★★★★★ 0/5

2.7m tops AFL Grand Final

The afternoon AFL finale becomes the second biggest audience of the TV year, but denies TEN primetime glory. For the third week in a row, GO! helps Nine win the ratings week.

26
Leave a comment

afl2A huge 2.7m viewers watched the 2009 AFL Grand Final on TEN, becoming the second biggest TV audience of the year. The game peaked at 3.62m, just in the 5 metro cities. But because the game was not in primetime, TEN didn’t win Saturday. It is an irony that will be all the more cruel next week when NRL pushes across primetime for Nine. The match also bettered the 2.58m average for 2008’s final.  But for the third week in a row, Nine snatched ratings glory from Seven, with the extra boost from GO! pushing the network ahead of Seven.

Nine won Week 39 with 28.4% ahead of Seven’s 28.1% and TEN’s 21.2%. The ABC had 17.0% and SBS 5.3%.

Nine won 18-49 and 24-54 while TEN won 16-39.

GO! finished with 1.7%, ABC 1.5%, ONE 1.3% and SBS TWO 0.3%.

Seven won Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Nine won Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Seven was first in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth while Nine took Sydney and Brisbane.

Saturday’s NRL preliminary final was Nine’s biggest audience for the week on 1.35m viewers. Other performers included Nine News (Sunday), A Current Affair, Two and a Half Men and The Footy Show -thanks to the finale of the AFL edition. Nostalgia pieces TV’s Best of the Best and The Very Best of the Paul Hogan Show both landed under 1m viewers, with the former dragging down 60 Minutes. Getaway won its slot against the nation’s next look at Glee. A Monday night movie on Nine didn’t do much business,nor did the umpteenth Crocodile Dundee screening. Sydney’s dust storm saw Today move closer to Sunrise on Wednesday, but not enough to win. The Big Bang Theory was best on GO! with 216,000.

A somewhat-divisive episode of Packed to the Rafters was best for Seven with 1.76m, down from previous weeks. Other strong shows were Highway Patrol, Seven News, Today Tonight, Border Security, The Force, Sunday Night, RSPCA Animal Rescue, Last Chance Surgery and World’s Strictest Parents. The Brownlow Medal managed an impressive 1m viewers just from 3 cities. Together with its impressive debut for Highway Patrol (1.7m) the network romped home with a 35.7% share. Wednesday’s City Homicide inched a win in a tight race, but seems destined to hover around the 1.1m mark -it faces stiff competition this week. A Sunday night movie was slammed by the ABC, while Gary Unmarried let down Thursday. Deal or no Deal has kept well ahead of Hot Seat.

The 2009 AFL Grand Final was the #1 show for the week, and for TEN with 2.7m viewers. What a shame it wasn’t in primetime. Otherwise it was still a disappointing week for TEN with a repeat of NCIS its next best on 1.16m. Rush clung to 1m against stiff competition. Under 1m were Australian Idol, Glee and Good News Week. Rove Turns Ten won its late slot with 869,000, and The Spearman Experiment managed a slight rise to 808,000. Best for The 7PM Project was Wednesday with 688,000 while Neighbours took 772,000 on Monday. Just 303,000 sat through the late replay of the Emmy Awards.

A superb 1.47m this week for the ABC’s Midsomer Murders -higher than anything in primetime on Nine or TEN. Elsewhere, Spicks and Specks, Yellowstone, Four Corners, Australian Story, ABC News and The 7:30 Report all performed well.  But the Tuesday line up with The Wild West and Fear Stress and Anger tanked. ABC beat TEN on Sunday  and Friday. Junkyard Wars was again best on ABC2.

Top Gear‘s 924,000 was third in its slot, but the big drop to 295,000 for High Altitude is behind a programming move at SBS.

Week 39

26 Responses

  2. 9 have no NRL and 7&ten have no AFL this week. the gloves are off. a win is going to come down to old fashioned programming. a win this week is not an ordinary win, with so many big premiers it will be the foundations for the rest of the year.

    my prediction is that 7 will win, they will win sun, mon, tues, fri, and sat with wednesday going to either 7 or 9 maybe even ten, and thurs going 9.

  3. what will win the next tv rights is. who ever can provide a decent coverage into sydney and brisbane on fta. the afl dont care about a night gf. they already have one

  4. Well done to the 9/Go! Network for another much deserved weekly win.

    The NRL really needs to be bargaining for a much higher $$$ tag when the deal next comes up- it has helped 9 to three big weekly wins in the last month alone plus delivered Yearly wins in the all imjportant Sydney and Brisbane markets as well as Newcastle, mid-north coast and south east QLD (australia’s fastest growing area).

  5. The AFL has never focused on TV ratings, they still have many tricks up their sleeve. All 3 commercial networks will be bidding for the next broadcast rights. The general rule is whoever has the AFL rights becomes the number one TV network. The late Kerry Packer really knew his TV. Now channel 9 is a sad case, considering where they have been and the previous resources they had.

  8. Johnson says: September 27, 2009 at 11:46 am

    ‘Yesterday’s AFL Grand Final was the most-watched game since 2004, when 2.8 million watched Port Adelaide denying Brisbane Lions their 4th premiership in a row.’

    Are you talking Nationally, because if you are that is not quite right…The AFL Grand Final was the most watched ever in Melbourne But nationally the 2005 GF between the Swans and West Coast still holds the record. David mentioned this in another post as well.

    If you were talking Melbourne figures only, I would also doubt the 2.8 million for a Port v Brisbane game – Victorians do not support a GF where they have no teams playing….

  10. Why’s everyone blaming GO! for 7’s reason for not winning the ratings? I’m sure ONEHD and ONESD is added to Ten’s share. I’m sure 7HD is added to 7’s share. If anyone’s to blame for 7’s loss, it’s 7 for not getting its act together and putting out there a new secondary channel people want to watch. By the way I hate Nine for the way they treat their viewers, but they won the ratings fair and square.

  12. advertisers are not dumb, they know be it day or night the afl GF will rate and Ten / Seven will charge appropriately regardless of meaningless weekly ratings. it’s like saying roger federer was no good ranked no.2 instead on no.1.

  13. How big was sydney’s share of viewers of the AFL on saturday (because we’re more of an NRL state). Also, why wasn’t the afl final in prime time? I’m thinking friday’s eels vs the dogs would’ve rated high aswell, i don’t normally sit down to watch a full game of football but this one had me hooked- hoping they take the title next week in the grand finals (would hate it if melbourne won, considering they’re an afl city)

  14. Another huge number for the Grand Final on a Saturday afternoon, when a lot of the country is still at work, shopping etc.
    The next AFL TV rights deal will start in season 2012. A night Grand Final would almost certainly put the deal over and beyond the expected $1 billion dollar 5-year deal.
    A Saturday evening, say 6pm bouncedown for the big game would be very, very valuable to any TV network covering it and would bring in even bigger ratings across the country, not matter who was playing.

  15. One big joke is what i am calling the ratings at the moment. Channel 7 had 16 of the top 25 shows this week, Nine had 5 and yet Nine win the week because of GO!. The ratings need to change otherwise they will become one massive joke and no one will care anymore. Go! is a separate channel yet according to OzTam it isnt. I wouldnt be complaining if GO! was a timeshift channel for example and had the same content but the 98% of the content is different to Nine. How is this fair to anyone?

  16. i think GO! is great, but the 9 line-up is just as horrible as ever, 9 do not deserve to be within striking distance of 7, i don’t have a problem with GO! helping 9, but with the programs 9 is airing they should need more help than GO! can give them. GO! is not what people should be blaming, blame the crazy people who actually watch 9.

  20. Good on Nine for have a go with GO! I really hope seven doesn’t do a lifestyle channel – the genre is a slowly dying one with way too many makeover shows as it is… C’mon Seven, give us a GO! competitor 🙂

  23. I think it’s only a second time that a network loses a ratings week after winning four out of seven nights. Just goes to show how big the NRL finals rate at night. But next week should be close.
    Yesterday’s AFL Grand Final was the most-watched game since 2004, when 2.8 million watched Port Adelaide denying Brisbane Lions their 4th premiership in a row.

  24. 7 an 10 will be pushing very gard for a night gf in the next 2 year. hopefully for once the afl wont bend over and bow to the pressures and keep the gf during the day

Leave a Reply