As if the Australian Rugby Union did not have "enough problems on its hands with disgruntled five-eighth Quade Cooper, now comes a report that shows viewers are turning off the game in droves," according to Stuart Honeysett of THE AUSTRALIAN. Global sports research agency Repucom "has just finished compiling its 2012 Football Benchmarking Report, which compares figures from Australia's football codes" -- Australian Football League, National Rugby League, Super Rugby and the A-League -- "based on OzTAM ratings and AGB Nielsen audience research." While AFL and the A-League "were the big winners and the NRL remained steady, it was the alarming dip in fans watching the Super Rugby competition that should have the powerbrokers at ARU headquarters concerned." The AFL announced "its record A$1.25B ($1.3B) media rights deal last year and capitalised on a boom in subscription television broadcasts, which were up from 19.3 million viewers in '11 to 39.3 million this year -- an increase of 101%." Collingwood "was the most-watched club with 24.26 million viewers followed by Hawthorn with 22.30 million and premier Sydney with 19.83 million." The NRL "showed only a marginal increase in viewers from 113.5 million to 113.9 million, or 0.37%, this year." The other big winner was the A-League. Figures show its viewing audience "jumped from 7.5 million last year to 9.5 million in '12 -- an increase of 26.72%" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 11/28).
