Preview
The NRL Grand Final between the Canberra Raiders and the Sydney Roosters is this Sunday night, October 6 at 7.30pm AEST, exclusively on Nine.
However, it is not the only game that day with Nine sharing coverage with Fox League and Kayo of the state championship grand final between the Newtown Jets and Burleigh Bears and the NRL Women’s decider featuring the Broncos and Dragons.
Both sides had to defeat the Minor Premiers the Melbourne Storm in close matches to book their tickets for this match with the Raiders defeating them in week one of the finals before going on to defeat the South Sydney Rabbitohs. The Roosters beat the Storm last week in a Grand Final rematch to make the decider for the second year in a row.
The Sydney Roosters are the bookmaker’s favourite to win the first back-to-back premiership since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992-93. They will feature in their team a bevy of stars such as NSW Captain Boyd Cordner, Latrell Mitchell, and James Tedesco who was named the Dally M Medal winner on Wednesday night.
The Raiders are the Grand Final underdogs after making the finals for only the second time in the past seven seasons as they aim to win their first title since 1994. They will be captained by Jarrod Croker, and feature Dally M second-rower of the year, John Bateman, Jack Wighton and Josh Hodgson.
Gerard Sutton and Ben Cummins will be refereeing a Grand Final together for the first time since North Queensland Cowboys defeated the Brisbane Broncos in 2015.
NRL Grand Final Day TV Schedule
• NRL State Champ Final LIVE: 1.30pm Kayo Sports / Foxtel/ Nine
• NRL Women’s Grand Final LIVE: 4.05 pm Kayo Sports / Foxtel/ Nine
• NRL Grand Final Pre Game LIVE: 6.30 pm Nine
• NRL Grand Final Raiders v Roosters LIVE: 7.30 pm Nine
• NRL Grand Final Replay 10pm – 12am Foxtel / Kayo Sports
NRL Finals TV Ratings
On Friday Night, the 1st Preliminary Final between the Raiders and Rabbitohs attracted a national average audience of 1.568 million people (5 City: 770,000 / Regional: 438,000 / Fox: 360,000). The Metro average of 770,000 is an increase of 15% for the same match year on year.
On Saturday Night, the 2nd Preliminary Final between the Roosters and Storm drew national average audience of 1.696 million people (5 City: 880,000 / Regional: 450,000 / Fox: 366,000). The Metro average of 880,000 is an increase of 14% for the same match year on year.
Overall, 4.190 million people tuned into Nine’s NRL Finals coverage for Week Three of Finals Footy.
This will cap off a succesful finals series for Nine which has produced strong numbers in broadcast, streaming, digital, and social over the last three weeks.
BROADCAST
• 4.878 million people (Metro: 3.216 / Regional: 1.662m) tuned into the third week of Nine’s Finals Footy content. (National cume reach – week)
• Friday Night Finals Footy (1st Preliminary Final – Raiders vs Rabbitohs) attracted an average metro audience of 770,000, an increase of 15% to the corresponding game year-on-year
• Saturday Night Finals Footy (2nd Preliminary Final – Roosters vs Storm) attracted an average metro audience of 880,000, an increase of 14% to the corresponding game year-on-year
STREAMING
• Week three of Nine’s Finals Footy programming on 9Now had 9.2 million live VPM minutes streamed:
• This is up 87% year-on-year compared to week three of Nine’s Finals Footy in 2018
• Live average VPM up 84% year-on-year compared to week three of Nine’s Finals Footy in 2018
• Live VPM streams up 118% year-on-year compared to week three of Nine’s Finals Footy in 2018
DIGITAL
• Total number of WWOS page views for NRL content over the past seven days: 1.914 million views
• Total NRL video views on WWOS across the past seven days: 512,000 views
SOCIAL
• Cumulative reach for all of Nine’s NRL content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram over the past seven days: 10.609 million people
• Cumulative engagements for all of Nine’s NRL content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram over the past seven days: 3.262 million engagements
• Combined video views for all of Nine’s content across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter over the past seven days: 6.604 million views
This has contributed to an overall successful finals for Nine which produced an audience increases of 15% on traditional platforms across the NRL preliminary finals over the weekend.
Nine’s Director of Sport, Tom Malone said: “The stage is set for a David and Goliath showdown this Sunday. As most of Australia jumps on the Raiders bandwagon, will a record breaking Viking Clap be enough to drive this fairy tale to a happy ending? Or will the Roosters cement their place in history as one of the greatest ever teams with back to back Grand Finals? There’s only one place to see it – live, free and exclusive on Nine’s Wide World of Sports.”
Nine’s Director of Sales – Sport, Matthew Granger said: “What a fantastic audience result for our Finals partners, Sportsbet, Holden, Telstra, McDonalds and Harvey Norman. There is some very limited availability on Grand Final day, so for those clients who don’t want to miss out, move quickly so as to avoid disappointment!”