2026 TV and Streaming Ratings thread

[i0Nic]

Who said the AFL has claimed Western Sydney? They have established a presence there, although far smaller than any of the NRL clubs or the Wanderers. That much is obvious. Nobody is saying the Giants are a successful club at this stage, however the Swans clearly are.

Afl had better presence and support in western Sydney before the giants than now.

If the afl wasn’t as cashed up and willing to continuously throw money at the giants, they would’ve folded long ago like the northern spirit or Moana Pacifika have. They’ve shown a big fat Zero impact.

trying to claim gws have achieved anything tangible is farcical, even in afl circles.

 

[storm1999]

NRL played in Darwin, do we get the Territory now?

Both NRL and AFL play games in the Northern Territory. I don’t believe the NT have a team in any national league given the small population and remote location.

 

[i0Nic]

It's an Australian capital city. Auckland and Port Moresby are not. If the NRL's main aim was to be the "national" game Adelaide would have been included before NZ and PNG, but obviously this isn't the case.

What about Canberra, the nations capital, where afl don’t have a team and nrl do? What about Newcastle, Illawarra and north qld which adds up to 1.2m people where there are zero afl teams? Let’s not even talk about NZ

 

[storm1999]

trying to claim gws have achieved anything tangible is farcical, even in afl circles.

The current broadcast deal would not have been achieved without having 18 teams and 9 games per round. So yes GWS have contributed to that despite being the smallest club in terms of members, attendances and ratings. On field they have made a Grand Final and multiple Preliminary Finals and have been competitive in recent years.

 

[i0Nic]

The current broadcast deal would not have been achieved without having 18 teams and 9 games per round. So yes GWS have contributed to that despite being the smallest club in terms of members, attendances and ratings. On field they have made a Grand Final and multiple Preliminary Finals and have been competitive in recent years.

They have helped afl add revenue yes because they convinced the broadcasters they have a national game. However the datapoints show that the interest in these clubs is f**k all and the actual interest in afl nation wide is not as large as rugby league. That’s facts if you don’t like it too bad. try to spin another story.

 

[Gobsmacked]

It's an Australian capital city. Auckland and Port Moresby are not. If the NRL's main aim was to be the "national" game Adelaide would have been included before NZ and PNG, but obviously this isn't the case.

Since when has the goal been to be national? - the NRL'S goal is to be global.
The NRL is international.
And why does a specific dot on a map mean more than others?
Townsville, Newcastle, Canberra are dots on a map do they count? Oh not capital cities?
Canberra is the capital of the whole country!
And AFL don't even have a team there.

Hardly a national sport when you don't have a team in the nations capital.

 

[i0Nic]

Even if you just look at AU and ignore NZ and PNG and other markets, the data shows nrl is more popular nation wide than afl. It also shows on the dots on a map strategy that there are more nrl teams in populated concentration areas than afl teams, which will only accelerate for nrl with the introduction of Perth bears.

nrl will only be missing Adelaide (and Geelong and Hobart).
afl is missing Canberra, Newcastle, Wollongong, north qld. (Let’s ignore NZ and PNG) However afl only has 2 sides (really 1) in Australia’s biggest city Sydney.

 

[storm1999]

They have helped afl add revenue yes because they convinced the broadcasters they have a national game.

So you honestly believe the AFL conned Foxtel and the Seven Network out of billions of dollars?

 

[Gobsmacked]

The current broadcast deal would not have been achieved without having 18 teams and 9 games per round. So yes GWS have contributed to that despite being the smallest club in terms of members, attendances and ratings. On field they have made a Grand Final and multiple Preliminary Finals and have been competitive in recent years.

You give new clubs extra draft picks, stack the deck and say they're successful.. even AFL fans see through this " success" it's rigged.

 

[storm1999]

However afl only has 2 sides (really 1) in Australia’s biggest city Sydney.

The populations of Sydney and Melbourne are essentially on par at this point. Melbourne actually has a bigger OzTAM catchment.

 

[Gobsmacked]

So you honestly believe the AFL conned Foxtel and the Seven Network out of billions of dollars?

Actually trying to watch that game.. someone was clearly conned.

 

[storm1999]

Actually trying to watch that game.. someone was clearly conned.

Maybe that says more about you than the game then?

 

[storm1999]

Townsville, Newcastle, Canberra are dots on a map do they count? Oh not capital cities?
Canberra is the capital of the whole country!
And AFL don't even have a team there.

Townsville and Newcastle are represented by the Lions and Swans respectively. Canberra is represented by the Giants temporarily, but is one of the contenders for the 20th Team licence.

 

[storm1999]

You give new clubs extra draft picks, stack the deck and say they're successful.. even AFL fans see through this " success" it's rigged.

It's called "competitive balance". The NRL does it too via the salary cap and league distribution allocations. Without it you would have an EPL-style league where the 3-4 richest dominate season after season.

 

[The_Wookie]

Townsville and Newcastle are represented by the Lions and Swans respectively.

This is a very broad interpretation of the term "represented". As in almost like this is theroetical nonsense. Townsville is further away from Brisbane, than Adelaide is from Melbourne and the Crows sure as hell dont represent Franskton.

Canberra is represented by the Giants temporarily, but is one of the contenders for the 20th Team licence.

Not even at feasibility study stage. At least Darwin did and came up with "yeah lol we cant do this"

 

[BuffaloRules]

Townsville and Newcastle are represented by the Lions and Swans respectively. Canberra is represented by the Giants temporarily, but is one of the contenders for the 20th Team licence.

i doubt it … Townsville loathes Brisbane in the NRL and I don’t think Newcastle are particularly fond of the Sydney teams

 

[storm1999]

This is a very broad interpretation of the term "represented". As in almost like this is theroetical nonsense. Townsville is further away from Brisbane

They have played games in Cairns and went on pre-season training camps in the NQ region.

 

[BuffaloRules]

They have played games in Cairns and went on pre-season training camps in the NQ region.

what about Townsville?

 

[stratocaster]

If the NRL outrated the AFL’s two games with only 1 game, then the market targeting strategy didn’t work.

They have effectively taken a game that could have rated higher on another day without any clash and slashed its potential viewing audience by restricting it solely to one state.

I know in AFL fan minds if the game hadn’t been one sided that they would have thrashed the NRL by hundreds of thousands of viewers blah blah blah. It’s always hypotheticals, never reality. There’s always some excuse. There have been games in the past where lightning pauses helped viewers hang on for longer and increased the ratings.

Are Thursday and Friday not the biggest timeslots for regular round games of AFL and NRL? And what does AFL choose to show? 43% all-Melbourne derby games. Even higher if you include Geelong.

75% of the games the NRL aired involved at least one non-Sydney club. Compared to 57% for the AFL.

It’s not because AFL aired other home market games. They could easily add more WA, SA, NSW & QLD teams into their Thursday and Friday night slots without impacting that arrangement at all. I’m not even talking about double interstate teams, just have one of them be non-Victorian.

There’s no reason why they can’t. It’s that they choose not to. There is no confidence from Channel 7 that these interstate AFL matches will rate. So when they do have two interstate teams, they overshadow them with a Victorian game.

AFL does not have teams in all six states and territories. It has teams in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. It also has four minor teams in New South Wales and Queensland. They claim to cover ACT but if you think Canberra is a part of Western Sydney, then frankly, you’re an idiot.

The NRL dominates the biggest state and the third biggest state. It has the biggest team in the ACT. It has the biggest team of any code in New Zealand. And its Victorian team has a bigger social media support than any single AFL team. And it’s about to add a team in Western Australia and Papua New Guinea. It’s more than national. It’s international.

Dots on the map mean little unless it’s meaningful elsewhere, otherwise NBL and A-League would be the kings.

 

[Gobsmacked]

Townsville and Newcastle are represented by the Lions and Swans respectively. Canberra is represented by the Giants temporarily, but is one of the contenders for the 20th Team licence.

Please go into a bar in Newcastle and Townsville and tell them that..
If we don't hear from you ever again, I'll know you followed through.
And Canberra is part of mount Druit...
Bahaha

You're not actually serious surly?
Are you a chat bot? No human that has been near these places would say what is literally the dumbest thing said on this forum.