its not quite right. yes a few lines will be shut down for certain periods but it will be staggered somewhat. not all lines will be closed for the month. 

https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/news-and-events/news/2019/02/26/autumn-construction-blitz/

State of the Game: 2018 TV Ratings
March 19, 2019 The_Wookie    0 Comments
Background
Television

Nine had the No.1 “event” broadcast with the first QLD vs NSW State of Origin game pipping Seven’s AFL Grand Final.

Top rating TV events, 2018
State of Origin Game 1, Nine, 3.44 million
AFL Grand Final: West Coast vs Collingwood, Seven, 3.40 million
AFL Grand Final presentations, Seven, 3.33 million
State of Origin Game 2, Nine, 3.20 million
NRL Grand Final Day, Nine, 3.06 million
The Block: Winner Announcement, Nine, 2.89 million
Commonwealth Games: Opening Ceremony, Seven, 2.79 million
State of Origin Game 3, Nine, 2.67 million
Royal Wedding: Harry and Meghan Ceremony, Seven, 2.64 million
Married at First Sight: Finale, Nine, 2.59 million
Streaming

Telstra Live Pass reported 2.3m subscribers across all its sports in 2018. In August, Telstra broke a record for the most mobile devices streaming sport on its apps in a single weekend, with 1.2 million individual devices streaming NRL, AFL and Netball through the sports’ apps. At one point on the weekend of August 10-11, 82,120 viewers concurrently streamed the Hawthorn versus Geelong AFL match. Across all the sports apps, the highest number of concurrent viewers to date is 109,000.

A-league and the FFA
2018 Broadcast Revenue: $56,323,000
Broadcasters: Network 10, Foxtel
Streaming: Foxtel Now
Mobile: Telstra
Broadcast Rights Information
The 2018 FFA Annual Review doesnt address TV ratings at all.

Television

In February, AAP quoted David Gallop saying no one was overly happy with the present ratings.

“No-one could be happy with the pure output, in terms of numbers around attendances and ratings,” he said.

In October, Fairfax noted that television audiences remain a problem across the league. Some 69,000 people watched the Melbourne derby on Fox Sports, compared to 121,000 for the first edition of the rivalry last year. Figures for free-to-air audiences on One were unavailable. The other two Melbourne derbies in 2017-18 had Fox Sports audiences of 77,000 and 59,000. The Adelaide and Sydney season opener was watched by 67,000 people on Fox Sports, more than 30,000 less than the A-League’s opening game last year. It was the lowest television audience for a season opener since 2011-12.

Mediaweek offered a list of the average TV Ratings per season on Foxsports.

A-League season average on Fox Sports:

2005-2006 – 42,054
2006-2007 – 55,465
2007-2008 – 69,745
2008-2009 – 63,792
2009-2010 – 54,018
2010-2011 – 44,968
2011-2012 – 65,789
2012-2013 – 74,659
2013-2014 – 65,109
2014-2015 – 59,749
2015-2016 – 55,193
2016-2017 – 63,422
2017-2018 – 51,169

Streaming

In November, News Limited noted streaming complicated things but that it’s highly unlikely that the “missing” viewers account for the shortfall in A-League viewers. The article also notes that streaming service operators arent releasing figures.

All the other codes are analysed here as well:

http://www.footyindustry.com/?p=4668

so for the current season, our Fox numbers are probably back around what they were in the first season

@ bettega

It’s easy to rush to a “nice analysis” statement on this, but it’s not actually all that helpful.

1. The tabulated series for A League viewing makes interesting reading but as it’s not repeated for the other codes mentioned it’s unhelpful in picking out any trends.

2. Streaming is the unknown. Telstra gets a mention but not Kayo and this is something the industry (and even the FFA) fail to understand. And while some analysis is made on streaming for other codes it’s not necessarily scientific.

3. And on streaming while the author says “In November, News Limited noted streaming complicated things but that it’s highly unlikely that the “missing” viewers account for the shortfall in A-League viewers“ ... that statement was made before Kayo was launched so presumably was referring to Telstra’s streaming?

4. In the three years before EPL left Fox had an average of 65,000-75,000 and 51,000-55,000 for the next three years without EPL. That’s a 25%-30% fall off right there; was that the EPL going or was it something else?

5. This seasons figures are obviously the worst and we’re seeing some remarkably low figures. It would be interesting to see the round by round averages and see if there is any correlation between the date of Kayo launching and the decline? From memory the season average was 42k early on and is probably 32k now, could they have gone to Kayo (I’m not convinced many would have gone to Telstra either tbh).

6. And what is the 5 city split on viewing - is it down in all cities or are some holding up? I would expect Brisbane’s viewing to have fallen off after two years of poor football but has it, and how do the city’s compare?

7. The statistics show that season to season viewing figures fluctuate regularly by 5,000-10,000 viewers (or 10% to 20%) which can probably be explained by the irregular home/away series from one year to the next and form of individual sides but the point being these figures are erratic

My gut feeling is the FFA have been sleepwalking on this whole they taught a civil war for control and their jobs but will an independent league do better?

The history of viewing shows the numbers have declined overall (a three year rolling average would probably show the trend better) but, factoring in something for streaming, the fall off is probably within the historical fluctuations albeit anything south of 50k average should sound alarm bells.

@Waz, love the enthusiasm but the average last round was 24K (119K total accross 5 games) on Fox which is an alarming drop off and would expect further drops this week as the AFL starts. The way it is shaping, this year will be the lowest on record by a long way and have also read somewhere 10 is handing back the TA rights once current deal is done (next season I think).

Also dont think Kayo is the "savior" you believe it to be, just look at the Kayo ads, if HAL was performing why are they using Messi in their ads? (As a side note, question for the nuvo new dawners, does this make Foxtel eurosnobs as well?)

Could understand if the other codes have experienced similar drops, but HAL is unique in that regard and the so people an come up wth all sorts of theoretical excuses, but reality is the actual numbers and they indicate HAL is in a crisis

@AJF

I don’t think I was presenting Kayo as a “saviour”, far from it - Kayo is half the price so relatively speaking subscribers might need to double even if people are switching platforms.

I am trying to point out that the analysis taking place probably falls short of what’s required.

HAL viewing figures have tanked in the same season free Telstra streaming arrived and cheaper Kayo streaming arrived. Go figure.

The HAL does have a crisis on its hands, but what, why and how aren’t being discussed here in a rush for a few folk to revel in the low numbers.

Comparing AFL and NRL to HAL and drawing a conclusion is flawed - the products offered by Fox are different, as are the demographics, as is the FTA offering, and those two don’t have a split audience (Optus and Fox).

What seems clear is the FFAs media strategy of selling everything to Fox is flawed. Whilst they will point to a very generous $56m package now the sad reality is come the next tv deal they are going to have to figure out how to monetise Fox/STV and FTA and Streaming and Mobile and International rights

The next deal is not going to be $56m it’s going to be $20m + $5m + $10m + $10m + $10m which may add up to more or less than the current deal. With only 4 years before this transition there’s not a lot of time to figure this shot out - and by reading these pages you won’t be any wiser imo.

The future value of football content sits with mobile operators imo not Fox .. that was true 3 years ago when this deal was done and I said as much in these pages but people argued football would be “invisible” ... well guess what?

@AJF

And I always smile when people say “ratings will drop off now the NRL and AFL has started”. It’s a very comforting statement to right wing Australia that things are returning to “normal”. But it’s not true.

Ratings will drop off now but not due to AFL/NRL ... they will drop off because junior football season starts about now and hundreds of thousands of football people are out on Friday nights, Saturday’s and Sundays.

This Friday I’m coaching U18’s so can’t watch my usual game, and in a couple if weeks time i’ll be volunteering on Saturday again. then my daughter starts refereeing, then miniroos kicks in fully. That’s my football family for the next 6 months.

What I will do though is watch the mini-match on Kayo later. That’s the better service that Kayo offers soccer viewers than fox, that’s just another reason why people have switched

@Waz, fundamental problem with your arguemnti is you are assuming people at gassrootsactually watch the HAL to be able to turn it off when the season starts.

My experience is quite different and have been saying it fora while, that grass roots interest in the HAL has been dropping dramatically for the last few years. Also now that FFV are broadcasting NPL on youtube & facebook, many grass roots supporters are watching that in preference to the HAL.

Your comment about new media is correct in a way, but same rules of consumption apply, that is if the product is no good, people wont watch it no matter what platform and unfortunately that is where HAL is at the moment.

one of the football facebook groups this week did a poll on the amount of people who watch on TV v streaming and it was about 50/50. yes its a small sample i know, but i didn't expect streaming to be that high. 

Wasn't our base ratings pre-Kayo around 50-60k on Foxtel anyway? So it kinda makes sense if its 50-50.

Its a bit of both, casual sports fans who have a passing interest in the hal will permanently switch off this week with both major codes in full swing.

Your other point is also true. This time of year with npl, juniors etc starting the hal almost drops to the bottom of the pile.

So an online poll found that half the people online actually stream tv online, funny that. 

#WELvWSW was the highest viewed @ALeague match in Rd22 across both Aus and NZ. Thanks to everyone who tuned in esp on @skysportnz !

Sadly the HAL has the feeling of the last years of NSl.
When it started it was fresh and new.The vibe was good with new teams representing whole cities.
Active support was ...Active ....and brought people in...
We had expansion.....
We had new foreign players,better than before....
Expectations were we would grow and produce good players and win in Asia......
Fast Forward to now.......
Everything is doom and gloom......Active support is shite...our players are shite and getting worse and we are falling behind places like Thailand...

I have said it before,but once the League is independent it needs a complete reboot.Otherwise we are in for a long winter....Lowy and FFA have stood still while the world and Australian sport has moved on....
FFA is like Kodak......They watched digital photography pass them by and did nothing....when they realised it was the future ..it was too late. ...their brand was dead..
...FFA ....believed that sanitising and milking a closed league for all it was worth would keep fans loyal.......But the standard isnt that great and nobody wants to watch average teams playing the same teams over and over again......They knew this and ignored the evidence....
Thats why people arent watching anymore.

Exactly, over-representative of those who are likely to stream.  Bring it back to 75-25 and that's probably what the streaming numbers look like-so if 24K are watching a broadcast there's 8K total watching across all the other streaming platforms.

NRL had about ~18K VPM for Foxtel Now, probably about ~20K on the Telstra App and maybe ~15K on Kayo per game, a total of 53K against a Foxtel broadcast audience of ~240K.  We're talking less than 20% of the total (subscription) audience being streaming for NRL but some on here want to believe that in HAL it could be >50%.  Or do people really believe that NRL only has 2x as many people streaming despite 6-10x more are watching the broadcast on STV?

I dug up some numbers on Super Netball too, 140K average for the two live games broadcast by 9 each round last year.  Streaming did 35M minutes across 9Now and the Telstra app (which had two exclusive live games each week), so an average of ~5K per game across both platforms split 50/50 between the two platforms.

A guy at my work today who follows an NPL club was saying how excited he was for the start of the AFL tonight.
I wonder how many so called football fans are right now avidly watching the AFL opening match.

We need to stop sooking about the popularity of other sports. It’s Melbourne of course most are going to be watching that. If anything it’s the NPL fans who know know first hand what a juggernaut the afl is as our pissy little state league games go up against them the entire winter. it’s a different beast to the bbl and all that summer filler the A league struggles competing with. Just a lazy 85,000 at the mcg tonight.

i already have 3 mates that have backed out of the South Melbourne match tomorrow as Collingwood is playing. It is what it is.

You're in Melbourne, what do you expect?
I just flicked over to the end of the game, in time to hear the Richmond president mention $15 million to build facilities for their womens team.

$15 million for a team that just plays in Australia what a waste 

Even worse, it's for a club team that doesn't even exist yet!

Mind blown

I think you're twisting my words by suggesting "I want to believe" that it could be 50%. It was just a small theoretical sample. I also think its a strange suggestion that somone who contributes to a facebook poll is more likely to stream. everyone has facebook whether you stream or not FFS. I don't stream sports and I am a heavy user of social media.

However, I am of the view that football fans in Australia are a younger, more tech savvy demographic. And its logical to draw the conclusion that the percentage of streaming numbers would be higher than NRL and AFL. If NRL is running at a hypothetical 20%, then the HAL would have to be a least that much, probably more IMO. 75-25 isn't unreasonable. 

Do your 3 mates attend South matches regularly? They sound like Aussie Rules fans who might rock up to 1 sokkah match a year to catch up with you.

Probably not directly at you but others have tried to claim over 20K on average are streaming A-league games.

Aus population is 25M and only 15M use FB monthly though.  https://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-august-2018/

That's 60%!  And about 88% of the Aus population access the internet.  So not everyone uses FB either though.

AFL fox ratings for their opening game down 4.3%.

All 3 are members, sadly for many Aussie Rules takes on religious status.

if it makes anyone feel better married at first sight got 1,685,000 last night that is what people are watching 

just opening game everything else was pretty solid 

we're a nation of deadbeats