What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

2018 NRL TV Ratings

twesty

Juniors
Messages
410
I wouldn't be raving about the afl ratings. Lowest since 2008 as well. That's bad considering powerhouse Collingwood was in the GF.

NRL and AFL grand final TV ratings drop to their lowest in a decade
While the West Coast Eagles won the flag in a tight match against Collingwood on Saturday, viewers failed to support it — the audience size on Seven was the lowest since 2008,

Judging by the continuing decline in both grand final audiences since 2008, it’s now clear that Seven, Nine and Fox Sports/Foxtel have overpaid for their telecasting rights.


https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/rug...lowest-in-a-decade/ar-BBNLO1b?ocid=spartandhp
Agree. I think AFL house wouldnt be overly pleased with their ratings either. They had a dream matchup and a close game, yet were still down compared to previous years.
 

Nerd

Bench
Messages
2,825
Keep telling yourself all of that. Fact is they have more money, assets, player participation, competition foot print, attendance figures off the charts and overall national presence. Just because their outpost teams aren't doing well on the field doesn't mean that the public aren't aware of them or don't support them. When teams are losing in any sport, fans keep away. When they start to win and have sustained success, that's when fans jump on as in RL too.

So, expect for example, when the GWS start to have sustained success, the fans will come. Guaranteed. That's what fans do, especially Sydney fans. AFL is now in the psyche of most Aussies, whether we like it or not. That was always the first step the AFL admin were working on. You don't just take over entrenched sporting landscapes in a few years. They have a 50+ year strategy. They will win this war I reckon by 2040 and be a clear winner even to deniers like you and El Dicko.

The NRL has no such strategy, and is constantly playing catch up and giving lip service. The clubs run our game and the NRL is to incompetent to stop it and change course and correct it.

Oh and as far as them bleeding money...don't make me laugh. They are the ones that have all the money and assets remember? We have zero assets and zero money and remember, we were the code that had to take out a bridging loan to cover our expenses, NOT the AFL. I wish were as broke and bleeding money as they are FFS fools! Talk about creative denial.
Talk about in denial. "Outpost teams aren't doing well" is a massive understatement. How about all three are are financial black holes only still surviving by massive grants paid out each year by the AFL. The AFL plan of build it and they will come is an obvious failure. Please stop hiding behind this 50+ year strategy nonsense. Try going to a bank and getting a business loan with one of those under your arm. The problem for AFL zealots like yourself is that they are stuck in 3 states of Australia with no prospects for expansion. Because of the downward slide in ratings at some stage the directors of 7 are going to come to the conclusion that they are over paying big time for the AFL rights. Your cherry picking of viewing figures is typical AFL nonsense. In case you didn't get it the first time your season ratings were down over 10% on last season. When you factor in the NZ component of the NRL TV deal the deals for each code aren't that far apart and when you consider that it costs more to run an AFL team and combine that with 3 expansion clubs that are financial basket cases I'm glad I'm not an AFL board member.
 

mongoose

Coach
Messages
11,350
The ratings between the codes are pretty close and honestly, considering the AFL has all mainland state capitals covered you would expect them to do much better than NRL. The NRL also has ratings from NZ which are never included.

As for AFL winning some national war, the game has some major flaws in growing itself. It requires too many players and massive cricket ovals to play, it doesn't have a popular short form of the game like TRL or oztag. It's not any safer than rugby league and has just as many serious head injuries. The NRL still holds a massive majority of market share in NSW and QLD on TV despite all the AFL's attempts to sabotage media and get people interested.

I would be more worried about Soccer and Basketball taking over. Kids will dump AFL and League and follow overseas competitions.
 

twesty

Juniors
Messages
410
Talk about in denial. "Outpost teams aren't doing well" is a massive understatement. How about all three are are financial black holes only still surviving by massive grants paid out each year by the AFL. The AFL plan of build it and they will come is an obvious failure. Please stop hiding behind this 50+ year strategy nonsense. Try going to a bank and getting a business loan with one of those under your arm. The problem for AFL zealots like yourself is that they are stuck in 3 states of Australia with no prospects for expansion. Because of the downward slide in ratings at some stage the directors of 7 are going to come to the conclusion that they are over paying big time for the AFL rights. Your cherry picking of viewing figures is typical AFL nonsense. In case you didn't get it the first time your season ratings were down over 10% on last season. When you factor in the NZ component of the NRL TV deal the deals for each code aren't that far apart and when you consider that it costs more to run an AFL team and combine that with 3 expansion clubs that are financial basket cases I'm glad I'm not an AFL board member.
TV ratings overall are dropping at alarming rates, and the AFL has simply followed this trend. The NFL's ratings also dropped 10% last season, with another 10% looking likely this year. But TV ratings in the USA overall were down 17% last year. The NRL did an amazing job this year to at least hold steady on previous years. You'd have to see that as a massive gain really. Not sure the AFL would be too concerned overall though, given they just had another record year of attendance and memberships. It's not as if they were down on every key index, only one which almost every sport is experiencing.

I agree with TheRam's point about expansion, it takes decades of success to really have an effect. The Storm have had an incredible 2 decades of success, yet their popularity has only seen a modest improvement during that time. Sport is very close to culture, so it takes generational change in markets that are already saturated with their own sporting passions.
 

TheRam

Coach
Messages
13,480
Talk about in denial. "Outpost teams aren't doing well" is a massive understatement. How about all three are are financial black holes only still surviving by massive grants paid out each year by the AFL. The AFL plan of build it and they will come is an obvious failure. Please stop hiding behind this 50+ year strategy nonsense. Try going to a bank and getting a business loan with one of those under your arm. The problem for AFL zealots like yourself is that they are stuck in 3 states of Australia with no prospects for expansion. Because of the downward slide in ratings at some stage the directors of 7 are going to come to the conclusion that they are over paying big time for the AFL rights. Your cherry picking of viewing figures is typical AFL nonsense. In case you didn't get it the first time your season ratings were down over 10% on last season. When you factor in the NZ component of the NRL TV deal the deals for each code aren't that far apart and when you consider that it costs more to run an AFL team and combine that with 3 expansion clubs that are financial basket cases I'm glad I'm not an AFL board member.

That's why they never have a shortage of cash to fund their expansion and development programs in RL heartlands by the 10's of millions each year and the NRL barely has enough funds to manage themselves and fund our own areas let alone expand and fund its non traditional areas.

YOU ARE THE ONE IN DENIAL.
 

KeepingTheFaith

Referee
Messages
25,235
Don't know about you El Dicko, but every time I watch that Haka for RTS it brings a tear to my eye of the good kind. Like I said, loved it.

You make the same mistake as most left liberals do and try to shut down all contrarian views by screaming racist.

Here's a question for you. How many great Polynesian/Maori halves are there in the NRL? Look at Shaun Johnson, gifted beyond words and yet a yo yo player. From there there are very slim pickings. Look at Thurston, a colossal person and player, but Johnson has way more skills then him and should be every bit as good if not better. In fact I would go as far to say that Johnson is probably the most skilful half I have ever seen and yet he is the biggest disappointment to watch week in week out. His game has gone backwards in many respects even though he had a better season overall this year.

Why does he disappear so often for large portions of the game and notably during the most crucial periods, when he should be demanding the ball and finding that something that the greats do and owning the result?

What is the difference between the two? Answer mental toughness. I love watching Johnson play well and for a long time he was one of my favourite players to watch, but now I just get frustrated and angry watching him squander his great gifts and talent. This year when everyone was singing the Warriors praises and saying that they have turned the corner and are now a focused and better team, I wasn't convinced.

They still were dropping in and out of games when they shouldn't of and just as importantly they then would rely on that chaos football to get them out of trouble. Sure they were better, but still they were the same. No one wins an NRL Grand Final without mental toughness.

Johnson isn't Polynesian/Maori
Thurston is part Maori

Nice rant though, wasn't very accurate, but nice nonetheless.
 

TheRam

Coach
Messages
13,480
Johnson isn't Polynesian/Maori
Thurston is part Maori

Nice rant though, wasn't very accurate, but nice nonetheless.

I stand corrected on Johnson, but my opinions on Islanders/Maori's stands. When was the last great half of either decent in the NRL?

As for Thurston, he is a mixed bag yes, and yes he has a New Zealand father. I'm sure he feels pride in his NZ heritage, but he obviously feels as though he is very much an Australian Aboriginal first and has chosen to go that way over the NZ side. Feelings and attitude matter.
 

KeepingTheFaith

Referee
Messages
25,235
I stand corrected on Johnson, but my opinions on Islanders/Maori's stands. When was the last great half of either decent in the NRL?

As for Thurston, he is a mixed bag yes, and yes he has a New Zealand father. I'm sure he feels pride in his NZ heritage, but he obviously feels as though he is very much an Australian Aboriginal first and has chosen to go that way over the NZ side. Feelings and attitude matter.

He didn't become a great half by ignoring his Maori side though. Race has nothing to do with it.

There are a lot of reasons why, but race is not the main one.
 

TheRam

Coach
Messages
13,480
He didn't become a great half by ignoring his Maori side though. Race has nothing to do with it.

There are a lot of reasons why, but race is not the main one.

You're right, I would think that he became a great half because he didn't grow up in that lay back bro culture that exists in the Islander/Maori groups. Like I said, I am not trying to pick on anyone's ancestry here, we are all equal.

What I am suggesting is that some cultures are more suited to professional sports then others. And like I have said before, this can change, but it takes decades. It has nothing to do with race as much as people here are trying to suggest that that is what I am saying.

Cultures can be good and bad for different reasons. For professional sport, I don't think the lay back chilled approach is what is going to work.
 
Messages
15,611
A whooping?

There is a very good reason why sponsors and advertisers flood to the AFL in preference to the NRL (and by a considerable margin).

No, it's not a conspiracy.

Obviously you have the attendances which are chalk and cheese.

Then, on top of that, you have this in relation to the advantage Seven gets from being the home of the AFL:

HARD BALL GETS
How the footy stats stack up for fierce foes Seven and Nine.

27 — The number of ratings weeks won by Seven so far this year. Nine has won three: one before the AFL season, one State of Origin week and the week of the AFL’s pre-finals bye.

36 — The number of nights this year when Seven screened AFL and Nine screened NRL at the same time. Seven won all 36 nights.

45.4% — Seven Network’s share of the free-to-air TV audience the night of the First Preliminary Final. Nine’s share was 24 per cent.
So many lols
Are a Vicderoian who thinks that all Aust is, is 5 capital cities ..because that's what those numbers refer to .
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,925
This is where the NRL's decision to not expand compared to two black hole money pits in GWS and on the GC starts to look a little more sensible.

Except the Q’land and nsw afl audience was significantly bigger than the SA and wa nrl gf. So not really. Afl gf getting 500k for a walk v vic final is very impressive and five times the Perth nrl gf audience.

Nrl GF drew 551k in Melbourne, again showing the value of expansion in attracting new audiences.
 
Last edited:

El Diablo

Post Whore
Messages
94,107
I am not trying to pick on anyone's ancestry here, we are all equal.
sure you aren't dickhead

https://forums.leagueunlimited.com/posts/10791515/

Look we are just beginning to get a quality white man pack, I'd hate to see the balance go the other way again

https://forums.leagueunlimited.com/posts/10492549/
We have way to many islanders in our team.

https://forums.leagueunlimited.com/posts/10322762/
We need 2 or 3 more white guys in the team that are of the aggressive kind. We have to many islanders in the team
 

KeepingTheFaith

Referee
Messages
25,235
You're right, I would think that he became a great half because he didn't grow up in that lay back bro culture that exists in the Islander/Maori groups. Like I said, I am not trying to pick on anyone's ancestry here, we are all equal.

What I am suggesting is that some cultures are more suited to professional sports then others. And like I have said before, this can change, but it takes decades. It has nothing to do with race as much as people here are trying to suggest that that is what I am saying.

Cultures can be good and bad for different reasons. For professional sport, I don't think the lay back chilled approach is what is going to work.

I agree it does take time, but I think where your message is getting lost or misinterpreted is by generalising Maori/Polynesions players as being dragged down by a chilled lazy bro culture when I can assure you isn't the case.

As I said, for all the reasons they struggle to get representation in the halves, work ethic and lazy culture are not the main reasons.
 

miguel de cervantes

First Grade
Messages
7,469
Except the Q’land and nsw afl audience was significantly bigger than the SA and wa nrl gf. So not really. Afl gf getting 500k for a walk v vic final is very impressive and five times the Perth nrl gf audience.

Nrl GF drew 551k in Melbourne, again showing the value of expansion in attracting new audiences.

Nothing to do with that. FTA TV has paid overs for sports rights and it is highly unlikely that the same sums will be paid next time around. The AFL, though, needs that money for GWS and GC, which they will sure as hell not let fall over easily. NRL hasn't made such an engagement os is off the hook in that respect in case of a decrease in TV revenue.
 
Top