The NRL has taken a TV ratings hit with 85,000 less people tuning in to round one compared to last year.
All eyes were on how viewers would respond following the game’s off-season from hell which has dragged the game’s name through the mud and prompted the ARL Commission to introduce its controversial “no fault” stand down rule.
Despite round one getting off to a flying start with a bumper audience tuning in to the Melbourne v Brisbane season opener, numbers flagged across the weekend.
A total cumulative audience of 4,055,000 tuned in across Fox League and Channel Nine for the eight matches, down from 4,140,000 for the 2018 opening round.
However these number do not take into account the number of viewers who tuned in across streaming portals including Kayo and the NRL’s app.
Officials at Rugby League Central were doing handstands after the Storm’s 22-12 win over the Broncos attracted a record audience of 1,183,000 (334,000 on Fox League, 849,000 on Nine) on Thursday.
Comparatively, last year’s corresponding game between St George Illawarra and Brisbane reached 1,026,000 viewers.
Last year’s opening round did have the added bonus of the first Saturday fixture kicking off at the viewer-friendly timeslot of 4.30pm, while this year the Warriors v Canterbury clash began at 3pm.
Just 181,000 tuned in to see the Warriors thrash the Bulldogs, compared with 274,000 who viewed the Sydney Roosters-Wests Tigers thriller in the corresponding Saturday-opening game last year.
Despite reigning wooden spooners Parramatta upsetting the highly-fancied Penrith in a tense match, ratings also took a big dive in the 4pm Sunday timeslot.
Overall, the audience was down 131,000 for the western Sydney derby compared with the corresponding game between the same two sides 12 months earlier.
Last year 242,000 Fox League and 603,000 Nine viewers (845,000 total) watched the match, while this year the Fox audience slid to 233,000 and the Nine audience down to 481,000 (714,000 total).
The cumulative Fox League numbers across the round dropped from 2,063,000 to 2,022,000 while the Nine audience went from 2,077,000 to 2,033,000.
Fix the scrums
Guest
Greenberg and Beattie won't like this headline. Notice the Telegraph isn't reporting it. The article is mainly about Tv ratings and that's where the big money comes from. Apps like Kayo, which has only just been launched, are also being used but that isn't going to pay the bills. Match attendances and Tv rights pay the bills. Advertisers look at TV ratings and where they can get the best value for their dollars. The FTA ratings can't be allowed to slip too much. All sports are going to be affected by the increasing use of streaming apps like Kayo. Look at what Netflix and Spotify have done to the Tv and Music industries. Attendances and FTA ratings will be even more important going forward.
clipper
Roar Rookie
Just last week people were saying the NRL had record ratings when it was only up a fraction of a percent, so I guess they're prone to hyperbole.
Mango Man
Guest
I watched every game on the NRL app and none on channel 9 so my ears wouldn't bleed from Joey's and Gus' whinging. I guess my numbers weren't counted.
Nat
Roar Guru
I read the exact opposite story on Saturday. Respect the games were set many weeks ago but scheduling the Wooden Spooners vs Controversy Corner isn't exactly the spectacle that's going to attract either the 'rusted on' or slightly interested.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Well newscorp owns Kayo so they probably have access to more accurate numbers then we do.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Well this is a bit of a reach, and I reckon there'd be a lot more then 85k streaming the games given the sheer amount of advertising Kayo alone has been pushing. But worst case scenario not counting streaming numbers we're talking about what? A 2% drop from last year? Panic stations indeed... I'm not sure comparing like games between seasons has much merit either. Penrith v Parra last year was a top 4 team v a top 8 team, this years it's a top 8 side v the wooden spooners. And the Bulldogs getting flogged by the Warriors (who's fanbase don't get games on local fta as far as I know) is never going to compare to Roosters V Tigers.
Joe
Roar Rookie
As with other here I watched the entire round on Kayo. It is leaps and bounds ahead of NRL live pass which I used for the last two years.
Rob
Guest
Was watching NRL 360 last night and they mentioned at the start of the show that the ratings were actually up across the opening round? They didn't go into much depth with numbers or what platforms were counted, but I can't imagine they would mention it if there wasn't some truth behind it.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Definitely...the cost of Foxtel and lack of service was unjustifiable for me 18 months ago. Less so now with the emergence of Kayo.
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
Absolutely TB. I, for one, picked up Kayo to give it a try when previously I viewed through C9.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
I switched to Kayo & the NRL app. Am I not counted? Perhaps its more a reflection of the changing landscape of FTA tv & the extremely expensive Foxtel which I've ditched.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
I watched 5 minutes of Sundays game on Ch 9 then flicked over to Kayo. Watched pretty much the entire round all on Kayo, but I guess according to these numbers I didn't watch any games... Will be interesting to here what sort of numbers Kayo got. More interesting to understand why they wouldn't be counted in these numbers? I would think Kayo Sports would have them almost immediately.
JimboJones
Guest
The Peter Beattie bad news express , stopping all stations until the end of season .
peeeko
Roar Guru
agree with Barry and Randy - non story
RandyM
Guest
so they're down a fraction of a percent then? gee whiz... We have the new streaming platform Kayo, I am also not sure if the fox ratings include foxtelnow, which is the streaming version of foxtel.
The Barry
Roar Guru
TV ratings down...but we’re not counting emerging platforms like Kayo and the NRL app...but we’re putting it down to off field behaviour. What a nonsense story. The NRL needs to get in front of this though and work out how to quantify viewing figures from these platforms. Maybe they can already this tech stuff is not really my bag. If they can they need to control the narrative or this sort of nothing story will go on all year and the player behaviour will be dragged out all year. I know a lot of people who have switched from Foxtel to Kayo. From social media I know of a lot more. I ditched Fox last year and watch the 9 games live and the rest of the round on delay on the NRL app.
AE47
Roar Rookie
Record crowds on screen for Thursday night yet they couldn’t sell out the stadium, we need a CEO that can put two and two together