State of Origin fever has "emerged as the pound-for-pound most lucrative sporting event in Australia," driving TV advertising rates to a record high as rugby league bosses "give serious consideration to splitting up the media rights to score even bigger profits," according to Darren Davidson of THE AUSTRALIAN. Fierce interstate rivalry between Super Rugby sides Queensland and NSW Waratahs has "delivered an advertising bonanza for exclusive TV rights holder the Nine Network, which has bumped up rates" by 5%, according to insiders. Advertisers in Wednesday's telecast paid up to A$150,000 ($114,800) for a 30-second TV spot amid "extraordinary demand." The Origin series has now "eclipsed" the Australian Football League and National Rugby League grand finals as the most valuable winter sporting event, putting the three-game series on course to deliver at least A$20M ($15.3M) in advertising revenues. In an age of "fragmented, time-shifted media consumption and increasingly volatile free-to-air TV audiences," one-off events like the Origin series have "become even more lucrative for advertisers because they guarantee a large, live audience." Outside of live sport, only the finals of popular reality franchises such as "MasterChef," "The Voice" and "My Kitchen Rules" can "charge a similar premium for advertising slots. tussle between the Blues and the Maroons pales in comparison to the match that really matters -- the one between media companies for control of the rights to show NRL on TV." The Australian Rugby League Commission told broadcasters it was likely to "separate the game’s major assets in a clear sign of Origin's arrival as an annual sports event with almost unrivalled commercial pulling power" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/28).
RATINGS: In Sydney, Lara Sinclair reported Wednesday's State of Origin match "averaged 2.432 million viewers, down slightly on last year’s game-one audience of 2.487 million." The match "peaked at 2.754 million viewers in the five capital cities but reached 3.620 million" nationally in Australia (including regional audiences). Nationally, the audience "peaked at 4.209 million, and it was the highest-rating show for the year to date, according to the Nine Network." Nine "won the night across all its channels with a massive" 44.4% share, with 37.6% of the overall total "glued to its State of Origin coverage on the main Nine channel" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/28).
