It depends on why you are concerned with ratings. 

If you are tracking the engagement of the community with the A-league, then being able to estimate the total number of people watching is important.

If you are concerned with the financial implications, then the total number of people watching isnt the concern, its what value those people represent for the A-league that matters.  If the value of the A-league to Foxtel drops due to 50% of people moving to other platforms, then this will be represented in the next deal.  If the 50% of people on the new platforms do not return as much value as what the A league loses from Foxtel, this is bad, even though total numbers remain the same.  

If your concern is the optics and buzz about the league, total numbers matter. Good buzz is important to sports. To much negative talk can influence how people feel about a league, which influences how likely casuals are to tune in.  Ratings are a part of that. Leagues do not like to see stories of declining ratings, it creates a negativity that can feed on itself.

I wonder if bars/restaurants  never having the a league on but instead having other sports effects the ratings 

No

ratings are calculated by set top boxes at specific survey households. 

Pubs and clubs have never been counted 

Of course, I would imagine the new independent body will be privy to such information when the next TV/streaming deal comes around. It would be interesting to see how a Foxtel "view" counts compared to a Kayo "view" in a monetary sense. 

I don't think it matters now, the die has been cast.

In fact, only yesterday the bloke from Black Box TV was being interviewed by our new broadcast partner, talking about the shifts in viewing habits.  He refferred to football and the A-Leagur repeatedly as 2nd tier.

He said that the big three sports are still very valuable to commercial FTA because they continue to attract eyeballs to FTA.  The FTAs will still want them on their channel and will still pay big dollars, even if its less than they pay today.  We've already heard that our ex-broadcaster, TEN, will go hard for a cut of the NRL.

The AFL will bring in  19th team, in Tassie, for the start of the next deal, and will configure the comp so as to br able to sell a package of Thursday night games to the highest bidder.

We had regular mid-week games once upon  a time.....

Interesting poll on MSN website today:
                                  

Have the A-League VAR decisions taken too long?

• 18%  Yes, it's frustrating
• 9%  No, we need the right calls
• 12%  It could be better
• 61%  I don't watch the A-League

(1823 votes)

yep agree. every time you see a foxtel ratings number, you have to add 30% on top for Kayo as the minumum number. if you don't, you are not getting anywhere near the full story. that means at least 68k for AU v SFC and at least 78k for the derby. 


well thats stupid. what if you have a pub full of patrons watching the HAL? how do they measure that?

Figures from thie week's games?

They don’t.

When there is a pub full of people watching the cricket, rugby, football, tennis or Peppa pig —- they don’t get counted. 

Thats the system. 

AU v SFC - Fox 52k 
WSW v CC - Fox 35k, ABC 47k
MV v MC - Fox 60k
WP v WU - Didnt make Fox cutoff (45k), not reported elsewhere
PG v BR - Didnt make Fox cutoff (45k), not reported elsewhere

The Friday and Sat games you'll find on the previous page I think.

As for yesterday's games, none broke through to the top 20, which cuts out at 45k.

Completely dominated by Bathurst, which also got high FTA ratings, even Japan v Scotlant in the RWC made the top 20.

Rank	Description	Channel\Market	(r) National STV
1	LIVE: SUPERCARS BATHURST	FOX SPORTS 506	469,000
2	LIVE: SUPERCARS TRACKSIDE	FOX SPORTS 506	446,000
3	LIVE: SUPERCARS THE GRID	FOX SPORTS 506	303,000
4	LIVE: SUPERCARS BATHURST SUPPORTS	FOX SPORTS 506	242,000
5	LIVE: SUPERCARS BATHURST	FOX SPORTS 506	185,000
6	LIVE: SUPERCARS BATHURST SUPPORTS	FOX SPORTS 506	170,000
7	LIVE: SUPERCARS LIVE	FOX SPORTS 506	155,000
8	LIVE: RWC: JPN V SCO	FOX SPORTS 503	133,000

Aha having that option is such a lame cheap shot

Fold the league. 

Geez nearly half a million watched Bathurst on traditional fox, so much for everyone getting rid of it lol.

Those ratings are worrying for 1st round matches. Anyone get the NBL ratings?

Exactly. 

“Foxtel is dying! Nobody subscribes anymore! Everyone watches live sport via Kayo!”

(Bathurst gets 470k)

Sadly the slide continues.
What FFA& independence has done leading into the new season has FAILED miserably.
I will continue to watch and enjoy the game.But this has to be the worst ever start to a season,ratings wise.When will we hit bottom? i dont know.
But we all know the peak is now and everything slides for the rest of the season.
To think what we had and how FFA  and Lowy destroyed it.

Nothing on Fox for the Friday (didnt make cut off and no one else reported them)
Sat/Sun I should have shortly
Game tonight is on Fox.

It is very very hard to see the A League recovering at all, let alone to a point of commercial viability for a new TV deal, even making a reasonable adjustment for Kayo and Telstra. 

I write this with great sadness because I love the game and the A League and the A League has been a bold attempt to bring football into the mainstream in this country.

But the rational and pragmatic part of my brain simply can't see any network being prepared to pay for TV rights that would allow the competition to survive as it is now when the current deal expires. 

There's no way of guiding the lily. NRL and AFL are too entrenched and the football played in the A League just isn't good enough to cut through the culture and the entrenched and deeply hostile media. C'est la vie. We all get old and die. In the meantime I will enjoy the A League while I can and hope for a miracle of biblical proportions to save the League. 

So how does the NBL survive without a TV deal and less viewers and media attention?

I have no idea idea. Maybe that's the model for the A League after the Fox deal expires. 

Look, I hope I'm wrong, I really do, but I don't see how anyone can rationally reach anyone other conclusion. 

It very nearly died and was revived.
They get by with a very small playing roster, and half of them are probably on minimal salaries.
But they are often packing out indoor stadiums, maybe that raises enough money to keep it all ticking along?

Exactly, so at worst we will be a bigger version of the NBL.I actually see advantages in not having to be dependent on TV revenue and making every decision based on maximising TV ratings. We can focus on our own audience, we can focus on developing players, we can focus on having more teams on smaller budgets etc.

SFC just signed a record sponsorship, Perth just signed with BHP, we still have a good connection to Asia.I would be surprised if Fox or Optus or someone didn't offer anything for the league, which is the case with NBL.

We went from commercial FTA to the ABC.
The ABC represents last chance saloon.
The chances of bouncing back from the ABC to landing a lucrative broadcast deal are effectively nil.

I think you're right in that the A-league as we know it will cease to exist at the end of the next TV deal. However, I think we'll still have a top-level national competition albeit with smaller wages and lesser quality imports. Most of the clubs will make it through the transition to whatever comes next, as I doubt they'll just throw in the towel (especially considering the amount of money some of them have pumped into academies). As you say, I'm going to enjoy these last few seasons where I get to go watch the likes of Ola Toivonen, Diego Castro and Milos Ninkovic every week, because I doubt we'll be seeing players like these in 5 years.

Actively praying for the league to fail and making 10 posts a day on FFT about how TV numbers are in the tank like certain individuals is pretty pathetic. I seriously wonder if they've got much else going for them in their lives. 

Agreed.

As I pointed out in another thread, our game seems attract those that thrive on the most negative viewpoints.

Whether it be those with self-serving intent (ie. Clubs that aren’t in the HAL), players who talk down the competition/code (ie. Cahill in the past and Foord this week) or people that concentrate on the stands more than the on-field action, there’s rarely anything of positivity discussed at any turn.

In the reality of our current situation, this year is a big test for the sport to find stability and grow again, but it will take those in our game to actually assist in that process. Talking down the sport at every opportunity isn’t going to help anyone, as many comments raised are neither constructive nor realistic.

The start of this season has confirmed to me that at some stage we will need to reboot the competition.How,i dont know.
Maybe a big spend on marquee players or some Asian team,like Singapore FC.
One thing is for sure......You cant do the same thing and expect a different result.So if we continue with what we are doing the slide has to continue until we hit the bottom.

I know it’s a radical idea, but imagine if the FFA and iHAL did that now, perhaps we wouldn’t be in the shit....

NBL
Fri - Didnt make Fox top 20
Sat - 19k (metro FTA), - no regs available
Sun - 14k (metro FTA) - no regs available
Mon - didnt make fox top 20