2.58m goal for Seven’s AFL
Seven's AFL Grand Final nabbed the biggest audience this year -outside of the Olympic Games.
- Published by David Knox
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Updated: Channel Seven’s broadcast of the AFL Grand Final was the biggest television audience of the year -outside of its own Olympics coverage.
The biggest audience tuned in for the end of the game, when a whopping 2.58m viewers watched Presentations. Seven has merged its separate listings for Presentation, Post Match, Pre Match, and actual match to ascertain an average audience of 2.49m. It peaked at 3.86m across metro and regional audiences.
In Melbourne alone 1.29m viewers watched the match, followed by Sydney (331,000), Perth (329,000), Adelaide (305,000) and Brisbane (232,000).
The previous biggest non-Olympic audience this year was the Australian Open final (2.35m) which was outside of ratings. The third State of Origin match hit 2.14m.
The 2005 Grand Final won by the Sydney Swans remains the biggest AFL audience with 3.39m while Beijing’s Opening Ceremony remains the year’s best with 3.31m viewers.
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9 Responses
The NRL grand final this year will be ‘twilight’, for the first time, so it’ll be interesting to see how that works out. Kickoff is at 5pm, so it should be over by 6.45 at the latest, 15 minutes before sunset. Hopefully it’ll work well.
@ ali on September 28th, 2008 10:36 pm “The networks dont really want a later GF because people would be too drunk for a 5pm kick off to remember to watch it.”
Yeah and the curtins might fade more if we started at 5pm as well.
The GF should be during the day….. period!! None of this 7pm or 7:30pm timeslot stuff- just so the networks can charge whatever they want to there advertisers.
The GF has always been played at 2:30pm on a Saturday Afternoon and the day that it is moved to a twilight timeslot or evening…… well it would be a big mistake. Leave somethings alone- the AFL grandfinal should be during the day, if the NRL want to play there GF at night- let them.
The pregame stuff is rubbish. The only way to watch the GF is with the volume off and the radio commentary on.
The networks dont really want a later GF because people would be too drunk for a 5pm kick off to remember to watch it.
I also think a night or twilight GF is innevitable. Yes Mike, the pre game entertainment is always horse shit, really should be of a higher quality.
Why don’t the networks ask for a compromise time like I outlined above (4pmEST start)
From memory I think 7 wanted a 7.30 start, I think that is too selfish as the game would finish too late at night. 10 said why not 5pm?
Well, why not 4-4.30. You would still have a whole day of build up and post game celebrations could be extended well into prime time, instead of having it cut off so 7 could go to its precious news.
I mean I had to work yesterday so I missed half the game. I’m sure a later start would mean hundreds of thousands, if not millions, more Australians get the chance to see the most entertaining game in the world played at the highest level.
Networks have tried (really tried) but AFL has resisted a night final.
**** the traditionalists, I can see a night GF in the not so distant future. The next television rights deal will probably be around $1billion and I can’t see the networks allowing the biggest event in schedule to be shown at 2.10pm. It just doesn’t make sense.
Slightly off topic, but is it just me or do the AFL miss the mark every year with their pre-show entertainment?
I think the fact that the presentations garnered more viewers than the game itself vindicates 7 and 10’s efforts to want the GF to start at a later time. I think pushing the start back 1hr 30 for a 4pm EST bounce would be a win/win time slot, keeping the game mostly in day time (to keep the traditionalists happy) but having the end eat into prime time TV to keep the networks satisfied with their huge investment in AFL.