Peak Sport this weekend  — the AFL Grand Final (3.52 million national) had more viewers than the NRL Grand Final (3.39 million) — and by the way, Melbourne teams now hold the two major trophies for our winter football codes. The AFL had 2.68 million metro viewers on Saturday watching the Tigers win, the NRL had 2.33 million who watched Melbourne Storm’s victory last night. The NRL easily won the regional battle with 1.07 million viewers tuning in to 844,000 for the AFL Grand Final.

The AFL presentations saw a tune in for the second year in a row — 3.69 million people watched nationally (2.80 million nationally and 893,000 in the regions). But that was a long, long way from 2016’s figures when the Western Bulldogs beat Sydney. Just going on the figures the Tigers do not pull viewers like the Bulldogs or Sydney did last year (4.09 million for the game and 4.11 million for the presentation) . Now we have no idea of the streaming figures from Telstra or the AFL for the game and how long they watched for. 

The national NRL audience last night of 3.39 million was down on the 3.57 million for last year’s win by Cronulla over the Storm, and down on the last non-Sydney Grand Final between Brisbane and North Queensland in 2015, which averaged 3.69 million viewers. Again we do not have streaming figures from Telstra or the NRL and for how long they streamed. The average viewer figures for Seven (AFL) and Nine (NRL) are for watching the entire game. The Networks also trumpet peak audience data which measures how many people watched for at least a minute. And at the moment the ratings do not measure out of home viewing on TV in pubs, clubs etc.

In regional areas the NRL dominated — 1.07 million for the Grand Final, 748,000 for the presentations and 670,000 for the entertainment. Then came the Nine/NBN News with 471,000 and Little Big Shots was fifth with 458,000. Nine’s night everywhere.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (48.5%)
  2. Seven (22.1%)
  3. ABC (15.5%)
  4. Ten (9.0%)
  5. SBS (4.8%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (42.0%)
  2. Seven (15.6%)
  3. ABC (11.8%)
  4. Ten (4.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (3.0%)
  2. 7TWO (2.6%)
  3. ABC 2 (2.3%)
  4. 7mate, Eleven (2.2%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. NRL Grand Final (Nine) — 3.399 million
  2. NRL Grand Final presentations (Nine) — 2.480 million
  3. NRL Pre Match Entertainment (Nine) — 2.041 million
  4. Nine/NBN News — 1.506 million
  5. Seven News  — 1.302 million
  6. Little Big Shots (Seven) — 1.215 million
  7. Dr Blakes Mysteries (ABC) — 1.063 million
  8. Doc Martin (ABC) — 1.063 million
  9. 7pm ABC News — 866,000
  10. Sunday Night repeat (Seven) — 836,000

Top metro programs:

  1. NRL Grand Final (Nine) — 2.235 million
  2. NRL Grand Final presentations (Nine) — 1.731 million
  3. NRL Pre Match Entertainment (Nine) — 1.371 million

Losers: No one, not on the field or rival networks or programs. NRL GF always a big destabiliser, like the Origin games.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.018 million
  2. Seven News — 879,000
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.093 million
  4. 7pm ABC News —587,000
  5. Sunday Night repeat (Seven) —510,000
  6. Ten Eyewitness News — 270,000
  7. SBS World News  — 136,000

Morning (national) TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC, 334,000 + 134,000 on News 24) — 466,000
  2. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 444,000
  3. Landline (ABC)  — 402,000
  4. Weekend Today (Nine) — 378,000
  5. Sports Sunday (Nine) — 270,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) — 247,000