Big Audience for Grand Final

by Johnson Leung, reporting for AFANA in Melbourne

Last month's AFL Grand Final between the Sydney Swans and the West Coast Eagles soared into the list of top ten most popular programs for 2006, with an astonishing 91 per cent of people watching commercial television at that time tuning to the game broadcast on Channel Ten.  The GF attracted an average audience of 3.15 million, with 1.184 million watching in Melbourne, 765,000 in Sydney (23 per cent drop from last year's decider), 330,000 in Brisbane, 326,000 in Adelaide, and a record 550,000 in Perth.

With the peak audience of 3.944 million viewers, the Grand Final is the second highest rating program on Australian television during 2006 (to date), behind Nine's live coverage of Melbourne Commonwealth Games opening ceremony on March 15 (3.56 million). The Swans have now been involved in the three most-watched Grand Finals in local TV history: 1996 (against North Melbourne), 2005 and 2006 (both against West Coast).

In comparison, the National Rugby League Grand Final on October 1 had a lower audience than the AFL decider, but incredibly with more people watching in Melbourne than Sydney or Brisbane (both traditional rugby cities). The match, won by the Brisbane Broncos over the Melbourne Storm, attracted a peak audience of 1.064 million at 8.29pm in Melbourne, and an average of 903,000 over the entire game, the code's best-ever result in the southern city. Nine's telecast peaked at 2.98 million and averaged 2.56 million nationally, including 804,000 viewers in Sydney and 788,000 in Brisbane. Adelaide (46,000) and Perth (21,000) received only delayed replays.

Top 10 Australian TV shows of 2006 as of October 20(program name, network, average audience in five capital cities)

1. Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony (Nine): 3.56 million
2. AFL Grand Final (Ten): 3.15 million
3. The Great Escape - interview with rescued Beaconsfield miners Todd Russell and Brent Webb (Nine): 2.79 million
4. Australian Open tennis men's final – Federer v Baghdatis (Seven): 2.75 million
5. Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony (Nine): 2.74 million
6. Dancing with the Stars Series 4 Grand Final (Seven): 2.66 million
7. NRL Grand Final (Nine): 2.56 million
8. Terri Irwin Australian interview (Nine): 2.51 million
9. Nine Sunday news - Beaconsfield mine rescue (Nine): 2.48 million
10. Steve Irwin memorial service live telecast (ABC, Seven, Nine, Ten): 2.39 million

Sources: The Australian, OzTAM