AFL thriller beats NRL for viewers as finals season swings into action

Two tight preliminary finals games in the AFL and NRL delivered bumper ratings last night, with Seven’s broadcast of the thriller between the Geelong and Hawthorn edging out Nine’s Queensland derby, according to OzTam overnight metro rankings.

The AFL clash managed a a capital city audience of 775,000 for Seven’s main channel in just two states, with 594,000 in Melbourne and 180,000 in Adelaide as the Cats edged reigning champions the Hawks in a thriller. It’s average metro audience including those watching on multichannels was 1.023m.

Nine’s contentious NRL win for the Brisbane Broncos over the Gold Coast Titans managed 649,000 viewers, split evenly between Brisbane (332,000) and Sydney (317,000).