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Fox Sports ratings record as 486,000 tune in for Storm minor premiership victory

Fox Sports saw its biggest NRL audience of all time on Saturday as Melbourne Storm saw off the Cronulla Sharks to take the NRL minor premiership.Fox Sports logo

According to preliminary overnight ratings shared by Fox Sports, the game delivered an audience of 486,000 – a huge number for subscription television, and the biggest of the year.

The game – which is among the top ten most rating subscription TV events of all time – peaked at 569,000 viewers early in the second half.

While free-to-air network Nine has most key NRL games, the Sharks-Storm clash was not among them. The OzTam ratings system only counts home viewing, so the large number of fans who watched in pubs would not be included in the number.

The previous pay TV record for an NRL game was 408,000 for a game between the Eels and Cowboys.

Fox Sports CEO, Patrick Delany, said in a statement: “This is an incredible result for Fox Sports and the perfect way to end one of the closest NRL finals races in history.”

Meanwhile, the Cowboys-Titans game also had a big audience, pulling in an average of 349,000 viewers,

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