Talking Footy

State of Origin suffering a TV ratings slump
Phil Rothfield Sports Editor-at-Large, The Daily Telegraph
June 30, 2016 9:00pm

Rugby league’s showpiece event, State of Origin, is slowly dying.

Channel Nine TV ratings show a startling 680,000 viewers have disappeared in the last two years after yet another predictable Queensland series victory. The massive 16.5 per cent slump has been put down to a combination of reasons:

* Games starting too late and well after advertised kick-off time.

* Queensland’s dominance to win 10 of the last 11 series has become too monotonous and boring.

* The poor quality of games and overly defensive tactics; and

* Unpopular selections in the NSW Blues teams.

The ratings figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph have sent shock waves through the NRL on top of sluggish ticket sales for this year’s series.

Ticket sales for the Suncorp Stadium game, which normally sellout well in advance, were the slowest in history.

Officials had to lower seat prices to $30 (10 for $300) to ensure the game one crowd got to 80,000 in Sydney — an offer that has since been repeated for Origin III — for what was once regarded as the hottest ticket in sport. But the TV ratings slump is by far the biggest concern.

National ratings for the last three years for Origin 2 are 2014 (4,188,147) 2015 (3,922,305) and 2016 (3,496,983).

The number of viewers has fallen by nearly half a million on last year … and 680,000 on 2014.

A breakdown of the ratings show capital city figures remain steady with most viewers turning off in regional audiences across the country.

Although with Sydney audiences, figures were down more than 200,000 for game two compared to two years ago.

Channel Nine still expects the Origin series will provide two of the top-five rating shows on Australian television this year. Their revenue figures are also up 12 per cent on last year.

It is the potential long-term damage to future broadcast-deal negotiations and advertising sales that is the major concern for both the NRL and the network.

Especially as the figures quoted are for live games and not dead-rubbers.

Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 78ad7f73c1

AFLcrap1 wrote:

PHIL Slothfield .
Oh my .
Bea is still frothing & foaming with jealousy .
Only one more game to go .

Posting a Slothfield article shows just how desperate you are .

Beaussie wrote:

AFLcrap1 wrote:

PHIL Slothfield .
Oh my .
Bea is still frothing & foaming with jealousy .
Only one more game to go .

Posting a Slothfield article shows just how desperate you are .

Yep, typical response. Just ignore all the damning facts raised in the article. Get ya head out of the sand dopey.

Beaussie wrote:

AFLcrap1 wrote:

PHIL Slothfield .
Oh my .
Bea is still frothing & foaming with jealousy .
Only one more game to go .

Posting a Slothfield article shows just how desperate you are .

Yep, typical response. Just ignore all the damning facts raised in the article. Get ya head out of the sand dopey.

leagueiscrap wrote:

All those but buts!
Slowest ticket sales & $30 a seat

leeroy*NRL* wrote:

leagueiscrap wrote:

All those but buts!
Slowest ticket sales & $30 a seat

lol you a true knob..

there is not one but in there, its all true..

Game 2 2014 was a NSW series victory was it not ??

game 2 2016 was a QLD win (in nsw losing the series ) was it not ?

are you saying SOO game 3 will not get over 70k and a TV audience of over 3mill ??

Pete_09 wrote:

There is no way game 3 will sell out. Even the brain washed rugby league fans will agree with that.

I mean game 1 barely sold out when the series was 0-0.

Pete_09 wrote:

I want Queensland just to keep winning & winning cause it is killing your precious rugby league showpiece event. I am from Queensland & even some people here are getting sick of the predictable results. QUEENSLANDER!!!! haha