THE Seven Network's broadcast of the AFL grand final averaged 3.6 million viewers nationally and had a 91 per cent share in Perth.
Hawthorn's defeat of Fremantle averaged 2.717 million metro viewers for its three-hour duration, peaking with 3.289 million in the five capital cities.
It peaked with 4.5 million viewers nationally. The game averaged 1.279 million viewers in Melbourne and a further 503,000 in Perth. In OzTAM ratings figures for metro viewing, it was the third-highest-rating program for the year behind the abridged "winner's announcement" segments of finales for Nine's The Block Sky High (3.075 million) and My Kitchen Rules (2.952 million).
But the AFL grand final's huge audience across the day provided a consistently effective commercial environment and promotional platform for its programming for more than five hours.
The post-game presentations averaged 2.467 million metro viewers, the pre-game formalities averaged 1.967 million and the post-match telecast 1.726 million. It led into Seven News, which averaged 1.64 million viewers in the five capital cities.
The audience was down slightly on last year's grand final, which averaged 2.937 million metro viewers for the match between Hawthorn and Sydney, and 3.196 million for the presentations to the victorious Sydney Swans.
The Sydney average audience for this year's match was down by 265,000, or nearly 40 per cent on last year. Meanwhile, the Perth audience for 2013 rose 110,000, or 28 per cent, on last year's audience.
