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2.178m metro viewers tune in to Nine for first State of Origin clash

The first State of Origin clash for the year between the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons has brought in 2.178m metro viewers for Nine, which is down on last year’s first match which saw 2.535m viewers tune in.

The pre-match coverage delivered 1.187m, while Nine’s post-match coverage brought in 908,000 metro viewers.

There was some backlash online about the State of Origin stream available through Nine’s 9Now, which got off to a rocky start, but improved by the end of the game.

Sydney and Brisbane were the biggest audiences for the game. Sydney saw 950,000 viewers tune in to the match, a slight dip on last year, whereas in Brisbane 746,000 viewers watched. When all numbers were combined, the national result, 3.207m, was slightly down on last year’s 3.456m, and made the coverage the biggest TV event this year.

The pre, post and match also dominated the key advertising demographics, topping all three – 16-39s, 18-49s and 25-54s.

All in all, the NRL delivered an easy win for Nine. The primary channel held a 39% audience share while the network held 45%.

Outside of the NRL, Seven News delivered 1.105m, making it the most-watched non-sporting show, and Home and Away brought in 692,000 to be the most-watched entertainment program.

Ten’s Masterchef definitely felt the Origin pinch, drawing in only 531,000, while ABC’s Anh’s Brush with Fame didn’t seem to be hit as hard, bringing in 565,000.

House Rules on Seven  brought in 532,000.

Unsurprisingly, Nine also took the top spot in the metro audiences aged 25-54, with a whopping 45.5% of the overall audience share in this key advertising demographic. The percentage was even bigger in the 16-39s where the channel held 52.9%.

Outside of Nine, Seven claimed a total people audience share of 13.9%, ABC 9.9% and Ten 9.5%. Network figures showed Seven on 20.6%, Ten on 14.6% and ABC on 14.2%.

10 Bold was the most-watched secondary channel with 3.4%.

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