TV Ratings for the Grand Final

[Glenn]

1st Division???

I assume they mean the Toyota Cup coverage?

 

[joanne]

I assume they mean the Toyota Cup coverage?

I assume so too. They referred to the NSW Cup GF as "Under 21's" in the ratings as well. Someone @ Nine really knows their league!:sarcasm:

 

[roopy]

Being part of the million rugby league fans from country NSW and Qld who are considered to not exist for rateings purposes, I always consider these 'major city' figures as pure fiction.
Hobart, Darwin and Canberra are counted, but much bigger cities like Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold Coast, Lake Macquarie etc etc etc are all ignored - and the only reason I can think of is that it makes AFL look good - because the ignored cities are the places where RL is strongest.

 

[Brutus]

It's now up to the NRL to put out a press release highlighting regionals. If they are serious about their product they will do this.

 

[doggzfan4lyf]

NRL Grand Final out-rates the AFL

The NRL Grand Final won by the Melbourne Storm has out-rated the AFL Grand Final. It was the second time in three years the NRL Grand Final has out-rated the AFL game, thanks to the presence (and eventual victory) of the Melbourne Storm in the final match of the season.
The Storm won the match played in Sydney and watched by 3.490 million people across all TV markets on the Nine Network. In Australia: 2.46 million viewers watched in the five metro markets, with 1.119 million on average watching Sydney, 650,000 in Melbourne and 535,000 watched Brisbane.
A further 1.080 million watched in regional Australia. In contrast 3.47 million people watched the AFL Grand Final in all markets: 2.704 million people watched the AFL Grand Final on the Ten Network in the five metro markets.
More than 1.42 million people watched in Melbourne, with the regional audience around the country adding a further 70,000 to the audience. In terms of the combined figure, that was better than the 3.135 million who watched the AFL match across the country last year and 3.329 million who watched in 2007.
The NRL Grand Final was the second highest in the current system of TV ratings, just behind the 3.748 million (2.422 million in the five metro markets) who watched the Storm win its second Grand Final in 2007. It’s now clear from the final series since 2005 in both codes that to get big national audiences, both codes need the presence of one out of Sydney/Melbourne Club.
The AFL’s biggest audiences were in 2005 and 2006 for the epic Sydney Swans/West Coast Eagles matches, one once by each club. The Storm have featured in the two best-viewed NRL Grand Finals, making it perhaps the best marketing prospect in Rugby League for sponsors.

crikey.com.au/2009/10/05/nrl-grand-final-out-rates-the-afl/

 

[Apey]

Wewt.

 

[Chook Norris]

we won't get the same figures until RL is shown, regularly, on FTA in Melb before midnight..

woops, my bad, i just realised that Melb in 2006.. 900,000 watched them agaisnt the Broncos

 

[Brutus]

These are the TV figures with regionals as released by the NRL in an official media release. Sorry, can't provide a link. Got this sent to me.

Monday, October 05, 2009

MEDIA RELEASE​

More than 3.64million viewers across Metropolitan and Regional television markets tuned in to see Melbourne’s thrilling 23-16 victory over Parramatta in the 2009 Telstra Premiership Grand Final at a packed ANZ Stadium yesterday.

The average five capital city audience of 2.52million viewers (2008: 2.051m) with a peak of 3.09million across the Nine Network was the highest since 2006.

WIN and NBN attracted an average of 1.12 million and a peak audience of 1.41 million across regional Australia.

Sydney led the way with an average of 1.16 million fans tuning into the match (2008: 924,000) and a peak audience of 1.31 million joining the 82,538 fans at the game.

Melbourne opened its heart to the Storm with an average of 682,000 (2008:487,000) and a peak audience of 925,000 as the match won every ‘quarter hour ratings period’.

Brisbane viewers also increased with an average of 563,000 (2008: 501,000) watching the match and a peak audience of 675,000.

“It was a huge show of support for Rugby League,” National Rugby League Chief Executive, Mr David Gallop, said today.

“Congratulations to Melbourne on winning two Premierships in three years, to Parramatta for providing one of the greatest runs to a grand final ever seen and to all the fans who shared the experience of a thrilling match.

“The growth in television ratings in 2009 underlines the opportunities that lie ahead for the Telstra Premiership.”

 

[roopy]

Wow - regionals came very close to beating Sydney.

 

[beave]

Ummmmmmm, where has the fight club gone???

 

[maple_69]

Factor in reasonably sizeable audiences in NZ, USA, GB and PNG, where the AFL has no reach, and the NRL has comprehensively jizzed all over fumbleball.

 

[thommo4pm]

Ummmmmmm, where has the fight club gone???

The Fight Club is still there...the figures from last night's match deserved to be shared on the bigger forum though.

 

[Lego_Man]

~250,000 in New Zealand wouldnt surprise me at all.

 

[Teddyboy]

~250,000 in New Zealand wouldnt surprise me at all.

I read last years grand final got 500000 viewers in New Zealand.

 

[russ13]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/messenger-can-watch-a-better-league-broadcast-in-the-us-than-south-of-the-border-20091004-ghve.html

Messenger can watch a better league broadcast in the US than south of the border

ROY MASTERS

October 4, 2009
Dally Messenger III and his wife watched yesterday's NRL grand final between the Storm and Parramatta from a bar in New York where the menu offered a ''Big Artie breakfast'' and ''Eggs Wayne Bennettdict.''

''We booked the last table,'' said Messenger, the grandson of the man whose switch from rugby union to league in 1908 guaranteed the success of the fledgling code.

The Messengers watched the game, on delay, at The Australian, a bar-lounge-restaurant at 20 West 38th Street, from 11am US time via Spike TV, the giant cable network which serves North America.

The grand final was televised to more than 55 countries, live via ESPN in Britain and Ireland and Fox Sport in the Middle East, and on delay via Spike TV in Canada and the United States.
Fans in Asia and the Pacific islands saw it live on the Australian Network via a satellite footprint that takes in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Singapore and the Pacific Islands
Telstra, the NRL sponsor and media partner, provided a live streaming service to international fans outside of New Zealand, the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Messenger could have paid $US5.95 ($6.90) to Telstra Big Pond and watched the game live via computer in his hotel room.

The host broadcaster, Nine, televised it live into every Australian state, and Sky New Zealand took the entire match-day coverage.

The bankruptcy of the previous international rights holder, Setanta, has been a blessing for the code.

''Spike TV and ESPN acquired the rights when Setanta went belly-up, and it's worked out all right for us,'' an NRL spokesman said.

The next step for the NRL is to embrace the digital revolution, a global phenomenon that includes the developing world, driven by the growth of fast broadband and internet enabled mobile phones.

Future international rights sales must include negotiations on digital rights.

Foxtel's recent announcement of 30 additional channels and the new offering of movie downloads through broadband is an example of the opportunities via the digital age.
Rugby league has always lagged behind other codes in terms of maximising the value of its broadcast rights, certainly in terms of international sales.

There is almost a cultural cringe factor when rugby league administrators approach broadcasters, as if it is apologising for asking too much.

This is despite the code being one of the first sports in Australia to embrace TV.
The football historian Sean Fagan says: ''Ask a Victorian when was the first live coverage of a footy grand final on Melbourne TV and who were the teams. He will readily inform you it was 1977, when North Melbourne played Collingwood.

''Wrong. The first was a decade earlier, and it wasn't VFL. It was rugby league.''
On September 16, 1967 the first live telecast of a football grand final in Melbourne was the screening of the Canterbury Bankstown v South Sydney game at the SCG.
While the 1967 grand final was being screened live into Melbourne on GTV-9 via coaxial cable from Sydney, more than 90,000 people were at the MCG watching the VFL preliminary final between Carlton and Geelong.
Forty years later rugby league fans in Victoria cannot see live NRL on Nine unless it is a State of Origin game, or a finals match involving the Storm.
In 1967 Nine reached agreement with the NSWRL for a fee of $5000 for TV rights.
Significantly, the VFL had offered its grand final to the four Melbourne stations that same season, but negotiations broke down when the VFL refused to budge on its fee for live coverage. It wanted $25,000 from each station screening it live.
The AFL has always insisted on more money for a product that does not translate as well to TV as rugby league, a game played on a rectangular field with straight lines of defence.
The AFL is asking for $1 billion over five years for its next broadcasting contract, using it to drive its push into western Sydney and the Gold Coast. Meanwhile, the NRL can take the grand final to Bahrain, Bangladesh and Brunei but cannot get its best regular season games into Melbourne.
Dally Messenger III, who refused to take phone calls from Australia while the game was being played, is accustomed to delayed coverage of NRL. He lives in Melbourne, where Nine screens NRL matches after midnight.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

 

[Eelectrica]

Well done Melbourne on beating Brisbane. Seriously

 

[Cumberland Throw]

So for the NRL GF to beat the AFL GF Nationally it would need to get to 3 474 000 nationally... Including regionals..

For metros NRL is already at 2 416 000 Therefore we need about 1 million to be added when the regionals are included...

Last week 740 000 regionals watched the Parra v Dogs game...

It will close but we should just get there... hopefully should know on Wednesday

 

[big_matt]

I think the NSW media will seriously struggle to continue to claim no-one in Vic knows/cares about NRL if 700k people watch the GF there. Its only 400k less than the Sydney figure and its (a) a smaller city in population and (b) has AFL as its main sport.

 

[maccattack]

tell me, how are ratings collected these days?

 

[Perth Red]

Guess work and fingers! The statistical collection of viewing figures is so weak that you would be laughed at in serious academic circles if that was your sample group size. I am staggered that companies would base millions of $'s of advertising on figures that are massively unreliable.