AFL Grand Final Ratings

[syphon]

A record viewing audience of 3.53 million watched the AFL GF around the country.

And thats on a saturday arvo which is not prime time.

Saturday's game also set a Melbourne record for the most watched Grand Final, peaking with an audience of 1.49 million.

In Brisbane, the average audience jumped 200,000 compared with last year's figures.

 

[CyberKev]

A record viewing audience of 3.53 million watched the AFL GF around the country.

And thats on a saturday arvo which is not prime time.

Saturday's game also set a Melbourne record for the most watched Grand Final, peaking with an audience of 1.49 million.

In Brisbane, the average audience jumped 200,000 compared with last year's figures.

I hope you've got your heavy duty flame-proof suit on, Old Son, as I'm predicting that the rabid NRL viewing figure henchmen will be queing-up to give you a mauling quicker than you can grab a brewski during an ad break.

Pretty handy figures though, I must say.

CyberKev

 

[In-goal]

quite impresive figure there for melbourne 1.5M
was that the most watched AFL GF ever?

 

[Tidus_Raider]

quite impresive figure there for melbourne 1.5M
was that the most watched AFL GF ever?

um....Collingwood V Brisbane 2003 ;-)

 

[In-goal]

read before NRL ratings were 4.5 million

 

[CyberKev]

read before NRL ratings were 4.5 million

Yes, but this was only the Melbourne figure (for a broadcast out of prime time), whereas the NRL figure was for all of Australia & NZ (during prime time).

4.5 million is an impressive audience though... Mind you, a Collingwood vs Sydney GF would've left all previous figures for both codes in the dust.

CyberKev

 

[SHAGMOP]

i dont doubt that. sydney has a whole state to produce there fan base not to mention anyone else there who like the colours red and white. the ratings are goin to be up when there is 2 states involved. not just overall but when two staett are involved, usually the people in those states take on a state of origin like attitude.

 

[bucko]

Well isn't that like what happened this year?? It was like Qld v Vic. I think you may be right in saying Sydney will bring bigger crowds, simply because NSW has about 6 million people. Onto next year, let's just hope its Richmond vs Sydney hey ;-)

 

[TheFirstRabbitoh]

Apparently the biggest AFL grand final ratings ever were for Sydney vs North in 1996. I'm told it was the sixth biggest Australian TV crowd for anything, ever.

 

[In-goal]

how big was it

 

[zulu]

If the Storm played a Sydney league team in the G.F I reckon that would rate bigger nationally for the NRL. The Melbourne audience would be huge, just like the Sydney audience would be with the Swans.

Good to see the the 2003 NRL G.F outrate the AFL anyway. It did so in 2002 as well.

 

[In-goal]

Imagine a Brisbane v Melbourne RL GF now your talking huge.

 

[bender]

Apparently the biggest AFL grand final ratings ever were for Sydney vs North in 1996. I'm told it was the sixth biggest Australian TV crowd for anything, ever.

I think the State of Origin filled places 1 to 5.

 

[TheFirstRabbitoh]

The 96 AFL GF was the biggest TV football audience in Australian history. It's also the only AFL grand final where both captains were from NSW.

Also, as far as I know, the AFL grand final got the bigger ratings this year, though as I don't really give a stuff about which is bigger I could be wrong.

It's a bit of a redundant argument really - the AFL grand final is on Saturday arvo, which is a black hole as opposed to the NRL grand final in prime time.

Keep in mind, it's the NRL which moved its grand final so as to get better ratings than the AFL.

 

[iggy plop]

The 96 AFL GF was the biggest TV football audience in Australian history. It's also the only AFL grand final where both captains were from NSW.

Also, as far as I know, the AFL grand final got the bigger ratings this year, though as I don't really give a stuff about which is bigger I could be wrong.

It's a bit of a redundant argument really - the AFL grand final is on Saturday arvo, which is a black hole as opposed to the NRL grand final in prime time.

Keep in mind, it's the NRL which moved its grand final so as to get better ratings than the AFL.

Also keep in mind that the NRL grand final was shown live in only 3 of the 5 capital cities.

 

[CyberKev]

Also keep in mind that the NRL grand final was shown live in only 3 of the 5 capital cities.

This should be a big concern for League...

The only reason it wouldn't be shown live into Adelaide & Perth is because the sport is very unpopular there.

This reflects the sport's lack of history in the regions and is a sad testimony to the NRL's inability to perservere with sides in both states in order to forge a genuinely national competition.

Winning a foothold into hostile territory takes considerable time and resources and a good deal of stomach for the task at hand.

Alas, RL lacked the last two factors and were unwilling to provide the first one.

CyberKev

 

[TheFirstRabbitoh]

Also keep in mind that the NRL grand final was shown live in only 3 of the 5 capital cities.

This has always been an evergreen excuse for the NRL when comparing granny ratings.

BUT - think about it, Perth and Adelaide together have about 2.7 maybe 2.8 million people. Neither state has much in the way of rural population.

How many more viewers for the NRL GF do you think you're likely to get?

Take Adelaide. How many people in a city of 1.3 million are likely to be watching TV on a random Sunday night? Maybe 3, 4 hundred thousand?

Of those, how many are likely to be watching the NRL GF? Even accounting for random channel surfing, you won't get more than maybe 30-40% at the absolute most.

So you might pick up another 100,000.

Perth, about the same, maybe a few more as it has a slightly larger population.

So all in all, adding SA and WA in all likelihood wouldn't add more than at the absolute, most optimistic, most...... 200k-ish.

Which, in real terms ain't going to make much difference to the bottom line.

 

[TheFirstRabbitoh]

Adelaide's a funny place. For all that people bitch about Melbournians being one-eyed about their football codes, Adelaide is much, muuuuuch worse.

There it's AFL or nothing, except soccer (but only if it's on in summer and not seen as competition).

 

[In-goal]

So all in all, adding SA and WA in all likelihood wouldn't add more than at the absolute, most optimistic, most...... 200k-ish.

Rubbish people tune into big games simply because it's an event and at the same time the best of a particular sport, Ch.9 Melbourne were bamboozled by the high ratings for the GF who are you to say what sort of numbers would have watched the NRL GF.

p.s. When Adelaide were in the top flight they attracted massive crowds but they were absolutley hopless, same applies with perth who once had a very large League comp.

I'm tipping that around 650,000 viewers were lost due to the descision of Ch.9.

 

[TheFirstRabbitoh]

650,000? Are you kidding?

1. It would have required 1 in 3 of everybody in those states to have been watching TV on Sunday night (doesn't happen).

2. It would have required every single one of them to be watching the NRL grand final.

You wouldn't even get half that.

As a percentage of people actuaaly watching TV at that point in time the AFL grand final slaughters the NRL grand final, simply because nobody watches TV on Saturday arvo unless there's something specifically on that they want to watch..