The Australian Football League and National Rugby League finals have "netted the host broadcasters an advertising bonanza, with Seven, Nine and Fox Sports set to cash in on strong demand and record audiences," according to Davidson & Mitchell of THE AUSTRALIAN. Advertisers making late bookings this week "can expect to fork out" up to A$100,000 ($76,250) for a 30-second spot in the NRL and AFL grand finals. The Seven and Nine networks have pre-sold the vast majority of their ad inventory "as sports events become increasingly crucial to the future of broadcast television." The AFL finals series match coverage across Seven’s primary channel, 7mate and Fox Sports "netted the highest television ratings since the 2007 final series, averaging 1.14 million viewers per match on Seven and 443,000 viewers on Fox Sports." Seven CRO Kurt Burnette said this Saturday’s grand final between the Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs sets up a “dream final” by avoiding the prospect of a match between the two Sydney teams, and revealed his phone has been ringing “red hot” with calls from media buyers this weekend. Burnette said, "It's the game we hoped would always happen; a Sydney-versus-Melbourne grand final featuring two well supported teams." Burnette added that confirmed sponsors include Toyota, Virgin Australia, AAMI, NAB, Telstra, Woolworths, McDonald's and National Australia Bank. Nine Network is selling 30-second advertising slots in Sunday’s NRL grand final for about A$75,000 ($57,185) each. Nine’s "key NRL sponsors throughout the year have been Bunnings, SportsBet, Jim Beam, Telstra and KFC but the network has been focused on selling stock in the spot market" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 9/26).
