ARIA Award Ratings Slump Despite Star Appeal

Television ratings for last night's ARIA Awards were down on last year's, but the broadcast still topped the free-to-air multichannels for the night.

Bringing in 304,000 viewers, the show failed to crack the top 20 overall shows. It was the second year that the awards have been screened on Nine's digital multichannel Go!, and last year – when it was held on a Sunday – it rated with 369,000 viewers as the 19th most watched show of the night.

A delayed broadcast, pundits have speculated that with live tweeting and the rapid spread of information from the night may have turned off viewers who were interested in the awards' winners. The ARIA Awards moved to the digital channel after the continual eroding of ratings on the primary free-to-air networks, which culminated in the universally-panned 'Opera House' year of 2010 when Ten saw 634,000 viewers turn into a live and messy ceremony. At the same time of broadcast last night Channel Nine aired Getaway, which attracted 633,000 viewers.

Taylor Swift and Russell Brand brought an international appeal to the night, with UK website The Guardian running a photo of Swift. The BBC also ran a story highlighting Gotye's four wins, as did the San Francisco Chronicle. Rapper Nicki Minaj's impact on the night was less notable.

The awards ditched the traditional tables set up for arena seating at the Sydney Entertainment Centre this year, with the industry dinner served at half-time via 'food stations' in the foyer.

The highlight of the ceremony was undoubtedly an emotional performance from Hall Of Fame inductees Yothu Yindi, who were joined on stage by Paul Kelly, Peter Garrett, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (who is in Yothu Yindi), Jessica Mauboy and Dan Sultan.

Performing their classic Treaty before being inducted by Paul Kelly and Peter Garrett, the Sydney Entertainment Centre's crowd was on its feet in unison during the performance. Iconic vocalist Mandawuy Yunupingu gave a moving speech to accept the induction, calling for support to fight kidney disease in the Aboriginal community and constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. At times struggling with the auto-cue, the audience – including the younger public who had been extremely vocal for Taylor Swift and other pop stars throughout the night – was immensely respectful during the speech.

Gotye managed to pick up four awards during the night, not once mentioning his hit track Somebody That I Used To Know. He can't escape it though and it surely played a part in he and guest vocalist Kimbra's back-to-back wins in the Best Male, Best Female categories respectively – it has been a constant for them over the last two years.

See our gallery from the awards here, and our red carpet gallery here.

To re-live our live coverage from the night, head here.