An audience of 192,000 viewers watched ABC1’s Countdown To 3 live show on Friday as the PM was joined by Cassie Davis and Short Stack. It peaked at 222,000.

At 6pm 83,000 of them migrated across to the new channel to check out Prank Patrol. Whilst ABC hasn’t released a complete breakdown of figures for its first night, it claims it peaked at 91,000 later that night with a FTA share of 49% amongst its target 5-12 year olds.

The jewel in the crown for the broadcaster, My Place, was not one of the top 5 titles on its opening weekend:

Prank Patrol – 83,000 Tot Ppl (16.2% FTA Share 5-12yo)
CJ the DJ – 65,000 Tot Ppl (14.1% FTA Share 5-12yo)
Studio 3 Evening – 60,000 Tot Ppl (11.7% FTA Share 5-12yo)
News on 3 – 55,000 Tot Ppl (13.4% FTA Share 5-12yo)
Studio 3 AM – 46,000 Tot Ppl (20.5% FTA Share 5-12yo)

ABC3 has so far reached 15% of 5-12 year olds in metro cities since its launch.

The official website attracted 44,000 visits and 331,000 page views over the launch weekend with over 3000 children signing up to be members of ‘Club 3’.

Director of ABC TV Kim Dalton said “These figures are fantastic and just confirm what we have been saying for quite a while now- Australian kids want their own free to air channel. The response to the first three days of ABC3 make all the hard work worthwhile.”