2006 AFL TV Ratings

Season

A cumulative audience of nearly 4 million people per week watched AFL matches on television during the 2006 Toyota AFL Premiership Season in the five mainland capital cities. The average per round of 3.94 million was down 2 per cent on the record weekly cumulative audience established in 2005.

On average, another 1.17 million people per week watched telecasts of AFL matches in regional Australia.

The six most watched matches from the 2006 Toyota AFL Premiership Season in metropolitan and regional markets were as follows:

■ Collingwood-Essendon (round five) – average of 1.64 million viewers.
■ Brisbane Lions-Sydney Swans (round six) – average of 1.24 million viewers.
■ Collingwood-Brisbane Lions (round nine) – average of 1.17 million viewers.
■ Melbourne-Collingwood (round 11) average of 1.17 million viewers.
■ St Kilda-Brisbane Lions (round three) – average of 1.16 million viewers.
■ St Kilda-Fremantle (round five) – average of 1.14 million viewers.

Finals

The Toyota AFL Grand Final between the West Coast and Sydney was again the most watched AFL match of the year with an average audience in the five mainland capital cities of 3.15 million people. When the audience in regional Australia is added, some 4.15 million people in Australia watched the 2006 Grand Final on
Network Ten.

The average audience in the five mainland capital cities also meant the Grand Final was the second most watched television program of any type in 2006, behind only the telecast of the Commonwealth Games’ opening ceremony.

Other national audiences, including regional markets, for the 2006 Toyota AFL finals were as follows:
■ Sydney-Fremantle preliminary final – average audience of 2.22 million people.
■ Adelaide-West Coast preliminary final – average audience of 1.93 million people.
■ Fremantle-Melbourne semi-final – average audience of 1.68 million people.
■ West Coast-Western Bulldogs semi-final – average audience of 1.61 million people.
■ West Coast-Sydney qualifying final – average audience of 1.75 million people.
■ Adelaide-Fremantle qualifying final – average audience of 1.57 million people.
■ Melbourne-St Kilda elimination final – average audience of 1.58 million people.
■ Collingwood-Western Bulldogs elimination final – average audience of 1.52 million people.

Including the Grand Final, a cumulative audience of 18.1 million people watched the 2006 finals, down 1.6 per cent on the 2005 cumulative national audience (18.3 million people).