Weekend TV Ratings – AFL R12, NRL R14, Soccer
AFL
The AFL rated 4.17 million for Round 12, with 2.767 million on Free to air and 1.410 million on Foxfooty. All 7 games for the round were broadcast in at least one free to air market.
The highest rating AFL game on free to air television this round was the Queens Birthday clash between Collingwood and Melbourne which rated 704,000 – 557,000 in Metro markets and 147,000 in the regions. Thursday, Friday and Saturday night coverage all rated over 600,000.
Over on Fox, Foxfooty was rated the number 2 channel by ASTRA, falling behind Foxleague for the first time in 9 weeks and for the third time this season. The highest rating AFL game on Foxfooty was also the Queens Birthday clash with 264,000 viewers nationally, closely followed by the Blues v GWS match at 254,000.
For the season, the AFL ratings have topped 54 million (33 million on FTA) with increases in all metro markets except Sydney and Perth. Sydney is perhaps reflecting the inconsistent performance of the Swans where the average is down -13% to 28,000 per match. Melbourne is up 6% to 297,000 per match, being a beneficiary of dropping low rating Saturday afternoon coverage. Brisbane is in something of a renaissance, up 26% to 27,000 per game. Adelaides ratings are up with their teams, increasing 20% to 117,000 per game, while in Perth the trials of Fremantle are proving detrimental to audiences, down -4% to 94,000 per match. Overall the metro audiences are up 14% to 294,000 per game on the same time in 2016.
Regional audiences are harder to quantify due to inconsistent data reporting prior to this year, however we believe that AFL regional ratings are up around 8% based on estimates used for 2016.
Over on Pay TV, the average audience is up 1% to 196,000. Sydney audiences rating an average of 16,000, Melbourne 86,000, Brisbane 13,000, Adelaide 21,000 and Perth 28,000. Metro Audiences rate an average of 164,000, while regionals average 43,000. We didnt have this data last year so we cant compare it, and we only have the data this year thanks to Mediaweek.
NRL
The NRL rated 3.815m for the round (in Australia, with an estimated extra ~200,000 in NZ) with 1.251m metro, 785,000 regional and 1.779m Foxleague viewers. 3 of 8 games for the round were broadcast nationally on FTA.
The highest rating NRL game on free to air television this round was the Friday night match between Brisbane and South Sydney with 757,000 viewers, including 477,000 metro and 280,000 in the regions. Thursday night fell just short of 700,000 at 698k, and Sunday afternoon came in at 581,000.
On Foxtel, Foxleague was rated number 1 STV channel by ASTRA, its first win in more than 2 months, and its third win since Foxleague debuted. The highest rating Foxleague game was Saturday nights Parramatta v North Queensland game with 255,000, with Penrith/Canberra behind in the narrowest of margins on 254k.
For the season, the NRL have topped 52.4 million (26 million on FTA). Metro (5 city) ratings are down 10% to an average of 390,000, mostly due to Sydney ratings being down -25% to an average of 195,000, up north Brisbane ratings are up 2% to 156,000. There is insufficient data for an accurate year to year comparison in each of the minor NRL capitals, but GEM ratings average 39,000 in 2017 across Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
Regional audiences are down -14% to 254,000 on average.
On Foxleague, the average audience is down -1.51% to an average of 233,000. Sydney audiences rate an average of 92,000, Melbourne 14,000, Brisbane 45,000, Adelaide 2,000 and Perth 6,000. Metro audiences average 158,000, with regionals averaging 74,000. As mentioned above, we are heavily indebted to Mediaweek for the above figures.
Soccer
Three big soccer games took place over the period with all three games broadcast on 9Go! (except Argentina v Brazil in Melbourne which was shown on Nine) and Australias games also covered on Foxtel.
On Go! the biggest audience of the weekend was the Argentina v Brazil clash at the MCG with 269,000 metro and 147,000 regional viewers, including 119,000 on Nine in Melbourne. The Socceroos World Cup Qualifier on Thursday rated 262,000 while Tuesday nights game against Brazil rated 221,000.
On Foxtel, the World Cup Qualifier drew 179,000 viewers to Foxtel, including 74,000 in Sydney, while Tuesday nights friendly was watched by 143,000.
