Fox League enjoys biggest-ever overnight share after start of 2018 NRL season
After the first NRL match of 2018 last week, MCN reported that Fox League had its highest-ever overnight share. The average national audience of 263,000 was up 13% on the 2017 opening game.
Also reporting a bigger audience was The Late Show with Matty Johns with 113,000 watching, up 22% on the launch episode in 2017.
In 2018 our crowds are UP...TV ratings are UP....participation/junior registrations are UP....investment into grassroots is UP....investment into our clubs & players is UP...Premiership games played in the bush are UP...Revenues are UP...Costs are DOWN....
NRL announces historic Touch football premiership competition
AuthorDan Walsh Timestamp Wed 18 Apr 2018, 11:15 AM
Touch football will make an historic leap in 2018 with the announcement of an NRL premiership competition where games will be played as curtain-raisers before first grade fixtures from next month.
The six-team competition will see three NSW-based and three Queensland NRL clubs draw on touch football's best male and female players for the inaugural premiership, starting in round 11 on May 18.
Two 30-minute touch games – men's and women's – will lead into relevant NRL matches, with broadcast partner Fox Sports to televise the contests through a mix of live and delayed coverage.
The competition will last for seven rounds in total, with Touch Football Australia CEO Steve Mitchell lauding the chance to showcase touch football to a wider audience in the same year the sport celebrates its 50th anniversary.
NRL counterpart Todd Greenberg declared the new competition the "first step in a much bigger journey that we can make", with Mitchell hoping the closer NRL association could one day lead touch football to its own professional competition.
"This is a diversification piece, similar to cricket where you've got multiple formats of the game… this reaches a new community, a different demographic, it's short-form and a really exciting piece for the rugby league family," Mitchell said on Wednesday.
"(The competition will be) absolutely amateur at first, and that will probably be the case for the first couple of seasons.
"But the more we can build the more we can build that, the more profile we can give it, the more people we can get involved the more commercially attractive it becomes.
It's understood the governing bodies and not players will be footing the bill when it comes to travel and playing expenses.
Boasting 613,000 participants, touch football has proven a breeding ground for some of the NRL's brightest talent, with the likes of Benji Marshall, Kalyn Ponga, Valentine Holmes and Shaun Johnson all honing their skills in the non-contact sport before graduating to league.
"The quality of what you'll see on the field, the quality of the product of touch football is fantastic," Greenberg said.
"But more than that it's so inclusive because it's men and women playing so I expect (the new competition) to be an unbelievably strong success."
Rugby League, the dominant force in Australian sport!
"I do like annoying the Victorians; they are so easy to get, At times I've looked at them and had a giggle." Peter V'Landys
looks like the nRL isnt quite leading the way when it comes to social media
Nine had the two most-talked-about non-sport programs on social media as measured by the Nielsen Social Content Ratings last week.
Nine News and The Voice ranked #1 and #2 on the chart we publish today. Nine had three of the top five while Seven was represented in the top five by Sunrise and My Kitchen Rules.
On the sports chart, AFL matches filled the first four sports including the Anzac Day and Anzac eve clashes shown by Seven and Fox Footy.
NRL failed to make the top five, with fifth spot being taken by the A-League Sydney v Victory game that was decided in extra time last Saturday night.
You really must be desperate . Having to resort to cherry picking the week that the AFL had 5.5 matches.
what?
What the hell are you talking about???
Can you see your post? and are you aware of what you quoted?
Weekly Top 5
. Besides , Morgan only includes part of rugby league and only uses Twitter figures.
yes I'm aware of what I quoted, the top 5 sports for the week on social media. The AFL had 9 games and the NRL 8. The NRL didnt even beat the A league, which had far less than half the top AFL game.
I'm fascinated to hear your excuses for this one, given the NRL lead the way and all......
