Never said the regionals out rate the metros, I was comparing them in populations, more people watch RL per capita in the bush.The_Wookie wrote:to be fair, this has to be tempered a little. NRL folk count anyone who watches Origin as a supporter for some reason, even though this isnt reflected in any other tv audience for the rest of the year. Yes, we understand Origin is part of rugby league as a whole, but almost all Origin viewership outside of NSW/QLD is due to the event itself, as well as being played mid week in an otherwise sporting blackhole, while not making those people genuine supporters of the game. The same can be applied to the grand finals of either code outside heartland areas.ParraEelsNRL wrote:Yes.
You people from the AFL states like to play down the support RL has in this country, yet year after year the TV figures show that RL is the most popular game on TV in this country.
What a lot of AFL fans don't seem to get either is the fact that our true heartland (the bush) doesn't get mentioned, these people love their footy as much if not more than their city slicker brothers yet find it almost impossible to get to games esp when played Friday or Monday nights thus restricting the potential average crowds across the board.
On average the regionals rate higher for RL than the metro do.
Origin TV 2014: Melb 320-426k, Perth 90-136k, Adelaide 49-86k
Home & Away Ave: Melb 20, Perth 12, Adelaide 2 (when it can be even shown live)
Its quite clear that event watchers arent being turned into regular supporters.
And while NRL ratings in the regionals may be ignored, to a large degree they are ignored in the AFL arena as well. Victorian ratings are not reported at all, Regional SA isnt covered, and Regional WA/Tasmania doesnt get a hell of a lot of acknowledgement either.
Oh and on average NRL regionals DONT rate higher than NRL metro, its about 73% of the metro total as of the time of writing. Only twice this year has Regional exceeded the Metro ratings on OZtam reports. Metro ave: 573k, Regional Ave: 420k
edit
And I wasn't talking SOO, I was talking Rugby League.