A record number of fans tuned in on Thursday night to celebrate the AFL’s return, with the Collingwood-Richmond blockbuster drawing the biggest ever audience for Thursday Night Football.
As the Magpies and Tigers restarted the 2020 season with a low scoring draw, an average audience of 1.275 million tuned in nationally for the free-to-air coverage Seven and 7mate.
It was the biggest prime-time audience for a home and away game for ten years and topped the last seven Anzac Day blockbusters between Collingwood and Essendon.
Seven’s average metro audience of 1.02 million was more than 150 per cent up on the NRL’s free-to-air metro audience of 394,000. More people watched Seven’s AFL broadcast in Melbourne alone (668,000) than the NRL’s free-to-air coverage across the whole of Australia (619,000).
The broadcast also did massive business on Foxtel platforms with a national average of 368k tuning in across Linear TV and Foxtel Now/Go. (Data excludes Kayo)
The match was the highest rating regular season Thursday night game ever on pay-tv and the 5th biggest simulcast regular-season game ever
The combined combination of free-to-air and pay-tv audiences puts the match at an average national figure of 1.643 Million.
Managing Director Seven Melbourne and Head of Network Sport Lewis Martin commented:
“Last night just underlines how much Aussies love their footy and how glad we all are to finally have it back.
We’ve worked tirelessly for the past three months on some exciting technical innovations and on-air initiatives to further enhance our broadcast for fans at home. But the footy will always be at the core of everything we do, and we can’t wait to bring fans what shapes as a compelling season.”
Seven’s metro audience last night was also 25 per cent up on 2020’s round one season-opener between Richmond and Carlton, 58 per cent up on Richmond and Collingwood’s 2019 round two clash and a whopping 70 per cent up on last season’s Thursday Night Football average audience.
Melbourne’s average audience was 23 per cent up on 2020’s season opener, 58 per cent up on Richmond-Collingwood 2019 round two, and 93 per cent up on last season’s Thursday Night Football average.
Fans in Sydney and Brisbane also warmly welcomed the footy back on Seven, with Sydney’s average audience of 52,000 representing a 105 per cent increase on round two last year, while Brisbane’s audience of 41,000 was 77 per cent up on last year.
