★★★★★ 0/5

NRL sets new FOX Sports record

NRL is enjoying a surge with record Pay TV numbers and attendance figures.

27
Leave a comment

Pay TV viewers watching the NRL Monday Night Football clash between the Canterbury Bulldogs and Wests Tigers set an all-time record for rugby league on FOX Sports.

The game averaged 365,000 viewers nationally, surpassing the previous record of 361,000 for the Parramatta Eels and Sydney Roosters game last July. It peaked at 464,000.

It was also the highest rating program so far this year, and eclipses the top Pay TV audience for 2010.

All the weekend games enjoyed increases compared to Round 1 in 2010 with the New Zealand Warriors and Parramatta Eels match up 46% on the 2010 game.

The figures follow the highest round attendance figures in the NRL‘s history – 201,212 after 26,737 people saw the Bulldogs defeat the Tigers last night.

David Malone, CEO of FOX Sports, said: “After an exciting opening round of competition, this is a strong result for FOX Sports as Australia’s sports leader.

“FOX Sports commitment to rugby league is unparalleled and it’s a true testament to the game to see such strong year-on-year growth across all of our live match coverage.”

Pay TV figures include regional viewers, which differ from FTA’s 5 city metro.

  • Tagged with NRL

27 Responses

  1. I all ways watch Monday night NRL on fox but is time to loose interest in NRL no live matches in the final series cause we only get Austar an that’s it.

  2. It would be interesting to see just how many of those stay on for next Monday Night, Cronulla vs St.George/Illawarra, which unlike the Canterbury vs Tigers game is expected to be one way traffic despite it being a local derby.

  3. Hi David,

    It was me you were aiming that Fox Sports response for and it was amazing! Just the info I was after.

    I know it was a strange question about something that probably didn’t matter much, but i’m just glad they didn’t relieve Warren because of Ryan. I’m glad to have him back on the Lounge and just hope that Andy can be utilised somewhere in the NRL shows (maybe even as a panellist) other than 1 game per week in commentary and for 2-5mins on a Monday Night.

    Thanks again David!

    Dak.

  4. I’m personally not a fan of Monday Night Football but I think its a necessary evil basically. The ratings are fantastic and its an open time slot in the Australian sporting calender.

    Crowds are sometimes poor but as last Mondays game showed, you can get people turning up in numbers for the right games.

    I think the 7pm kickoff is something that should be adopted for all night games. It is better for kids to watch and means you’re leaving the game at 9pm which I think is better for families to attend.

    At the end of the day, the NRL can say that for four days of the week, it is providing high rating games. Its a tough decision to cut that back to three days a week and have 2 games in Sunday afternoon shown as delayed coverage.

  5. @ Armchair Analyst I misunderstood your original post so thanks for expanding on that for me. As a season ticket holder for Manly in the NRL, I complete agree with you that Monday night games are a waste of time and the crowd numbers back that up. The last thing I feel like doing on a Monday is drive over an hour to get to the ground and it looks like I’m not the only one. But the game is not for the people at the ground, it’s for Fox Sports and the ratings they can pull. They can try and put it on delay like the AFL to drive up the crowds but I don’t think it would make a difference to be honest.

  6. @Ararat i do agree with you on that. But i was also stating what i thought happened in the past. still the NRL should axe monday night games.

  7. @Armchair Analyst,

    quite the opposite re: the afl and live vs delayed. the afl want friday night football live, but channel seven feel it’s important to have better homes and gardens on at 7:30 pm (wth?).

    i think in the past the afl wanted broadcasts delayed because of the ticket sales, but as cricket has shown, going live against the gate doesn’t seem to reduce match attendances like you would think it would (in fact, it seems to have increased attendances).

  8. @Wayne i understand your feelings towards the FTA networks over their treatment of AFL and NRL i dont disagree with you there at all. All i was saying is that the NRL should not have a Monday Night Game because of how poor the crowds are. In the highlights on ST on ONE HD all i see is empty seats. I thought that first and foremost the ticket sales were important to the NRL. Isnt that the reason why the AFL demand certain matches be on delay when it comes to the FTA netoworks so that they can maximise their ticket revenue. I wouldnt always blame the Networks i think the NRL needs to show some back bone and put more demands. I dont think that the 9 network will have the rights for much longer their are 2 other networks who want it. Anyway FOX Sports have to show the matches live because they have subscribers iam sure if they wer FTA they would be doing the same as FTA networks.

  9. Pete: FOX Sports answer for you:

    NRL Tactics was replaced this season with the ‘League Lounge’, which was a decision based primarily on delivering new content in a timeslot not otherwise occupied by the sport – that being Sunday evening. It is loosely derived from the model of the AFL’s hugely successful ‘On The Couch’ which is more conversational than a regular panel show but still addresses current issues in the sport with plenty of debate.

    With regards to Warren, he was relieved of his duties on NRL on FOX last season mainly due to his mounting weekend workload in match commentary. (Monday Night Football was added into the mix a couple of years back which created an extra match/night). It was mainly about keeping Wazza fresh for the bigger games and putting the emphasis on his commentary role, notwithstanding the fact that he is also a tremendous host.

  10. @ Armchair Analyst , if i am not mistaken didnt channel 9 use to have monday night football , and it didnt rate and they took it off, its a long time ago can so one clarify.If they did it wouldnt rate again as viewers habits have changed alot.

  12. @ Armchair Analyst Sport on FTA gets screwed around as it so having the Monday night game on 9 should never be allowed to happen. What happens when the figures start to drop? Do you think people are going to watch a game starting later and later because it suits 9 better? Leave it on Fox and in HD.

  14. If this number is anything to go by then in the next NRL broadcast negotiations then at Fta broadcaster should bid for the monday night game. I think the bigger story in this would be the crowd. Usually monday night games wether they be AFL or NRL have quite poor crowds.

  17. @ FJ, read the rest of the statement

    “Pay TV figures include regional viewers, which differ from FTA’s 5 city metro”

    It’s so people don’t use it to compare against Free-To-Air figures because they are not calculated the same way.

  19. I’m commenting on the line you added to the release. Why put it there?

    To me it reads like regional viewers should not be included otherwise I can’t think of a reason for including it. Fox Sports didn’t so why did you?

    1. FJ: I realise what you’re commenting on, but again there is nothing in what I have written that passes any judgement on regional audiences. It’s simply a statement of methodology. Pay TV rarely reveals their numbers so when they do it requires some clarity. I do this with regularity pointing to the number of replays, the markets of metro & regional, and sometimes the rule of Reach vs average. This is because readers often ask questions when seeking to compare such numbers with FTA.

      I didn’t just reprint the Press Release (like other sites did) and where I do include excerpts this is made clear via italics. I actually added to their release with info on the game attendance, and discarded all the excess and spin. It was a positive story on how well NRL did but you took it to another level.

  20. @ Dakota, Andy Raymond has got another job this year (UFC fighting) something like that, he didnt have the time anymore for nrl tactics..
    The League Lounge is the replacement show which I thought was good, sort of like a nrl version of ‘before the bounce’

  22. They’re great numbers, unlike Nine, Fox Sports treats all viewers equally, no matter where you live, which viewers appreciate… and evident in the ratings.
    And also, FJ that was a harsh comment. David simply stated a fact, where did he mention that regional viewers don’t matter. You really missed that point!

  23. Hi David,

    I know this isn’t neccessarily your area, so I understand if you don’t have an answer, but I was just wondering if there was any reason why Andy Raymond lost his NRL show from last year? I was disappointed when they took Warren Smith off NRL on Fox last year and replaced him with Ryan Phelan who, though a great host, doesn’t have the willingness to give a strong opinion like Warren does. Was it just because they wanted to try out the League Lounge with Warren? (Which was great). Its just because Andy and Warren are the 2 best, most passionate contributors to NRL on Fox Sports so I thought maybe you might have an insight?

    As always, ur site is my #1 destination for tv and after a few years is the longest amount of time i’ve stayed loyal to a site/blog 🙂

    Cheers

  24. “Pay TV figures include regional viewers, which differ from FTA’s 5 city metro.” – David Knox

    So you think we don’t count?

    Advertising revenue in Regional NSW and Queensland is greater than Adelaide and Perth

    thinktv.com.au/media/Media_Releases/PR14_Advertising_revenue_for_commercial_television_networks_-_Jan-Jun_2010.pdf

Leave a Reply