AFL and NRL rule the roost for Friday night TV ratings
Sport was the only game in town on Friday night, with Melbourne and Brisbane all about AFL, while east coast TV viewers mainly opted for NRL.
In Melbourne, Seven’s Friday Night Football featuring the West Coast Eagles versus the Western Bulldogs topped the ratings with 298,000 viewers.
A further 103,000 watched in Adelaide, making it the city’s second most watched program of the night after Seven News, despite there being no local club involved.
In Perth, where Seven screened the game on secondary channel 7mate, a further 177,000 watched the Eagles hold on for victory, making it the city’s most watched program of the evening.
“We’re the Eagles! We’re flying high!” pic.twitter.com/V8QMcCbyIM
— West Coast Eagles (@WestCoastEagles) May 12, 2017
In Sydney, 27,000 watched the 7Mate coverage while 20,000 watched in Brisbane.
The game also aired on Fox Footy, where it pulled in a total of 209,000 metro viewers.
Across Seven, 7Mate and Fox Footy, the game drew a metro audience of 836,000. It also pulled in a further 134,000 from Seven’s regional affiliates.
FULL TIME: EAGLES WIN A FRIDAY NIGHT THRILLER!
#AFLEaglesDogs pic.twitter.com/CQ7QdsC0aE— West Coast Eagles (@WestCoastEagles) May 12, 2017
Meanwhile, NRL was Nine’s best non-news performer in Sydney, with 198,000 tuning in for Wests Tigers vs South Sydney. A further 155,000 watched the game on Nine in Brisbane. And 251,000 watched on Nine’s regional affiliates.
And a further 168,000 metro viewers watched the game on Fox League, taking the game to 521,000 metro viewers across free to air and pay TV.
Fox League’s live Dragons vs Sharks NRL game pulled in 166,000 metro viewers, most if them in Sydney.
Across the five capital cities, the most watched program of Friday was Seven News, which averaged 935,000 viewers, well ahead of Nine News which rated 841,000
Ten’s best performing show was The Project which rated 486,000.
Meanwhile, Eurovision was a drawcard for SBS, with 403,000 tuning in for the first semi final.
Seven easily won the night with an audience share of 20.8%, ahead of Nine’s 14.7%. Ten averaged 11%, ABC 9.7% and SBS an unusually high 8.2%.
7mate was so dominant in Perth , its 25.2% share in the city was bigger than that of Nine, Ten and SBS combined.
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