How TV ratings for the codes impacts revenue.......
.....FTA – Capital Cities
The AFL currently wins capital city ratings due to far more content shown in more cities on more channels. The AFL also has picks 1,2,3 and 4 on FTA while the NRL has picks 1,2 and 5.
Channel Nine has a rolling schedule where they set the NRL fixtures six weeks in advance and the AFL has a fixed season schedule. The NRL have suggested they will be changing to a fixed season schedule from 2013.
One factor for broadcasters is that an AFL game provides 60 mins of ads in a three hour program, an NRL game provides 40 mins of ads in a two hour program.
However, this shows volume of ads, not how much those ads are worth.
The FTA networks make 1.41 times more advertising revenue from Sydney and Brisbane than they do from Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.
The following figures are for the first eight full rounds of the NRL and AFL in 2010 (before the NRL brings in the split round period due to the test match and State of Origin).
NRL
Sydney 24 games shown on Nine, avg audience 330K.
Brisbane 24 games shown on Nine, avg audience 196K.
Melbourne 15 games shown on Nine, avg audience 18K (Midnight coverage).
AFL
Melbourne 48 games shown on Seven, Ten, 7Two and One HD, avg audience 223K.
Perth 51 games shown on Seven, Ten, 7Two and One HD, avg audience 95K.
Adelaide 50 games shown on Seven, Ten, 7Two and One HD, avg audience 77K.
Sydney 45 games shown on Seven, Ten, 7Two and One HD, avg audience 28K.
Brisbane 49 games shown on Seven, Ten, 7Two and One HD, avg audience 35K.
The NRL has a higher average in Sydney than the AFL in Melbourne and the NRL has a higher average in Brisbane than the AFL in Perth and Adelaide.
The NRL has less content on FTA as they offered their product to only one network with their current broadcast deal and allowed channel Nine to market rugby league in Melbourne. This should be rectified with the next deal.
FTA – Regionals
The first area that the NRL dominates is FTA regionals, for the obvious reason that there are five million people living in regional NSW and Qld and 2.57 million people living in regional Vic, WA, SA and all of Tasmania.
Regional figures are difficult for your average sports fan to find. However, the networks, Foxtel, NRL and AFL are well aware of the exact figures.
An idea of their importance can be seen with Game 1 of State of Origin this year.
FTA capital city ratings were 2.45 million, but when you put in the regional figures, the game rated 3.6 million.
That’s an extra 1.15 million people from the regionals.
The FTA networks make a staggering 2.2 times more advertising revenue from regional NSW and Qld than from regional Vic, WA, SA, and all of Tasmania and the NT.
The AFL currently has only one team outside of the five mainland capital cities in the Geelong Cats (soon to be two with the Gold Coast joining the AFL in 2011), while the NRL already has four with the North Qld Cowboys, Gold Coast Titans, Canberra Raiders and the Newcastle Knights, as well as current strong bids from Central Qld and Central Coast.
The regional figures are such a strong factor for the NRL that David Gallop has suggested the NRL may sell their product separately to the regionals.
For example, sell to Channel Nine and then separately to WIN/NBN.
Foxtel
The NRL dominates Foxtel due to higher ratings, more content and Foxtel’s greatest market penetration being in NSW and Qld. The NRL has picks 3,4,6,7 and 8 on Fox sports and the AFL has picks 5,6,7 and 8.
The NRL had 40 games on Foxtel, avg audience 205K
The AFL had 32 games on Foxtel, avg audience 159K........
the way you've used 3 games to our 1 (delayed match) and only counted 2/3 of our audience.... Is this intended as a compliment?
