
The political impact of the debates remains an unknown. Harris was deemed the winner of her face-off with Trump, but was convincingly beaten at the polls two months later. Sky and Seven’s own undecided audiences handed the prime minister the victory this time around, which appears to be in line with the direction of most public polling.
A raft of News Corp commentators and journalists questioned the independence of the Sky audience, provided by Q&A Market Analytics, before and after the result was delivered on its own live broadcast.
Sky News presenter Sharri Markson last week questioned the independence of News Corp’s own Newspoll, which has been exclusively published by The Australian since 1985.
Markson called polling a “thumb in the wind” more generally, noting that Newspoll pollsters, Pyxis Polling and Insights, are also on the Labor Party’s payroll.
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US President Donald Trump last week called Fox News’ own pollster “fake” and “Trump hating” after it found his approval ratings were worse than Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and even his own in 2017 at the 100-day point in their presidencies. Fox News is controlled by the Murdoch family, which also controls News Corp.
“This ‘pollster’ has gotten me, and MAGA, wrong for years. Also, and while he’s at it, he should start making changes at the China Loving Wall Street Journal. It sucks!!!” Trump posted on his Truth Social page last week.
The latest Newspoll figures show Labor holding a slim lead of 52-48 in a two party preferred vote ahead of the final week of the campaign, with 62 per cent of voters unconvinced that a Dutton-led Liberal/Nationals Coalition is ready to govern, up from 55 per cent in February.
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