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3.01m viewers: Seven heaven as AFL breaks records

The Grand Final becomes the #1 audience of the year -with a staggering 65.8% network share.

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The AFL Grand Final has broken records becoming the biggest TV audience of the year.

3.01 million metro viewers watched the Melbourne Demons overtake the Western Bulldogs, ending a 57 year drought for the Dees.

Aided by a primetime broadcast, that puts the game as the biggest AFL Grand Final since 2016 and the 5th biggest overall.

The viewing audience was, naturally, biggest in Melbourne at 1.64 million viewers, but there was a huge 483,000 in Perth and 395,000 in Sydney. Numbers will rise again with Regional and Total TV figures next week.

Seven drew a staggering 65.8% network share for Saturday night and the highest ever prime time commercial shares for any network in OzTAM history in Melbourne (88.9%), Adelaide (77.3%) and Perth (76.9%).

It all meant Seven easily won the week.

Network:
Seven: 35.8
Nine: 27.1
10: 15.9
ABC: 14.2
SBS: 7.0

Primary channel:
Seven: 28.7
Nine: 19.8
ABC: 10.3
10: 9.6
SBS: 3.9

Multichannels:
7TWO / 10 BOLD: 3.0
10 Peach: 2.6
7mate: 2.5
9GEM: 2.4
9GO!: 2.2
ABC Kids TV Plus / ABC News: 1.8
7flix / 9Life: 1.6
SBS VICELAND: 1.3
9RUSH: 1.0
SBS World Movies: 0.9
SBS Food: 0.8
10 Shake: 0.7
ABC ME: 0.3
NITV: 0.1

Nine led Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Seven scored Sunday, Wednesday & Saturday. ABC bettered 10 on Wednesday & Friday.

Seven won Melbourne, Adelaide & Perth. Nine still held Sydney & Brisbane.

Best brands last week were:

Seven: AFL Grand Final (3.01m), Seven News (Sun: 1.11m), Brownlow Medal (896,000), SAS Australia (Mon: 620,000).

Nine: Nine News (Sat: 1.11m), The Block (Sun: 962,000), Rugby League NRL Prelim. Final 2 (810,000), A Current Affair (726,000).

10: Have You Been Paying Attention? (740,000), The Masked Singer (Mon reveal: 703,000), Gogglebox (529,000) and The Project (7pm: 426,000).

ABC: ABC News (750,000), Hard Quiz (623,000), 7:30 (619,000) and Australian Story (532,000).

SBS: Tony Robinson’s World By Rail (207,000), Who Do You Think You Are? (187,000), Inside Central Station (185,000) and Lost for Words (178,000).

Infograph supplied by Nine.

12 Responses

  1. Can’t see why the final shouldn’t be play at night, as they play most games in twilight or night during the season anyway? The day games figures this season are down from previous seasons. The kids are on school holidays so I can’t see why people are saying it’s late for children

  2. As I suggested in earlier posts, should the viewership be huge, this gives Seven a big incentive to lobby for a night final in future years. We saw it with the NRL, and I think within the next five years things will move towards a night final.

  3. Haven’t seen mention of the long delay at half time before the entertainment started, followed by the obvious issue they had with the LED lights on the field. They had lights surrounding the orchestra, of which only one or two of more than a dozen were illuminated. The same lights dotted the centre square but again these never came on through the entire show. Unfortunate technical hiccup.

  4. As much as I hate AFL GFs played at night, I was very astonished about Channel Seven’s ratings. Given that Perth won the right to host 2021 GF, the ratings have been exceptional (even without any WA team). I was at someone’s house watching the AFL GF and his old LG TV was in SD. However, I went to the other TV and noticed there’s 7HD.
    Now that Melbourne has ended its longest premiership drought, hopefully St Kilda will do it in the future.

  5. As a West Aussie, I was so proud of our state on Saturday and in the lead up to the GF. I thought Perth and the stadium looked absolutely stunning as we embraced respectfully what the MCG was unable to host this year. We wanted to make sure the players and their fans felt every bit of excitement even though they couldn’t watch in person. It was not lost on us what a privilege it was to be the host city.

    1. You guys did so well, what a great show. It looked amazing. I can’t wait to travel to Perth when I can. You really did the game proud. And as for the game, one of best GF’s I’ve seen in ages. Really was not expecting that

  7. Bigger audience than usual but still not as high as the day game in 2016. More people at home and unable to fill bars or congregate at barbecues. Also Perth was more engaged because they were host.

    1. Not really apples and apples. of course a Grand Final involving the Sydney Swans will rate higher. It’s the biggest TV market in the country and naturally, more people in that city are going to watch when their team is playing.

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