NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo says rugby league is the most-watched sport in Australia. The viewership results of Sunday’s grand final suggest otherwise – but still, he may be right.
For the past nine years, the final clash of the AFL season has out-rated its NRL counterpart on TV. The Penrith Panthers’
14-6 victory on Sunday over the Melbourne Storm, which secured their fourth straight premiership, had an average audience of 3.4 million people. The week before, 4.06 million people tuned in for the
Brisbane Lions’ drubbing of the Sydney Swans.
Ivan and Nathan Cleary after winning their fourth premiership. Getty Images
More people watched the NRL online, despite the smaller overall audience. Data from television measurement firm OzTAM shows 762,000 people streamed the game on TV app 9Now, versus the 654,000 on the Seven Network’s 7plus for the AFL. This means a steadily increasing 22.3 per cent of the NRL’s free-to-air audience is streaming, compared to 16 per cent for the AFL grand final. The rest of the AFL season wasn’t available on 7plus.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo. Kate Geraghty
More than 5.3 million people tuned in for at least a minute across the entire NRL final, versus 6.1 million for the AFL (a figure known as “reach”). On average, a little over 1.6 million people stayed for the NRL Grand Final’s post-match ceremony, while 1.7 million watched Aussie pop star The Kid Laroi’s pre-game performance. Penrith won Sunday’s game before 80,156 people at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, etching their name in history as the third team to win four straight trophies.
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Since February, Mr Abdo and the NRL have been saying rugby league has a higher viewership than any other sporting code.
“The 2024 NRL season is the most watched and attended season in Rugby League history,” he said on Monday. “Fans have responded to the amazing football which has translated into more people playing and watching the game than ever before.”
He says this past NRL season had a total of 153.7 million viewers, compared to the AFL’s 140.3 million – figures achieved by combining free-to-air and streaming audiences for every game. The AFL declined to comment.
These comparisons matter because the NRL is about to embark on
an epic pitch for more money as it gears up to sell its broadcast rights for the years after 2027, when the current deal with Nine Entertainment and Foxtel expires.
Nine is the ASX-listed company that owns the Nine Network, streaming service Stan, radio stations 2GB and 3AW, and publishing titles including
The Sydney Morning Herald and
The Australian Financial Review. Foxtel is controlled by News Corp and owns a pay TV business and streaming platforms Kayo Sports and Binge.
Mr Abdo wants to improve the NRL’s current agreement, and is arguing the NRL outscores its rivals in sheer numbers. In 2022, the AFL scored a seven-year, $4.5 billion deal for its media rights from Seven and Foxtel in 2022. That deal was struck
before advertising by wagering firms around sport was in doubt and before corporate Australia collectively pulled back on its advertising spend in a cost of living crisis.
With so much at stake cutting through the spin can be difficult. An analysis of the official numbers suggests they might be smaller than claimed by head office. But Mr Abdo might still have a point on who is the biggest.
There were 207 games in the AFL season, plus nine finals matches – 216 in total. Of the main season, 77 games were aired on Seven with an average audience of 547,000 people. Foxtel’s streaming platforms broadcast all the games except the grand final. Including viewers on Foxtel’s streaming platforms (and not pay TV viewers, which aren’t reported), the AFL had 106.7 million views for AFL games in 2024.
There were 204 games in the NRL season, followed by nine matches in the finals – 213 in total. Nine aired 86 games from the main season of 27 rounds, with an average audience of 521,600 people. It then aired the eight finals plus the grand final. Again, Foxtel’s streaming platform has all games except the grand final.
With Foxtel’s streaming audience included, and not the pay TV viewers, the NRL had 112 million views for its games in the 2024 season, not including the three State of Origin matches. On this scale, the NRL is winning.
thinktv.com.au
