Sydney vs Gold Coast - 65,000
Compared to 76k for rugby league, 65k for HSBC golf and 65k for ryobi cricket

Melbourne vs Brisbane - 155,000
Newcastle vs Perth - 55,000
Compared to 59k for ManU v Sunderland, 53k for Newcastle v Everton and 57k for FINA swimming

Adelaide vs Melb Heart - 64k
Compared to 67k for FINA swimming (thorpe's return) and 50k for Ryobi cricket.

Can't find a figure for CCM vs WEL, assuming it was below 40k.

Do these include Foxtel on Xbox users like me?

What the fuck is Ryobi cricket?

Ok ok so from these numbers you guys are pulling up, one clear pattern is emerging. The majority of ratings are quite average, at around 50-70k. But, every week be it Sydney v Melbourne, Brisbane v Adelaide, Melbourne Derby etc there's one game that draws 120k+.
That is surely exactly the trend we want? Then Ben Buckley can take that to the big FTA stations and say hey, that's only on Pay TV, if it were on your stations it would triple or more. Forgive me if I'm very dillusional :P

Ryobi Cup - State-based one day cricket competition. Very surprised at how well it rates, given how completely empty the actual stadiums are.

From figures i've seen this season, most games are rating in the vicinity of 50-70k, with Melbourne Victory games attracting up to double. The only explanation I offer is HK. But to be honest, I haven't seen MV/A-league figures for preceding seasons so i may or may not be right.

What is Ryobi Cricket?

http://astra.org.au/

You can see Melb V vs Bris Roar beat non sport shows too.

Wellington vs Melb V was a 69.So you cant say from that that any Melb V game is double others.I think it come down to the attraction(Hype) of each particular match.

There is literally no one at those games.

I think our ratings for this season are going really well, 155k for a normal A league match is fantastic, averaging about 60k for most matches is a big improvement aswell, Foxtel have ploughed 600 millon into AFL yet they average between 110k to 190k, if Foxtel had any idea they would throw $30 millon a year at A league clubs to sign one big star player each. You can see what Harry Kewell has done and if you through 10 major marquee players like in the USA with MLS into the A league 155k viewers would be the norm even higher and the crowds would be huge aswell.

Hopefully Ben Buckley can get the deal done that we need, these figures are certainly going to help.

1 LIVE: FOOTBALL: A‐LEAGUE MELB VIC V BRIS FOX SPORTS 1 Sat 20:00 155

2 LIVE: CRICKET: NATIONAL ONE DAY CUP FOX SPORTS 3 Sun 15:16 101

3 LIVE: FOOTBALL: A‐LEAGUE WELL V MELB V FOX SPORTS 1 Sun 14:30 69

4 LIVE: SWIMMING: FINA WORLD CUP FOX SPORTS 2 Fri 21:00 69

5 LIVE: FOOTBALL: A‐LEAGUE PRE GAME SHOW FOX SPORTS 1 Sat 19:45 66

6 LIVE: FOOTBALL: A‐LEAGUE ADE V MELB H FOX SPORTS 1 Fri 20:00 64

7 LIVE: FOOTBALL: EPL MAN UTD V SUNDERLAND FOX SPORTS 1 Sat 1:53 59

8 CRICKET: WORLD SERIES CLASSICS FOX SPORTS 3 Sun 14:54 56

9 LIVE: FOOTBALL: A‐LEAGUE NEWC V PERTH FOX SPORTS 1 Sat 17:30 55

10 FOOTBALL: EPL NEWCASTLE V EVERTON FOX SPORTS 1 Sat 23:38 53

It would be interesting to see how HAL numbers stack up against those of the Super 15. I can't be sure, but my impression is that a number like 155 compares favourably with some of the more standard Super 15 games (obviously not the berzerk raters of the type featuring the Reds when they were the talk of the town this year).

A dollar figure for the latest pay tv deal for the Super 15 wasn't disclosed, but the conjecture in the press was that it was in the vicinity of $400M. While the Super 15 isn't a perfect analogue for the HAL, you can reasonably start making some assumptions about what the FFA might possibly get from Fox Sports when negotiations begin.

I guess offsetting this is that we don't know just how badly those games that don't make these lists are actually rating.

A fantastic result for the A-league, don't think that these results are average, out of the all the programming on Pay TV all week the Melbourne v Brisbane game was the most watched.

Take the A-league games out of Pay TV's top programs and suddenly Pay's results look a lot more average.

Socceroos are a far bigger brand & drawcard than the Wallabies
HAL/Socceroos package>>>>>>>>Super 15/Wallabies package

Sounds fair enough
Plus the salary cap would jump to say $3M+, meaning better quality squad players & on it snowballs (in theory)

Edited by ozboy: 7/11/2011 08:59:49 PM

Will be interested to see how much the subscription numbers for Foxtel jump in late March for the start of the AFL.

I watch a fair few of the Ryobi matches (as does my mum) but I would certainly never go to a game. Sitting in an empty stadium is hardly appealing. It is good to watch some of the young Australian talent on offer though (if you're a cricket fan) and the competition is generally of a very good standard.

We're actually treated to the spectacle of arguably near enough to world class cricketers playing in our domestic competitions; given this, it's a bit of mystery why both the one and four day domestic game is struggling considering they were once relatively well supported comps.

I remember in the 80s and even the 90s domestic cricket being back page news, whereas now it's almost as much ignored by local media as the A-League is. It could be the case that, like a lot of sports, it's suffering from the gradual incursion of the winter football codes into the summer sports news cycle - with the complicity and sometimes frenzied support of commercial media.

Me too, seeing as one Fox Footy channel concept has previously failed. It remains to be seen if the thirst for marn grook amongst the wider australian nation has grown as much as we're continually told it has.

It's sad to see.I used to be a massive fan when I was younger.They have effectively turned the game into a circus,by flogging the living daylight out of it for as much money as they can get.So it has lost it's relevance .It's on TV all year in one form or another ,with endless meaningless matches.Test matches are really all that matters.

lol I initially misread your post, or read it out of context - Imagine if they were crowds? :o :lol: Though for the EPL, they would be pretty spot on, for their crowds, especially the kinds of crowds Man U and Newcastle get! :o



I'm fairly partial to cricket, even though I don't follow it anywhere near as closely these days as I used too, so it's a shame to hear this. Back in the day, I went to a few Western Warriors one dayers and they drew healthy attendances like around 5k even as many as 15k or so (This was mid-late 90s), this was when the team was doing pretty well though. I 'think' some of those games also had the big name players in the teams, so those days guys like Damian Martyn, Justin Langer, Gilchrist, Tom Moody, Brendan Julian and co. Which wasn't that often, as most of them were with the Test or International One Day side most of the Australian cricket season. But not ALL of them were - just genuinely, the state cricket would still draw ok crowds, especially over here for the successful Warriors at the WACA (Over East crowds were not always that impressive for your state teams, like Victoria playing at the MCG was always a bit cavernous).

TBH I wouldn't be surprised if some of the shine wears off, infact much of it, thanks to the advent of 20/20, a game which draws big attendances at all levels, or did last I checked. It not only makes for 'cricket overload,' but also in many ways, confuses or compromises the once clear divide of Longer form and One Dayers, a 'culture' of familiarity for cricket and casual fans that had been established since the advent of one day cricket in the early 70s and it's popularity through Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. Now I feel One Dayers are kind of lost in the mix and their 'importance' with it, with 20/20 supplanting it as the 'exciting' form and Test Cricket/First Class being the main traditional form. I guess this partly explains too why I've lost interest too. It can be hard to keep up with it all aswell. Saturation on the calender for cricket must also be a concern, as it was in the past. And I see still that trying to arrange it so the bigger nations play the smaller ones more often is STILL a challenge. All these forms of cricket don't help that. The influence of the IPL too brings a challenge not unlike the days of World Series Cricket - I notice a few players opt for IPL over Test teams etc...

IMHO I think Cricket should either abandon 50 over one day cricket and have 20/20 supplant it proper or, preferably, adjust/shorten 50 over cricket to something like 30/40 overs and abandon the 20/20 experiment - Though doing either, let alone both, is hard, now it's been established, proven popular, and the culture of it settling in. And letting go of the now 40 years old 50 over cricket and the tradition of that is also very hard. Especially as that is probably seen as a bridging format between the two 'extremes.'

Sorry for tangent, back to football now. 8-[ :p

Edited by GloryPerth: 8/11/2011 05:34:11 AM

Absolutely spot on. It's in FoxSports' best interests for every team to have a marquee player.

I doubt matches featuring only non-Australian Super 15 teams would rate highly.

Hmm fair argument, though I'm/we're biased to say so. :p

I guess we need a 'Sceptic' to come in and temper our enthusiasm again. ;)

But yeah, that would not be unreasonable you'd think - $30M a season = $210M for a 7 year deal. Just the sticking point is STILL the Socceroos and their WCQ's being on the anti-siphon list. That's a significant chunk of our produce, the bundle's, the value. Not only because of the Socceroos' value but because the WCQ's are a significant amount of the Socceroos' games, something like 2/3-3/4 of them, depending on the year. So with the A-League part of the 'bundle' naturally growing in 'some' value atleast since the 2005 offering, that will be offset a fair bit, but the reduction in the Socceroos part of the package, will still have a substantive impact. So unfortunately it won't just be growth on growth. Though good, ofcourse, for non-foxsports viewers who want to see the Socceroos on tele. \:d/ I'm hopeful with the anti-siphon thing though, as a compromise, that the more minor, say, late at night/early morning away World Cup qualifiers (Like those ones in the Mid East) and/or atleast all the third round World Cup Qualifiers, the round we're currently in, will remain siphonable - so only the Fourth and Final Round on anti-siphon. As that would a much better outcome for the deal.

Just hopefully it works out to still be significant enough that indeed, Salary Caps are covered atleast. Palmer, Sage and co have lead the calls for this.

TBH All things considered - Maybe $2.5M a year for each club ($175 over 7 years) is the BEST we can hope for (Near 50% increase on present deal). Maybe a 25-30% increase would be more realistic, like say $2.1M a year per club, covering most of each club's cap, though not all and no marquees ($150M over 7 yrs). But again all depends on HOW many of the Socceroos' WCQs appear on the Anti-Siphon list.

BTW Basis of my estimations, simple maths of present deal - $120M over 7 years = $17.143M divide by 8 original teams = $2.143M per team $17.143M divide present 10 teams = $1.714M per team

Edited by GloryPerth: 8/11/2011 08:47:48 AM

I'm pretty sure the FFA said the next deal they will only look for a 5-year one because the current 7-year arrangement doesn't leave enough variation?

As for Socceroos, isn't it plausible to think that one of the FTA station will bid large amounts of money? Because next year there will be Roos games against Japan, Korea etc which draw well over 600k up into low 1m. So surely with 10 now not having any decent sport they will go large amounts for that? It will be a pain though because 10 do shit football coverage, but for the exposure and $$$ who cares? In the contract we could stipulate that we want to hand-pick the broadcast team couldn't we, to fix that issue?

Finally, I hope to see a deal that covers most of the A-league clubs' running cost and salary cap. Because then, all of a sudden every club is turning a profit. There is a BIG difference to potential investors and sponsors to know the club is -$1m for the year than +$400,000. Even though it's only a small profit, all of a sudden every club is more appealing and we have more money to throw at big players to get more crowds in. I can't see this next deal being awfully good like the AFL's is, but all it really needs to do is put all clubs a few hundred thousand in the black, and have a game or highlights on 10 or 7, and then all of a sudden the competition will spiral upwards.

Double post*

I really really REALY hope the TV networks have the foresight to see how well the A-league can rate in that we don't have many big players yet, we need $$$ and all of a sudden we have huge ratings etc- they just need to have the foresight and long-term goals that we do to get the Michael Owens and John Terry's etc.

When?

Week 46: 6 - 12 November 2011 Top 10 Sport Broadcasts

1 LIVE: CRICKET: TEST RSA V AUS 1ST TEST DAY 2 S1 FOX SPORTS 2 Thu 19:00 - 182

2 LIVE: CRICKET: TEST RSA V AUS FOX SPORTS 2 Fri 19:00 - 165

3 LIVE: CRICKET: TEST RSA V AUS 1ST TEST DAY 2 S2 FOX SPORTS 2 Thu 21:35 - 164

4 LIVE: CRICKET: TEST RSA V AUS 1ST TEST DAY 1 S1 FOX SPORTS 2 Wed 21:01 - 140

5 LIVE: CRICKET: TEST RSA V AUS 1ST TEST DAY 2 S3 FOX SPORTS 2 Thu 00:15 - 99

6 LIVE: FOOTBALL: A‐LEAGUE C CST V MELB V FOX SPORTS 1 Sat 19:30 - 95

7 RUGBY LEAGUE: FOUR NATIONS FOX SPORTS 2 Sun 08:02 - 77

8 LIVE: CRICKET: TEST RSA V AUS 1ST TEST DAY 1 S2 FOX SPORTS 2 Wed 22:39 - 75

9 LIVE: FOOTBALL: A‐LEAGUE MELB H V NEWC FOX SPORTS 1 Sat 17:30 - 68

10 LIVE: GOLF: HSBC CHAMPIONS: FNL RND FOX SPORTS 2 Sun 14:00 - 65

Not included in top 10

SFC/GCU, ADU/GCU, PG/SFC (Oman/Socceroos)

Great number for Victory match.

As usual, MVFC is the most popular HAL team on Foxtel.

A couple of points worth noting about the ratings' figure for the CCM v MBV match:

1. Harry did NOT play, which means HAL-haters, who keep bleating about current ratings being due to the Harry effect, are forced to shut up;

2. An H&A match involving MVFC rated higher than international Rugby League - has this happened before?

Just need the other HAL clubs to start pulling significant support - on TV & at the ground - and then we will see support for, and interest in, the HAL really surge.

MBH v NUJ ratings are also promising. However, given the embarrassing crowd of 5k at AAMI Park - despite $5 tickets for friends of MBH Members and 1/2-price tickets for those, who arrived by Public Transport - the high ratings are probably due to strong support from NUJ fans than interest in MBH.

I'd be surprised if MBH survives in its current form. I expect them to relocate to an outer part of Melbourne or even a regional town in Victoria and, of course, that would require a name-change.