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2.81m viewers as AFL Grand Final tops the year

Ratings: Hawthorn's win over Sydney pulls the biggest audience so far in 2014.

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It was a one-sided win on the ground, but the AFL Grand Final 2014 was still a winner with TV viewers, pulling a whopping 2,813,000 viewers yesterday. Including Regionals it averaged 3,718,000 viewers.

A huge 1.31m viewers watched in Melbourne and 551,000 were watching it Sydney “Live and Free” (as Seven was keen to remind us).

That lifts it to the top of the heap for the year, eclipsing 2.6m viewers for the My Kitchen Rules grand final and 2.57m for State of Origin (2.7m including GEM).

It topped 2013’s Hawthorn v Fremantle game of 2,717,000 but was lower than 2012’s Hawthorn v Sydney 3,196,000.

As always the number does not include those watching in pubs, parties and backyards.

But played out of primetime it did not factor into Seven’s share for the evening -which saw a Rugby League final at 1.07m give Nine the night.

Cue the annual arguments about shifting the game to a later start.

OzTAM Overnights: Saturday 27 September 2014

24 Responses

  1. An AFL Grand Final between Port Adelaide Vs Hawthorn/Richmond in a few years from now will be a great contest…but it won`t get the viewer numbers north of Wagga that the teams based in NSW/QLD can add…no matter how much David Koch promotes the game on Sunrise or other Channel 7 shows!

  2. Although I am a long time Sydney Swans fan, I have to admit that Channel 7 got better ratings in Sydney, NSW (and therefore nationwide) for this years Grand Final because the Swans were playing. The ratings will increase a bit in future years when if the GF involves the Swans again (or the Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast Suns, etc) due to the large potential audiences that live in Sydney, regional NSW, Brisbane and regional QLD.

  3. “A total 4.193 million viewers watched the NSW Blues break Queensland’s eight-year Origin reign on Channel 9.”
    Please check your facts, rugby league (State of Origin) is the most watched TV show of the year.

  4. @easygoing777 – ‘the Swans were paid to win the first one’? Wow, what a lucky team, not only wanting to win the GF because you know, that’s the whole point of the competition, but they get paid to do so! Ah, so that’s what it means to be a professional sportsman.

  5. @Everyone complaining about the ads
    Move to Tasmania. Here we get a scrolling ad across the bottom of the screen after a goal but there’s no ads siren to siren. Been like that for years with live footy.

  6. @MM

    There was a story on here this year about that http://tvtonight.com.au/2014/07/caller-admits-to-faking-viewers-for-the-sake-of-ratings.html

    That’s also why the part about backyard viewers not counting surprised me seeing it is well known that these people are counted.

    It says on the Oztam website too oztam.com.au/faqs.aspx

    Does OzTAM measure out of home viewing?

    OzTAM is an in-home viewing service. It measures and reports all viewing, both of household residents and their guests, in panel homes.

  7. Fantastic figures for the AFL Grand Final. I have to agree the ads killed the day. Every single time a goal was kicked they went to an ad break. Most of the ads were for DWTS and X Factor as well. I don’t watch X Factor but is Dean Ray the only contestant left, because the last few days he is the only contestant I have seen promoted. (and that has been hundreds of time)

  8. Live, free, full of ads in SD.

    David, is there an hourly breakdown? I’d love to know how many people gave up at half-time when the game was over. (In fact, it was over at quarter-time). Poor Bruce was trying to keep it interesting, and Leigh Matthews was being as honest as everyone in their lounge rooms.

  9. What control is there over people with ratings boxes to say how many people are watching the TV at their place, and I am sure some people would exaggerate, it could look like a particular show has better ratings than it really has, certainly not true figure ratings if that is the case, they should find another method of getting more accurate numbers.

  10. And how many took up Seven’s “generous” programming of Shark Hunters and Bid America on 7Mate while 2.8 million people got frustrated with the biggest sports event of the year being shown in SD.

  11. Funny, when 7mate showed the Rugby League World Cup last year, the tag line was ‘Live and HD’.

    With the NRL grand final being an all Sydney affair, I can’t see next week’s game getting the same figures (although the baby broncos are playing the baby warriors in the Holden Cup)

  12. finally good to see a ratings report for a Saturday.

    Great numbers for the AFL Final. Got higher ratings than I expected. Seven would be happy with the daytime ratings.

    Though, Seven would be unhappy with the large numbers not staying on Seven during primetime. As much as I like a daytime Final, I think it could start slightly later so it can go into primetime.

  13. That would explain why the streets and the Westfield were deserted yesterday lol 🙂 Football fever well and truly hit Melbourne yesterday, I didn’t watch because I was sick of the Hawks in the GF.

  14. And I notice channel 9, aka the ” me too network” have copied the “live and free” tag. It’s almost as if they are justifying their constant barrage of gambling ads and the poor picture quality.

  15. It is factually wrong to say it doesn’t include people watching in backyards. If you have a ratings box you have to put in the number of guests that are at your house watching too.

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