everlovin' Antichrist said:
With NRL FNF going live this season, the AFL will be hard-pressed to get even close to the NRL ratings on Friday night. Over the past few years the delayed NRL FNF has outrated AFL FNF comfortably.
On PayTV the NRL slaughters the AFL.
Of the two codes, four of the top 5 rating matches Australia-wide in 2006 on FTA TV were Rugby League matches and that's with the League matches either not being on in SA and WA or being on at ridiculous times.
The quality of the NRL v the quantity of AFL.
No one spin-doctors and bastardises TV statistics more than paranoid Rugby League idiots who have no idea how to follow two games.
Firstly, the AFL was (and will be in 2007) delayed at 8:30 pm on Friday nights too. Why only state that only the NRL was?
Secondly, the NRL game is the match of the round. The AFL is not, and in some cases, could actually be the least important game of the round depending on what game has been fixtured at the start of the season. Why not mention this? Is there some reason, why this is not mentioned?
Thirdly, you are obviously creating some made-up stats by adding together regional figures to free-to air figures. Overlapping (spill) of the Regionals and Metro Figures occur a lot in NSW and Qld very Little in Vic and not at all in any of the other states, because their is only one market included in the Ratings for those states (SA, Tas and WA), If you don't believe me have a look at the coverage maps for both OZTam and the Regionals.
http://www.oztam.com.au/pdf/tv_ratings/metro_coverage_maps.pdf
http://www.regionaltvmarketing.com.au/Portals/www.regionaltvmarketing.com.au/documents/RTV%20guide%202006.pdf
You can't just add up the Metro and Regional figures to get a representation of what people are watching nation wide esp for a leagues as localised as the AFL & NRL.
But I know it wont stop you RL guys using the "if you add the metro + Regionals ratings" argument. I mean for christs sake the Gold Coast is counted both as part of NNSW AND as part of Brisbane in the metro figures. Gosford and all up past Wyong is counted twice too, (but only if you are stupid enough too add the figures together)
Fourthly, The regional populations of WA and SA (combined 897,000)are also not released in any official figures. From oztam, a very small regional figure is counted as part of the capital city total for both but not very much.
Population of WA: 1,952,280
Population of Perth: 1,477,815
Regional population of WA: 474,465
Population of SA: 1,552,500[/b]
Population of Adelaide: 1,129,269
Regional population of SA: 423,232
Your figure for the NRL Grand Final "nearly" matching the AFL Grand Final uses a made-up number that I have never seen quoted in any official publication. It also does not take into account that the NRL GF was played in prime time. I actually believe that if the AFL was played in prime time, the figures in NSW and Qld would be less because it would be going head to head with the NRL.
But if you play the AFL GF on a Sunday night with no competition (like the NRL) then the figures would be astronomical, as we all know. Why do you think the NRL play it during the evening? You need to compare apples with apples. You don't do this because you are selective and bias.
More people watch the AFL on TV than the NRL. You can play around with the numbers, you can be selective with the figures you display. You can choose to ignore some figures and not ignore others. You can do whatever you want with the figures until you find a stats that suits your agument. And you will do this, no doubt. But it won't change the fact that the AFL is by far the biggest league in the country both at the ground and on television.