Footy Finals Fizzle in the ratings

[yeenar69]

Television


Footy finals fizz in the ratings
Author: eNews staff and agencies | Oct 1, 2007, 16:54

The games were one-sided, the TV audiences were below par, and thus ends the AFL and NRL (Rugby league) seasons for 2007.

More with a whimper than a bang.

Perhaps AFL fans had been spoiled by the epic 2005 and 2006 grand finals between the Sydney Swans and the West Coast Eagles. Only six points in both games (five and one point margins) as Sydney and Perth shared the spoils.

But the audiences were both well three million in both cases: more than half a million more than the audience for Saturday’s runaway Geelong win.

Likewise in the NRL, the epic 2005 struggle between the Wests Tigers and North Queensland and then between Brisbane and Melbourne last year produced big audiences: upwards of 200,000 or so more than Sunday night’s figure for the Melbourne runaway win over manly.

There’s no doubt audiences appreciate the highs and lows of a match that promises to be close, and lives up to it.

And, in the AFL, strong Sydney and Perth teams are vital to big TV audiences: Sydney is the biggest unconquered market for Aussie rules (and Melbourne for League), Perth is the most fanatically loyal market (well, maybe outside of the Wobbles support crew

So disappointment for the AFL, NRL and their broadcast partners, the Ten and Nine Networks with audiences for the biggest matches of the season falling short of expectations and of last year.

The one-sided AFL Grand Final was watched by an average 2.542 million people in the five major metro markets; the regional figures will be available tomorrow.

That five city figure is the lowest AFL audience since the present ratings system started in 2001.

The TV audience for the easy Geelong win over Port Adelaide was a massive 600,000 people, or nearly 20% lower than the epic 2006 battle between the West Coast Eagles and the Sydney Swans which averaged 3.15 million people.

Last night's NRL match was also down, with 2.389 million people watching the Melbourne Storm easily account for Manly. That was 163,000 down on 2006 game between the Storm and the Brisbane Broncos.

The lower audience will not be greeted warmly at the NRL and Nine which had hoped the presence of a Sydney team in manly, would lift the number of viewers.

It did in Sydney, where 913,000 people watched, up on 2006's audience of 804,000.

But in a disappointing figure, just 723,000 people watched in Melbourne this year compared to the 903,000 who watched the Storm lose the 2006 final to Brisbane. 568,000 people watched in Brisbane last night.

The live broadcast to Adelaide (95,000) and Perth, 89,000, on WIN, was not successful. But the NRL broadcast helped Nine win Melbourne on the night but it lost Adelaide and Perth to Seven.

The audience in turn was down on the 2005 win by the Wests Tigers over North Queensland which averaged 2.562 million viewers. Last night's audience was the lowest since 2004.

The AFL Grand Final Audience was also well down on the 2005 match when Sydney beat Weagles and was watched by an audience of 3.386 million. That was the biggest since the Oztam system started back in 2001.

The audience drop on Saturday was felt across the board, from the start of Ten's extensive coverage at 8 am Saturday, to the end of the after match stuff around 6 pm.

Oztam figures show that the pre-match telecast averaged 1.944 million (compared to the 2.270 million in 2006) and the after match telecast averaged 2.387 million (2.50 million).

It was a disappointing result for Ten and the AFL which would have thought that with one Melbourne area team in the competition, it would have seen a higher figure.

But having Sydney in the final game of the season matters more: just 321,000 people watched the game in the Swans home town, compared to the 763,000 in 2006 and over 900,000 in 2005.

The AFL audience in Melbourne of 1.214 million was solid enough

Despite the poor performance of Port, the Adelaide audience was 377,000 people, up an understandable 50,000 on last year’s telecast. The game drew an average audience of 385,000 in Perth and 270,000 in Brisbane.

Collingwood would have boosted the audience had it made it to the grand final, but it still would have needed Sydney or one of the Perth Clubs to generate a bigger national audience.

The NRL needs a Sydney NRL club to win, as the Tigers did in 2005 with a performance that now looks like a bit of a fairytale; a bit like Geelong's win on Saturday..

The figures for both the AFL and NRL don't reflect the hundreds of thousands of people watching in pubs and clubs across the country, or the extra people in homes.

...................



And the NRL and the Nine Network would have been disappointed that the Grand Final last night between many and the Storm didn't pull a bigger audience. An average 2.389 million people watched the game,

The Seven network won the week and had it won after the success of Monday night's Brownlow broadcast.

Seven ended with a share of 30.0% (30.5%) from Nine with 26.8% (26.0%), Ten with 21.7% (22.0%), the ABC with 16.2% (16.4%) and SBE with 5.3% 95.2%).

Seven won Monday, Tuesday and Friday nights. Nine won three nights as well: Sunday, Thursday and Saturday. Ten won Wednesday.

Seven won Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Ten's AFL grand Final did nothing for its ratings on Saturday night, especially in Melbourne. Ten had nothing to grab viewers after the football finished.

Nine will have won last night (Sunday) with the NRL, but faces a tough week and won't win Monday or Tuesday nights and will struggle over the other nights to beat Seven.
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