The first week of finals action is unsurprisingly proving to be a big winner with footy fans.
The Brisbane Lions and Richmond final was the big winner with viewers with the game attracting an average national FTA audience of 1.232 million – up 10.2 per cent on last year’s week one Friday night final between AFL powerhouses Geelong and Collingwood.
The interstate AFL battle finished well ahead of the Sydney-centric 1st NRL Qualifying Final between the Panthers and Roosters. Nine’s Friday night coverage attracted a national FTA audience of 726,000 (442k metro)
Seven recorded its highest audience in Brisbane in 11 years (excluding Grand Finals), with the average audience of 149,000 doubling last year’s Cats-Pies qualifying final.
The Brisbane audience of 149k for the AFL was well ahead of Nine’s NRL audience of 115k.
Seven’s metro audience of 947,000 on Friday night was 16 per cent up on last year’s Geelong-Collingwood qualifying final, while the Second Qualifying Final was also a huge hit in Melbourne with Seven’s average audience there up by 6 per cent year on year.
The AFL audience in Sydney for Friday night’s final was up 29 per cent year on year.
The regional average of 284,000 for the NRL was an increase of 12% over the corresponding Qualifying Final year-on-year.
The footy coverage was also a big winner with viewers on Foxtel with a national pay-tv audience of 309k watching Fox Footy, and an additional 271k tuning in on Fox League (Streaming data not currently available)
Brisbane Lions vs Richmond – Seven and 7Mate
- Sydney – 40k
- Melbourne – 521k
- Brisbane – 149k
- Adelaide – 99k
- Perth – 138k
Panthers vs Rooster – Nine and 9GEM
- Sydney – 290k
- Melbourne – 20k
- Brisbane – 115k
- Adelaide – 10k
- Perth – 7k
