2025 Streaming and TV Ratings Discussion

[Growthegame]

Different people like different things. Atmosphere adds a lot to a game so I can completely understand why someone would be turned off by a poor game with a poor crowd.

Annoyed? Sure. But to turn it off. Sacrilegious.

 

[Growthegame]

Where were you when the NRL did this for years to claim friday nights?

What seasons did the NRL do this?

 

[Canard]

What seasons did the NRL do this?

Obviously you are a new fan, so welcome to the our great game.

From 2007 to 2016, there were two Friday night games kicking off at 7.30pm (or thereabouts), one was shown live and the other on delay. Usually QLD would get there "team" and Sydney vice versa.

Friday Night Football (NRL) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Wb1234]

Where were you when the NRL did this for years to claim friday nights?

Its not dishonest if its transparent. And its absolutely well known they do this...publicly.

It’s not transparent

Most of the people on here are surprised every time it’s pointed out

 

[The_Wookie]

What seasons did the NRL do this?

2007 through to 2016...my ratings data for the NRL only goes back to 2013. After which Monday night took the second Friday game, before they switched it back but earlier.

Queensland got a QLD team game live, NSW got a NSW team game live, and then it was reversed for the delayed game. Twas the beginning of the Friday night Broncos meme.

 

[Growthegame]

Obviously you are a new fan, so welcome to the our great game.

Nope. Just bad memory.

 

[Growthegame]

Queensland got a QLD team game live, NSW got a NSW team game live, and then it was reversed for the delayed game. Twas the beginning of the Friday night Broncos meme.

So is the second AFL game broadcast delayed after the live game?

 

[The_Wookie]

So is the second AFL game broadcast delayed after the live game?

No. in these circumstances the game shown in some markets is not shown in others at a later time. It amounts to exactly the same thing, but without the delayed game. Except no one gave a shit that the NRL was doing it at the time.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Maybe its a Sydney thing.

But Im not sure why LU people seem to think that Union is a big sport in Australia in 2025.

Its a code that has almost zero appeal outside pockets of Sydney and Brisbane, and is very much 2nd tier.

To get within even 50% of an NRL or AFL game would be a huge win for most codes in winter.

When it comes to TV sports in the Australian Winter its NRL and AFL first and second and daylight third.

Bro, the wookie might have the info on hand, but the Aussies played Fiji a few years ago in RL, again, they're a minnow. Iirc, it rated near 1 million. The ARU would not like those figures, the Wallabies are one of our national teams and Fiji are actually known as a "Rugby" nation of both codes on the rise.

 

[Canard]

Bro, the wookie might have the info on hand, but the Aussies played Fiji a few years ago in RL, again, they're a minnow. Iirc, it rated near 1 million. The ARU would not like those figures, the Wallabies are one of our national teams and Fiji are actually known as a "Rugby" nation of both codes on the rise.

Well they should be, because RL is by far a bigger sport than Union is in 2025, and has been for well over a decade now.

FYI, last time the Kangaroos played Fiji was as part of the RLWC in England in 2022, so I may not have rated that highly in Australia (due to timezone)

List of Australia national rugby league team results - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Well they should be, because RL is by far a bigger sport than Union is in 2025, and has been for well over a decade now.

Right, so if the Wallabies were on a winning streak, like going a 2 full years even 1 without losing, do you not think the ratings would be higher? The game is in a dark place, it's the time of the net. In the 1970's I had nightly updates on the news about the Sydney Local RU comp, these days, I didn't even hear the Wallabies played till after the event. Not good for any code and all jokes aside, I may beat up on union here and there, but it has its place and people do genuinely love it. I don't want it or AFL to die, they have their place like RL does, some people are better at playing certain games than others, good, make some shekels.

 

[Canard]

Right, so if the Wallabies were on a winning streak, like going a 2 full years even 1 without losing, do you not think the ratings would be higher? The game is in a dark place, it's the time of the net. In the 1970's I had nightly updates on the news about the Sydney Local RU comp, these days, I didn't even hear the Wallabies played till after the event. Not good for any code and all jokes aside, I may beat up on union here and there, but it has its place and people do genuinely love it. I don't want it or AFL to die, they have their place like RL does, some people are better at playing certain games than others, good, make some shekels.

I don't think on-field success has anything to do with it anymore, it's to far gone.

It's not anyone's "daily driver" anymore, the NRL and AFL have taken that spot.

Other than a good performance at a World Cup the public just isn't engaged anymore.

 

[Maximus]

Bro, the wookie might have the info on hand, but the Aussies played Fiji a few years ago in RL, again, they're a minnow. Iirc, it rated near 1 million. The ARU would not like those figures, the Wallabies are one of our national teams and Fiji are actually known as a "Rugby" nation of both codes on the rise.

It's not surprising who liked the easily verifiable lie.

The last time Australia played Fiji in Australia was the 2017 world cup semi final. Are you really going to compare to a semi final?

 

[Billythekid]

Maybe its a Sydney thing.

But Im not sure why LU people seem to think that Union is a big sport in Australia in 2025.

Its a code that has almost zero appeal outside pockets of Sydney and Brisbane, and is very much 2nd tier.

To get within even 50% of an NRL or AFL game would be a huge win for most codes in winter.

When it comes to TV sports in the Australian Winter it’s NRL and AFL first and second and daylight third.

I don’t live in Sydney. No one said they think the sport is big but those ratings seem really small for a wallabies game. Without any previous data it’s hard to know how it compares to previous wallabies games to determine if this is any good or not. That’s the true metric that would be worth something.

I don’t agree with your premise anyway. The rare wallabies game not even coming close to an NRL or AFL regular season game hardly seems like a win and only confirms just how far they are behind.

 

[Canard]

I don’t live in Sydney. No one said they think the sport is big but those ratings seem really small for a wallabies game. Without any previous data it’s hard to know how it compares to previous wallabies games to determine if this is any good or not. That’s the true metric that would be worth something.

I don’t agree with your premise anyway. The rare wallabies game not even coming close to an NRL or AFL regular season game hardly seems like a win and only confirms just how far they are behind.

You seem to think that Union should be on par with the NRL or AFL though?

It isn't and outside of a domestic World Cup will never be again in our lifetime.

Any sport achieving 2/3rds of a NRL game is the highest they can ever hope for outside of those occasional events.

 

[macca_saint]

I don’t live in Sydney. No one said they think the sport is big but those ratings seem really small for a wallabies game. Without any previous data it’s hard to know how it compares to previous wallabies games to determine if this is any good or not. That’s the true metric that would be worth something.

I don’t agree with your premise anyway. The rare wallabies game not even coming close to an NRL or AFL regular season game hardly seems like a win and only confirms just how far they are behind.

Exactly. If they’re supposedly pleased with the jewel in their crown, The Wallabies, only doing 278k (off the back of hype of a Lions series no less) then things are truly dire for the ARU.
I miss the hype of the late 90s/early 2000’s Wallabies tests when you could name half the side. I would struggle to name 2 or 3 players now.

 

[Trifili13]

Exactly. If they’re supposedly pleased with the jewel in their crown, The Wallabies, only doing 278k (off the back of hype of a Lions series no less) then things are truly dire for the ARU.
I miss the hype of the late 90s/early 2000’s Wallabies tests when you could name half the side. I would struggle to name 2 or 3 players now.

The Wallabies profile increased in the 80s with the Ella brothers and increased further on the back of subsequent success with Campo, Lynagh, Farr-Jones, Eales, etc. It was trendy to follow them and you could name several players if not the whole team. However the last decade has seen a steady decrease as success has evaded them. You really can't compare union and NRL ratings as it's a complete mismatch. It would need the Wallabies to again be successful on a sustained basis for them to gain popularity again.

 

[eels4lifee]

The hype around Sydney tonight is going to be massive. I'm beginning to think tonights ratings will surpass 4 million with a reach of 6.5 million.

 

[Diesel]

& AFL origin 0, with a reach of 0

 

[Billythekid]

You seem to think that Union should be on par with the NRL or AFL though?

It isn't and outside of a domestic World Cup will never be again in our lifetime.

Any sport achieving 2/3rds of a NRL game is the highest they can ever hope for outside of those occasional events.

Sorry but that’s a bizarre reading of my post. The wallabies being able to match a routine Sunday arvo game of NRL is not the same as me thinking they should be on par. Them being on par would be super rugby games ma

Also again this is all kinda worthless without any data to back it up. What do wallabies games usually rate and how does this compare? Without that it’s pretty hard to judge how good these figures are or not.

I’ll admit my memory could be hazy but I don’t remember wallabies games necessarily rating this badly but I could be misremembering (and also as you say Fiji is a smaller side).