Talking Footy

David Dale's daily media report, updated 10 am Saturday

Channel Seven has some consolation as it prepares to pay News Limited $23.5 million for legal costs incurred in the case Seven lost about football rights. At least the footy that Seven does have is doing brilliantly, even in Sydney. Look at the numbers for last night -- and it's only the beginning of finals season.

Seven is currently averaging 31.2 per cent of the week's prime time audience, with Nine on 25.4 per cent, Ten on 22.2, ABC on 16.2, and SBS on 5.0. Not even the first biffo semi-final tonight will help Nine nationally, though it could make Nine a winner in Sydney. For the rest of us, there's the semi final of Doctor Who.

What Australia watched, Friday

Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth

1 SEVEN'S AFL: SEMI-FINAL 2: WEST COAST V COLLINGWOOD Seven 1,636,000 156,000 762,000 115,000 223,000 380,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,396,000 367,000 363,000 263,000 147,000 256,000
3 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,281,000 444,000 512,000 205,000 121,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,180,000 320,000 390,000 242,000 139,000 89,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,097,000 296,000 406,000 202,000 108,000 84,000
6 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,040,000 327,000 356,000 223,000 134,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 996,000 418,000 335,000 243,000
8 TEMPTATION Nine 995,000 247,000 394,000 185,000 103,000 67,000
9 ABC NEWS ABC 942,000 254,000 328,000 192,000 101,000 66,000
10 MOTORWAY PATROL Nine 898,000 242,000 314,000 191,000 67,000 83,000
16 NEIGHBOURS Ten 686,000 178,000 222,000 128,000 92,000 66,000
20 ALFIE Ten 637,000 192,000 184,000 110,000 78,000 73,000
21 IT'S ME OR THE DOG FRI Ten 627,000 179,000 199,000 102,000 69,000 79,000
26 2007 TWENTY20 CRICKET WORLD CUP - AUSTRALIA V ENGLAND Nine 440,000 127,000 125,000 51,000 67,000 70,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Swans' slump extends to TV
By Tim Morrissey

September 14, 2007 12:00am

THE Swans' lacklustre season has been reflected in an alarming 21 per cent drop in their television audience in Sydney.

As many as 32,000 people per game turned off the Swans as their average TV audience slumped from 154,500 in 2006 to just 122,500 this season.

Even more worrying for the AFL was the Swans' poor prime-time audience in Sydney for last Saturday night's 38-point elimination final loss to Collingwood at the MCG.

An average of 146,000 Sydneysiders tuned in to Channel 10 for the Swans' most important game of the year, making the AFL showpiece only the 10th watched show in the Harbour City on Saturday.

The Swans on Ten were smashed in Sydney by both NRL qualifying finals on Channel 9, with Manly v Rabbitohs on Saturday night boasting an average audience of 502,000 and the earlier Cowboys v Bulldogs game attracting 485,000 viewers.

The Swans were also comprehensively beaten in the ratings in Sydney by Seven's John Travolta movie double Grease (291,000) and Saturday Night Fever (221,000).

On the ABC, Doctor Who (197,000), The Bill (184,000) and the news update (155,000) all outrated the Swans.

Despite their enormous success over the past two seasons, the Swans are losing the battle for the TV remote control, with an overall 704,000 fewer viewers this season.

The Swans-Collingwood final suffered a 31.5 per cent drop in audience compared to the first round final against West Coast in 2005, which attracted an average of 213,000 viewers.

In 2005, an average of 994,000 Sydneysiders watched the Swans beat West Coast by four points in the grand final, but in a rematch of that game last year only 765,000 Sydneysiders, a 23 per cent drop, tuned in to see the Eagles win the flag by a point. The ratings drop is a significant setback in the first year of the AFL's $100 million five-year plan to grow its code in the strategically important Sydney market.

If the Swans' TV ratings in Sydney continue to trend downwards next season and beyond, Steve Allen, media analyst from Fusion Strategy, says the AFL could lose one of its important "negotiating tools" when the next broadcast rights deal is on the table.

The AFL was paid $780 million by a consortium headed by Seven and Ten for the TV rights from 2007-2011.

Allen said yesterday poor TV ratings for AFL in Sydney would have a negative impact on Seven's and Ten's advertising revenue and could force the commercial networks to ask the Swans and AFL to do more to promote the game in Australia's biggest market.

The AFL's media partners were not happy this season that Swans co-captain Barry Hall - the club's best known player - made just two media appearances during the season.

"Audiences are the currency and if audiences go down year on year in any single market, it is very difficult to get an advertising rate increase through," Allen said.

"If the audiences continue to decline you can bet that Seven and Ten will have a conversation with the Swans, with the AFL and with each other

Willis 21 wrote:

This is why they wont show AFL into Sdney and Brisbane on Friday nights - because of the NRL coverage...