That has to be the most pathetic excuse I have ever heard. 

Does this mean they can't find the venues?

But hey, at least it's better than the 'bad old days' that you young kids won't remember. Conveniently. 

A national FTA audience of 94K (with 71k METRO, 23 REG) for the SYDNEY DERBY is an absolute fucking debacle.

let the spinning continue

Those ratings are absolutely rubbish.  

and some people on this forum were expecting up to 500,000 for derby games on FTA. 




 

When the FFA and SBS had their dummy spit, and SBS retaliated by throwing the coverage back to SBS2 and no HD coverage, football fans took it as an insult. When membership numbers, attendances and Fox ratings didn't move, but SBS numbers halved, its obvious and undeniable this move had an impact on the FTA ratings

Australian football fans are sensitive. They were formed from very dark days and they were determined that this reform would succeed. If you are a journalist and want a few readers, just insult "soccer" and watch them flood to your paper / site. Have a look at how a thousand or so active supporters made national headlines

When network 10 was announced, the logic is that fans would return. Not in bigger numbers as some here thought. Its not like they were able to duplicate or clone themselves. But at the very least the numbers should have been what we saw on the first 2 years of SBS (and would have continued to see if it wasn't for the dummy spit. But we didn't see that

My theories on possible reasons why are:
. These football fans went 2 years without FTA coverage and have another means of accessing the league. An SD coverage with ads is not an incentive
. Fans continue to vote with their remote against the FFA due to the voting saga and lack of expansion
. The A League is just stale. Even ratings / attendances are starting to drop. Membership numbers which is the core base haven't moved


The Socceroos are a mainstream sports team with a different audience. So is the EPL

But the A League is built on a group of core fans who are very politically motivated because of what they had to go through prior. This can be both a very good thing and a very bad thing. There also seems to be a case of if people stop watching, they stop watching, as we saw in season 6. Very much a crowds and ratings obsession


Fixing this either requires a big fat placebo like the October kick off or real action like expansion and scrapping the cap. Either way fans need to see something from the FFA to see whose side they are on

With 700k watching the Wallabies v All Blacks on Ten/Regionals its not at all surprising that the Derby got lower figures than the previous two broadcasts on One/Regionals.  That game is as big as a major Socceroos game in the NSW and Qld markets.

The 190k watching the same game on Fox would also explain lower than hoped for derby ratings on STV.

The ratings definitely are not good and it will be interesting to observe the trend over the season.  Right at the moment One's average rating is not too much more than SBS' average over their last season which doesn't look good when you allow for the normal decline over a season.

The only positive we can say is that One's average is 112k more than we would have if they hadn't taken up the broadcast off Fox.

Surely it would only be a win if that +71k was plus what SBS would have had?
I would have thought that at best, its steady as she goes.
Compared to expectations of a commercial channel, its a loss.

Personally, I thought some hopes of what 10 could achieve were overblown, but I would have thought +50% achievable straight of the bat, with a slow build from there.

Does anyone have the tv averages - Fox & FTA once 11-12 for the A-League

11-12 Fox ave 68,000
12-13 Fox ave 77,000
13-14 Fox ave 67,000 SBS ave 97,000
14-15 Fox ave 59,000 SBS ave 115,000
15-16 Fox ave 58,000 SBS ave 54,000
16-17 Fox ave 64,000 SBS ave 64,000

I am sure the previous 2 seasons will be beaten

Does Foxtel Now appear in the figures anywhere?  With the spread of the NBN, streaming becomes more viable, and I am not sure it is captured anywhere.

@ jatz

Streaming gets added to the fox figures so yes.

Quick General question - what made 14-15 so special??

Love how aggressively folk around here respond to anything AFL-related, the inferiority complex is astounding. 

Note the massive drop for SBS - their decision to move to SBS2 was a killer for them and for the game 😖

huh?

SBS started their FTA contract showing HAL games on SBS2.
They then moved games to SBS1, but when Gallop publicly stated he hoped to end the SBS contract early and was "shopping" games around, HAL games were moved back to SBS2.

And SBS were paying something like $7M per season.

well played davey

@ footballer

That $7m from SBS was never a market rate, uncle frank pulled some strings and hit the Feds to give sbs extra to pay that. (He had his uses). But $7m was never the going rate and not even close tbh.

Waz

True and in the end caused a massive fall out between FFA & SBS .... taking both sides at the extreme FFA believed because they got the funding for SBS the coverage from SBS should be far more positive...... SBS because they where a big time broadcaster and the A-League was expanding SBS could be as critical as they like, claim they were paying 7 mill and not spending it on other shows, and the A-League was so embedded they say what they wanted...

IMO the biggest mistake Gallop made was his management of the broadcast agreement he totally stuffed it up especially in the match selection in the first season.... having said that SBS did not have totally clean hands .... their broadcast team and almost constant negativity by guests until Micheal Bridges arrived on the A-League was difficult to watch at times..

The value of TV deals increase

The payTV one was $40m and the FFA were expecting $80m

Even if the $7m was over priced, after 4 years it would have been a reasonable price. Especially for Saturday night content

How didn't SBS have "clean hands"???

SBS is the TRADITIONAL HOME OF FOOTBALL in this country, majority govt owned, and STILL they paid $7M (market rate or not)
They had a DEDICATED PANEL - pre-game and post-game.
They created Thurs FC - which was god awful and rated terribly.
They showed HAL games on HD.
and thru all this they were losing money from showing HAL games hand over fist.

Then Gallop publicly said SBS was rubbish and about to have its contract broken.

so again, how didn't SBS have "clean hands"???

Bris v New 65k
Per v CC 59k

Year to date STV average is 101200, down on 111800 last season

At every opportunity Midfielder loves to sink the boot into SBS. As it turns out SBS was a better option for football on FTA, but getting Midfielder to admit as such would be a problem. 

Who scheduled the derby for the same night as the Bledisloe? Ridiculous management. Took 5k off the crowd, still 36k isn't too bad but it wiped out the casual tv audience. Why do that to your showcase game?
And then it all goes back to a complete lack of advertising. The HAL does none. 10 has done none. SBS did at least advertise on it's channels. 

Also Monster trucks and Chainsmokers on at Homebush.

43k at ANZ for Monster trucks.

Yeah I was there it was sweet but totally missed the game and I would never normally miss games

Tue STV #FFACup #FoxSports #WSWvADL 71k

This is better than both of Sunday's games. Get in.

43K want to see Monster Trucks? Amazing what people will watch these days

I agree, base level entertainment.

Each to there own. Might have taken out some Wsw fans from the derby.

Just filling in their Saturdays till Big Bash starts.

Up against the Fiji V USA game this weekend

Rather watch monster trucks than a fairy called David Carney taking a dive to cheat in the game of silly sooky soccer