June 10, 2021
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/live-scores?match=501653840
The State of Origin series opener attracted an audience of close to 3 million on Wednesday night, surpassing the corresponding game of last year’s November series with one in ten viewers digitally streaming the one-sided game.
An average national free-to-air audience of 2.7 million tuned in on Nine, the publisher of this masthead, to watch NSW’s 50-6 demolition of Queensland in Townsville.
Nine’s streaming service, 9Now, also attracted 280,000 viewers - up from 155,000 in the first game of last year’s series.
Streaming numbers have affected TV ratings the past couple of years, however the NRL still experienced an increase in traditional television viewers as they returned to a winter timeslot following the forced spring reschedule in 2020. The 9now numbers shows the strong growth in streaming, or broadcast video on demand, is offsetting to a large degree the decline in FTA audiences.
The last winter series opener in 2019 attracted an average national audience of 3.21 million, a figure which hasn’t been eclipsed since. The average audience for game one on Wednesday night fell just shy of the 2.73 million that tuned in for last year’s series decider in game three, and well above the 2.38 million for game one.