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FOX Footy makes its mark

FOX Footy's NAB Cup broadcasts hit six of the top seven programs on Pay TV television last week.

FOX Footy is off to a flying start with Subscription TV sports fans.

The channel launched on Friday with Live NAB Cup broadcasts accounting for six of the top seven programs on subscription television last week.

Saturday night’s clash between 2011 Grand Finalists Colllingwood and newcomers Greater Western Sydney drew an average audience of 259,000 – the biggest audience for an opening round NAB Cup fixture in Pay TV history.

Audiences were up by an average of 23% on 2011 broadcasts.

FOX Sports CEO, Patrick Delany, said the opening weekend ratings were a strong indicator that fans have embraced footy’s return to a dedicated, high definition home.

“FOX Footy has arrived in stunning top-rating fashion,” he said.

“We’ve made our intentions very clear. Live, uninterrupted and high definition coverage is how the game should be presented, and it should be delivered by the voices and faces that have earned the highest acclaim from fans – legends of the game. That’s what FOX Footy is all about.

“Subscribers tuning in to FOX Footy over the weekend experienced the best the game has to offer in terms of quality coverage and commentary, which is something they can look forward to for the entire season as we deliver live coverage of every game of every round of the Premiership season.”

8 Responses

  1. Interesting what you can do with numbers.

    In 2011 the 3 Friday games and first 2 Sunday games of week 1 averaged 193,200 on Fox Sports(the Saturday games were on Ch10). In 2012 the 3 Friday games and first 2 Sunday games averaged 187,600.

  2. @Armchair I think in bad times and economic conditions people tend to stop going out, and turn to pay TV or fta for their entertainment.Even going to a game of AFL for a family of 4 could cost over $100 depending what game it is and off cause the meat pie and chips, drinks,transport etc

  3. For $0 dollars, and 9 games live (in HD) every week = fantastic. I have enjoyed the NAB game coverage so far, and to have On The Couch (Paul Roos is brilliant) and 360 back last night was great.

    Not a huge fan of some of the commentators (Mark Riccuto would have to be at the bottom of the list) but thankfully I can tune into a Radio station to listen to the game and watch it live, with no sound, on Fox Footy.

    I am in heaven 🙂 Thanks Fox Footy.

  4. @ Laurie. Seven are probably reading that, but i dont think HD will re emerge for AFL on FTA anytime soon because they dont have to. If FOX didnt have to they would not have done it either. Its all about doing whatever you can do get the audience its even more evident when that audience is supposed to pay to watch the content. Seven is FTA therefore they dont have to broadcast it in HD also even if they could the anti siphoning list doesnt allow for that yet, hopefully when the analogue signal is turned off at the end of 2013 then we might see changes. It looks good for Fox at this stage however i dont think it will last if the economic condition continues to deteriorate then people will think with their heads and not with their hearts and hence bad news for fox. For this too pay off for Foxtel moneywise they need to capture and retain the middle class subscriber and in these economic time that will be very hard irrespective how many games they have and what personnel they have.

  5. Not bad for the first week of pre-season. It will be interesting to see how many viewers Fox Footy gets from their simulcast of Seven’s Friday Night games.
    I would also expect excellent ratings figures for Foxtel from GWS games, especially in the first few weeks of the season.

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