NRL season opener audience drops as Seven’s State of Affairs also slides
The return of the NRL last night saw a more muted welcome than last year with 653,000 Sydney and Brisbane viewers tuning in to see the Brisbane Broncos take on South Sydney Rabbitohs at 7.30pm on Channel Nine.
The audience was down from last year’s round one match audience of 756,000 which was also broadcast in the two territories only. The Footy Show, airing directly after the game in Brisbane and Sydney at 9.50pm, pulled an audience of 286,000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnjqSVnENms
The depleted audience for the ‘Grand Opener’ meant Nine was pipped by Seven in terms of audience share, despite a poor ratings result for Seven’s American espionage thriller series State of Affairs.
It’s a concern when live sport, being the saviour of TV that it is, is also seeing falling audiences. I know it’s only one game this year so far, but it’s certainly not the start the NRL or Nine would’ve wanted.
Put it back on GEM in Adelaide and I’ll add one viewer to their total! Seriously, it was available on GEM until last season and then vanished without explaination.
cyber – I would say the 1.4m MKR delivered would have dented the NRL ratings … no MKR to compete with r1 last year (Seven ran drama instead which did 50% of MKR audience), and no show last year delivered above 1m (when MKR did 1.4m)
The game is over regulated, too many rule changes, too many refs and too predictable