Overtime epic gives NRL win to Nine as footy codes fight it out in Friday night battle
The Seven Network managed to set a season record Melbourne audience for the AFL on a Friday night, but an epic encounter between the Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys that went into extra time saw Nine grab the honours in the clash of the codes.
The rugby league semi-final drew 733,000 across Sydney and Brisbane on Nine’s main channel, but was shaded by the 803,000 who watched the Bulldogs and Hawthorn on the main channel in Melbourne and Adelaide.
However, as the NRL fixture moved into Nine’s post-game timeslot with the score between Brisbane and North Queensland locked, the audience grew to 834,000, making it the most watched show of the night across the five metro markets.
Seven’s audience of 644,000 in Melbourne pipped the previous Friday’s season record.
A mere quirk of the NRL going into extra-time but not having the programme lineups updated.
For the record with the lineups amended:
* NRL – Nine (Syd, Bri) = 774k
* AFL – Seven (Mel, Ade) = 799k
* NRL – Gem (Mel, Ade, Per) = 66k
* AFL – 7Mate (Syd, Bri, Per) = 209k
So on the primary channels (2 markets each) Seven’s AFL won narrowly (N.B. less population coverage), and on the secondary channels 7Mate’s AFL won by quite some margin.
Overall 1.008m AFL, 840k NRL.
Yep you have lost me boring boring boring.
After John and Garry I’m moving on.