Of all things, an 11-year-old newspaper ad sums up the recent battle between our two biggest networks. It shows the Channel Seven symbol kicking Nine's logo right in its famous balls. (This is how Seven announced its Sydney bulletin had trumped its rival.)

In 2016, Seven scored a few more kicks to Nine's, erm, logo.

As the official ratings season ends, Seven will claim its 10th consecutive year as Australia's most-watched network. It is the only commercial broadcaster to grow its share of the audience pie (up 0.4 percentage points to 29.7 per cent).

Ten made do with the same as last year (18.9 per cent of prime time viewers), while Nine took a smaller slice (26.9 per cent, down by 1.2 percentage points). Seven will even claim a win in the advertiser-friendly age groups Nine usually dominates: 24-54, 18-49 and 16-39.

Not so fast, Nine says.

Networks have long bickered over whether to include the Olympics fortnight in their end-of-year averages. (Not surprisingly, they emphasise them when they have the rights to the games and downplay them when they don't.) In this case, it matters.

Exclude the Olympics – as many advertising buyers do – and it's down to the wire between Seven and Nine in the 18-49 and 25-54 groups.

And while Saturday marks the end of the ratings season, programs recorded and watched within the next 28 days can affect the final result.

In short: the figures in this story – obtained in the middle of the last ratings week – are not the final word. Naturally, Seven, Nine and Ten are at loggerheads over how to interpret them. But to impose some consistency, Fairfax Media has looked at official ratings weeks only, excluding Easter and Olympics, in the five major cities.

However you cut it, Seven gets the gold star.

Think of the audience as a pie. It's getting a little smaller, with direct and indirect competitors (from Netflix to Facebook) nibbling at the edges.

Seven responded by grabbing a bigger slice thanks to reality behemoth My Kitchen Rules and dramas such as Molly, Wanted, The Secret Daughter and Downton Abbey. The X Factor was a notable disappointment, and while Sunrise still has more viewers nationally than Today, it no longer enjoys an unassailable lead.

Nine admits it got off to a bad start with Australia's Got Talent, The Farmer Wants a Wife and Reno Rumble.

Bright spots included The Voice and a strong year for The Block, while Today won more official ratings weeks in the major cities than Sunrise. Doctor Doctor and Here Come the Habibs did well. And 60 Minutes didn't suffer a serious ratings blow from its Beirut kidnapping saga, averaging 830,000 city viewers to the 771,000 watching Sunday Night on Seven.

It's steady as she goes for Ten, after a horror run a few years ago, though it did lose ground in the younger demographics it desires.

The network had the only main channel to improve its audience share, however: up by 0.2 percentage points in all people, 16-39 and 18-49. This reflects the success of Survivor Australia, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, The Bachelor and other youth-skewing franchises.

Ten is on the right track – but it has a way to go.

Partly due to its fledgling Food Network, launched in late 2015, SBS – funded by public money and advertising revenue – rose by 0.7 percentage points to a 6.9 per cent share.

The network controversially replaced its SBS2 channel with Viceland this month, screening youth-oriented programs such as Weediquette, Gaycation and F--- That's Delicious.

As for the ABC?

It inched up by 0.1 percentage point to a 17.7 per cent share; its main channel down, offset by slight increases to ABC2 and News24.

With its most promising program slate in years set to launch in January, Aunty could soon be stealing viewers from her commercial peers.