Weekend Crowds and Television – A-league R1, Australia v Tonga (RL) and EPL

The A-league

Attendance

The Opening round of the 2018-19 Aleague season was attended by 84,761 at an average attendance of 16,952 persons – up 26.86% on the opening round in 2017-18, helped chiefly by the Melbourne derby (held in R2 last season). Nothing can really be read into the seasons performance until rounds 4-5 after the major derby matches are complete though.

Melbourne A-league derby attendance was the 7th highest A-league derby crowd in Melbourne – of any kind – and the 6th highest regular season derby (there’s a semi final at the top), More people attended this game than any game in the 2017-18 season. Victory average 40,750 against City/Heart at this venue.

Television

Round 1 of the 2017-18 season rated a total of 384,000 on Foxtel, a figure that will not be met for round 1, 2018-19. which will finish with no more than 290,000 viewers on that mediium – a drop of at least 24%.

The A-league season opening game between Adelaide and Sydney rated 67,000 on Foxtel. This is the lowest rating season opening match on Foxtel since 2011-12 (the last time the opener was on a Saturday) .

The Melbourne derby rated 69,000 on Fox on Saturday night. Of the 8 early season derbies played between rounds 1-3 each season – this is the lowest Fox audience to date. Free to air television figures are not available at this time, however the match did fail to register on the Oztam multichannel top 20 (which cut off at 107,000). Last years broadcast game on One was Melbourne Victory v Sydney FC, which rated 84,000 in metro markets and a further 35,000 in the regions (and 107,000 on Fox)

Brisbanes game against Central Coast rated 53,000 while Perth had 58,000 viewers for their match. Figures were not available for Wellington and Newcastle as they rated outside the Oztam top 20 on Foxtel (which cut off at 45,000).

Note that the above do not include figures from streaming services including Foxtel Now, Foxtel Go, myfootballlive or Telstra mobile.

Rugby League

Australia played Tonga at Mt Smart in New Zealand in front of 26,214 people. The match rated 341,000 on Nine GEM (Metro 191k Regional 150k) and 231,000 on Fox League.

English Premier League

Chelsea v Manchester United rated 187,000 on SBS (Metro 160k Regional 27k). Optus streaming figures are unavailable.

Notes

• Crowd figures are sourced from the A-league and NRL websites unless noted.
• Capacity figures are sourced from Austadiums, unless overseas.
• Membership figures are sourced from club or league websites.
• TV Ratings are sourced from a variety of sources including twitter feeds from MediaweekAUS, DeciderTV, MrTVAus, as well as sites such as Mediaspy, TVTonight. and DeciderTV.
• Footyindustry.com is expressly forbidden to present ratings in any kind of table format. We apologise for any inconvenience.