AFL outrates Broncos in Brisbane

[SWANSBEST]

AFL outrates Broncos in Brisbane
By Darren Cartwright
April 23, 2003

THE AFL has savaged the rugby league TV stronghold of Brisbane with the Lions' grand final rematch against Collingwood easily outrating the Broncos' clash with the NRL premiers.


Broncos: on the nose

The ratings will send shockwaves through NRL headquarters because the Broncos-Roosters at Aussie Stadium on Good Friday was one of the feature games of the season to date.

The Lions were at home at the Gabba on Thursday night. Both games were aired on Channel 9.

The Lions, who drew close to 37,000 to the game, were estimated to have pulled a television audience of 301,052 to be the ninth highest viewed program for the week ending April 19.

The Broncos came in 12th overall with an estimated 291,570 viewers.

It's the first time during a home and away season the Lions have taken the ratings points off the Broncos. It was also the most watched Lions match in Queensland outside the 2001 and 2002 grand finals.

The Lions knocked Collingwood off the top of the AFL ladder with their 14-point victory.

AFL commercial operations manager Ben Buckley said it was a major breakthrough for the code and testament to the Lions' on-field success.

"It shows the relationship with the Queensland community and also Collingwood and their fashionable appeal," he said.

Despite the progress made in having Lions matches televised in prime-time, there is still AFL blackouts on certain weekends of the year.

There was no match televised live on free-to-air last Saturday afternoon and there will be none this weekend either.

The earliest time slot, on either pay-TV or free-to-air, that the Sydney-Melbourne clash will be shown on Friday night is 10.30pm.

Usually the game screens at 9.30pm on Fox Footy Extra, but because Channel 10 has the rights to the match, it will not release the telecast of the game earlier to the pay-TV station.

"We knew going into the agreement when there were times there was only going to be pay-television coverage," said Buckley.

"Part of our agreement with 10 is they get to show that game first into the market at a reasonable hour."

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,6325283-23211,00.html

[Diehard]

AFL Honeymoon over

Courier- Mail 29 April 2003, p:

"...the weekend saw rugby league celebrate, after falling behind for the first time at Easter. The Brisbane Broncos easily won the ratings battle, their Anzac day clash with Parramatta attracting an average of 271, 000 viewers, which peaked at 315, 000.
Sunday's Brisbane Lions-Western Bulldogs AFL clash clash at the Gabba averaged 138, 000 (peak 177, 000), well behind the Manly-South Sydney NRL telecast which started immediately after and averaged 246, 000 (peak 269, 000).
All matches were televised on Channel Nine but only the Lions match was shown live. Telecasts of both rugby league matches were delayed an hour."

Back to being beaten by the Queensland Cup game on the ABC for the Lions. And come June they will be getting eaten alive by the Broncos crowd figures. Id like to see the Lions draw 20k at ANZ. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[robbieando]

Why do we in Sydney care what goes on in Brisbane. You have posted this crap up how many times now on Big Footy and else where?? I ask you this when was the last time the AFL and NRL went head to head in Sydney and Brisbane on Free to air at the same prime time spot???? Long time.

[Diehard]

awww whats wrong? If you dont care about football in Brisbane why post this crap about the lions beating the broncos? It's all fine and dandy to have a lil gloat if things go your way, but you have a big cry take your ball and run home if someone rebuts what you say. Stupid afl babies. See you on Bigfooty soon!

[robbieando]

I didn't start this thread, nor do I care that the Lions outrated the Broncos, because as I said when was the last time both codes went head to head in the same timeslot on free to air. Until you beat us head to head - it means jack.

[Diehard]

Maybe something a lil more relevant...

OK then how about some nice news from GAYFL Sydney...

League wins mother of all battles as weekend viewers desert

By Roy Masters
May 13 2003

The anticipated 'Mother's Day Massacre' turned out to be a television bonanza, with rugby league achieving its highest ratings in history for weekend club matches and the Panthers-Dragons game attracting more than double the audience of the Swans.

Sunday's Penrith versus St George Illawarra game beat all 4pm replays over the past three years and Friday night's Bulldogs-Roosters "grand final that never was" recorded the highest figures yet seen for a club game.

TV and sport bosses fear Mother's Day because it traditionally produces poor ratings, but Sunday's 387,250 average audience in Sydney was comparable to a standard Friday night game.

Channel Nine insists it is wrong to assume dad seized the remote from mum, claiming their research shows more women are watching league.

Friday night's thriller produced an average audience of 528,000 in Sydney, which would have been enough to place it 29th in last year's top 50 televised sporting programs. No club match in a premiership season has ever been ranked in a top 50.

The figures for Brisbane were equally impressive, with an average of 263,400 watching on Friday and 218,000 tuned in on Sunday. The Friday match would have ranked 38th in Brisbane's 2002 top 50, a remarkable achievement considering this most parochial of cities was watching two Sydney clubs.

While rugby league may have reached two milestones on the one weekend, the figures will make Aussie rules look as if it has passed a kidney stone. In Brisbane, 124,000 watched the Swans play the undefeated Lions live on Nine, just over half the audience that watched rugby league in the Queensland capital on delay.

The Brisbane station always telecasts the Broncos, meaning viewers north of the border were not watching the absorbing Penrith-St George Illawarra contest but the 38-12 massacre of the inept Cowboys.

Rugby league's domination of AFL was even more pronounced in Sydney, where the Panthers-Dragons match attracted an audience nearly 2 times greater than the 163,250 that watched the Swans beat the premiers.

The ratings shocked Nine and NRL executives, who feared a weekend massacre following eight rounds of ratings lower than last year.

The Sydney average to round eight this year was 683,407 viewers, combining both weekend games, down on 2002's 750,203. The same applied in Brisbane, with figures of 454,316 and 461,974 respectively.

However, round nine produced a Sydney total of 915,250, eclipsing the 2002 average by 165,000 viewers.

Brisbane's round-nine total was 581,400, jumping past the 2002 figure by 120,000 viewers.

While 2003 ratings to round eight were lower than last year's, analysts had been cautiously optimistic because audience figures have been rising steadily since round five, whereas 2002's ratings were declining going into the City-Country match.

Channel Nine executive producer Steve Crawley said: "We have leapfrogged all previous results in an unbelievable and spectacular manner. Plus we have a legitimate City-Country game on Friday night in Gosford with all the players there and two Origin matches at Lang Park."

Asked to explain the figures, Crawley said: "At the end of the day, you're only as good as the football you've got but we've been trying to put the crowd into our telecasts.

"On Friday night, at the end of the game, we threw to a shot of a fat-faced lovely little kid in his Roosters jumper, looking like Santa Claus had never come, sitting next to his trendy looking eastern suburbs mother wearing the same gear. We're getting the colour of the crowds, the emotion, and the game is going back to suburban grounds."

Crawley did not duck the issue that one code's ecstasy was another code's angst.

"I know AFL is a Nine product and I know it's not the done thing to compete against yourself," he said. "They say AFL is a religion down in Melbourne and they'll always get the numbers but if you accept that, you've given up. It doesn't stop us wanting to knock them off."

In his first year in charge of league at Nine, Crawley knows he belongs to an industry in which they shoot the wounded. "I'm lucky the football is good but I'm going to take it," he said.

- - - - - - - - -

Go have a cry now boys. Or move back to Melbourne.

[desredandwhite]

More people watched league on TV than Aussie Rules in Brisbane and Sydney. What a surprise!

Anyway, I'm ignoring league this year as Parra's season is over. So there.

[robbieando]

Again I ask did the NRL beat the AFL head to head???? Of course not. Your point is that the 4pm NRL match beat the 1pm AFL match. Lets see what happens when both sports are head to head on free to air at the same time.

BTW did any NRL crowds on Sunday in Sydney beat the Swans turn out??? The answer is NO. At least the AFL can get more people to Telstra Stadium for a league match (Not including double headers and SOO) than the NRL can.

Also do the NRL have their own TV channel with 400,000 people paying extra to get it??? No again - funny that I thought NRL was the more popular code on TV