Socceroos deliver big night for SBS and Fox Sports while House Rules overtakes The Block
SBS1 had one of its biggest TV audiences in recent years on Tuesday night with a metro audience of 1.117m tuning in for Australia’s match with Iraq which saw the Socceroos qualify for the World Cup.
The time delayed broadcast brought SBS a 14 per cent share of the free to air audience – putting it ahead of ABC1’s 10.3 per cent share and within touching distance of Ten’s 14.5 per cent.
And Fox Sports’ live coverage of the match on Foxtel brought in a metro and regional audience of 549,000, subscription TV’s highest rating soccer match of all time.
Meanwhile, the loss of the halo effect of The Voice has had an immediate impact on Nine. For the first time since launch, Seven’s renovation House Rules beat The Block by 1.159m to 1.131m. Nine’s Celebrity Apprentice continued to lose ground, with the boardroom showdown rating 596,000, putting it 20th for the night. The challenge part of the show did not make it into the top 20 at all.
Masterchef, on Ten, was 15th for the night, with just 643,000 viewers. It was just ahead of ABC1’s 7.30, which rated 643,000 according to the preliminary overnight data from OzTAM.
Seven won the night with a 21.4 per cent share. Nine was on 18.4 per cent.
Among the key advertising demographic of 25-54, fortunes changes slightly. The Block beat House Rules and Masterchef moved up to tenth.
More follows later
*Iraq
Although Iran did qualify as well.
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It was a great night last night, but Australia actually defeated Iraq, not Iran.
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Australia qualified by beating Iraq, not Iran.
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Iraq
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Hi Footballer – thanks for that, my bad, now updated. (I wasn’t among the 1.1m last night..)
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
If you watched it on delay on SBS you are not a true fan. True fans would have Foxtel so they watch games live and the A-League. True-ish fans would at least go to the pub or club to watch live.
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For such a massive game, I can’t see why they could not run the game live.
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Hi scoop,
I imagine it would be a rights issue – presumably Fox Sports had first dibs.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Absolutely right there Tim. While Socceroos World Cup Qualifying games are on the anti-Siphoning list, Fox Sports have the exclusive live rights, allowing SBS to show a 1 hour delayed broadcast.
This will be the same for the A-League Finals next year, which SBS will also show on a 1-hour delay, while Fox Sports retains exclusive live broadcast rights.
Even on delay, it’s great that the Socceroos are on FTA, and the figures for a delayed match are pretty phenomenal.
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I couldn’t believe how close we came to failing to qualify. We were nearly embrassed by an Iraqi side that had little to play for. I’m not overly optimistic about the World Cup – still an excuse to party.
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@Lee. But even if Australia had lost the match, because Jordan beat Oman 1-0 a few hours later, Australia would have still gone through on goal difference (Australia would have needed to be beaten by +10 goals for Jordan to overtake Australia on aggregate, in that situation).
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