The National Rugby League grand final between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Canterbury Bulldogs resulted in "a ratings victory for the Nine Network," according to Scott Ellis of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. It was the highest-rating NRL game ever (since OzTAM ratings began), "after it secured a five-city average audience of 2.597 million, with a peak of 3.098 million viewers." A further 1.354 million regional viewers "tuned in to the match (peaking at 1.552 million), giving a combined five-city/regional average audience of 3.951 million, with a peak of 4.65 million." Nine Head of Sport Steve Crawley said, "No matter how much hard work you do [with these broadcasts] you're only ever as good as good as the contest and the combatants." The NRL grand final ratings came close to last week's enormous Australian Football League grand final numbers, "which proves Australian television audiences' continuing love of football's main codes." The AFL grand final (the game) "was the week's most-watched program, with segments of the broadcast taking out the top five slots for the ratings week of September 21-27." The game itself "attracted 2.813 million viewers." Nine "is expecting the NRL broadcast to prove similarly dominating once the segments are broken down." Crawley said, "And it is now. Nothing's going to beat that. I think at one stage there was a 75 percent share (of the TV audience) in Sydney for 16 to 39-year-old viewers ... that's so good" (SMH, 10/6). In Sydney, Michael Bodey wrote the hometown clash between the Rabbitohs and the Bulldogs "also helped Nine secure a record free-to-air audience share" of 65.6%, or almost two of every three viewers, in Sydney. That beat the 65.5% share recorded in Melbourne "on the opening night of the 2006 Commonwealth Games" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/7).
SUPERCLÁSICO: DIARIO POPULAR reported Sunday's Argentine first division Superclásico between River Plate and Boca Juniors drew a "historic TV audience, with viewership peaking at a rating of up to 45 points." The "average audience was not, however, the biggest since River returned to the first division." A day of "stormy weather" provided the "perfect excuse to make the home the ideal place to watch the game -- the total was 28.6, marking the most-watched program of the weekend." For the last Superclásico, which took place in March, "the audience rating maxed out at 41.6, but with an average of 28.6" (DIARIO POPULAR, 10/6).
