Friday:

France v Morocco 6am - 2.1m / 1.0m on reach / average as top rated program

AFL 1.7m / 0.6m
NRL 1.2m / 0.5m

Song said:

It apparently is every time... Just trying to figure out where the growth is apparently coming from. Cannot see it being from NSW or QLD. Not seeing it in the younger demographics. Is it Melbourne / Adelaide / Perth?

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It's simply a snowball effect, NSW and QLD are the growth states and as the NRL expands into the southern states the ratings there will also continue growing. I can't see the yearly records slowing down anytime soon.

The WC ratings are off the charts especially when your consider the times they are played.

Huge challenge is to convert a reasonable percentage of these folks to Australian Professional Football.

SpiritOf06 said:

It's simply a snowball effect, NSW and QLD are the growth states and as the NRL expands into the southern states the ratings there will also continue growing. I can't see the yearly records slowing down anytime soon.

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It is pure and utter propaganda rolled out when both the WC and the renewal of TV rights is on. Nothing else. No sport gains an extra 3 million or so viewers in three years.

Saturday sport ratings:
Spain v Belgium - 1.4 / 0.7
Wallabies v France - 0.7 / 0.3
Supercars - 0.6 / 0.2
Switzerland v Colombia Repeat - 0.6 / 0.1
Tour de France - 0.6 / 0.2
AFL GWS v Geelong - 0.5 / 0.2

Sutherlandbear said:

It is pure and utter propaganda rolled out when both the WC and the renewal of TV rights is on. Nothing else. No sport gains an extra 3 million or so viewers in three years.

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Suggest you go back and re-read a few posts before getting outraged and thinking about conspiracies, literally no-one has suggested that has happened.

SpiritOf06 said:

Suggest you go back and re-read a few posts before getting outraged and thinking about conspiracies, literally no-one has suggested that has happened.

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I suggest you fuck off, i am hardly outraged, but know how things work against football in this country.

Sutherlandbear said:

I suggest you fuck off, i am hardly outraged, but know how things work against football in this country.

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Mr Sutherlandbear with all respect spritof06 didn't do anything

Sutherlandbear said:

I suggest you fuck off, i am hardly outraged, but know how things work against football in this country.

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If you're not crashing out (over tv ratings, really?) then you're a great actor.

Go back and read the ABC article.
The Average is completely in-line with the last few decades of SoO ratings.
The Reach figure posted by NoMates is a different measurement entirely.

There's no conspiracy & we're at the sharp end of the WC, there are better things to spend your time on.

Sunday:
England v Norway 3.7m / 2.1m
Argentina v Swiss 3.2m / 1.7m
NRL 1.1m / 0.5m
AFL 1.1m / 0.4m
Supercars 0.8m / 0.2m

Ask yourself why the WC rating successful receives almost zero coverage especially from the ABC...Sunday unbelievable especially considering the time the games were on.

Midfielder said:

Ask yourself why the WC rating successful receives almost zero coverage especially from the ABC...Sunday unbelievable especially considering the time the games were on.

Sunday 12 July 2026 | TV Tonight

National TV Reach: 1. 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP QF 3,701,000 2. 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP QF 3,192,000 3. 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP QF POST-MATCH 3,051,000 4. AL JAZEERA ENGLISH NEWS MORNING 2,941,000 5. 2026 PROMX LIVE 2,536,000

tvtonight.com.au

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According to him, The ABC & NRL are angels.

Just out of interest does anyone know how world cups rated in the last few decades?

melbcityguy said:

Just out of interest does anyone know how world cups rated in the last few decades?

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The internet is your friend MCG.
Less than a minute later.

Midfielder said:

The WC ratings are off the charts especially when your consider the times they are played.

Huge challenge is to convert a reasonable percentage of these folks to Australian Professional Football.

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This is the A-League's Eternal Struggle....


Despite these really good World Cup audience spikes, the A-League will always battle for eyes.

As much as we'd like to think otherwise Australia's sporting heart belongs to AFL and NRL, cultural behemoths with deep tribal roots.

'Soccer'remains a migrant code lacking mass appeal. Awkward scheduling, global league competition, and failure to convert casual fans ensure it stays a niche player on screens

Midfielder said:

Ask yourself why the WC rating successful receives almost zero coverage especially from the ABC...Sunday unbelievable especially considering the time the games were on.

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The cold sobering reality is even in brutal pre-dawn slots like Sunday’s massive audience the ABC and mainstream commercial tv outlets provide scant coverage.

AFL/NRL/cricket dominate as "real" Australian sports, commanding editorial priority and ad revenue. 'Soccer’s "foreign" image and relatively weak domestic league limit its clout, sidelining success stories to protect traditional codes’ cultural monopoly....

Im not sure of the answer here because of this entrenched cultural and commercial bias the Australian media, including the ABC, prioritises AFL, NRL, and cricket as national institutions with deep funding, tribal loyalty, and year-round relevance.

'Soccer’s World Cup surges expose a massive latent interest, but without domestic power or "Australian-ness," it gets minimal ongoing coverage therefore perpetuating the cycle where A-League stays niche.

And the ratings success alone can’t overcome this ingrained structural gatekeeping.

Football us life said:

'Soccer'remains a migrant code lacking mass appeal. Awkward scheduling, global league competition, and failure to convert casual fans ensure it stays a niche player on screens

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No it isn't. Lowy left the "migrant wogball" behind. Don 't lay the A leagues failure at our feet., This is a "mainstream" geographical franchise issue... We have NOTHING to do with it.

Monoethnic Social Club said:

No it isn't. Lowy left the "migrant wogball" behind. Don 't lay the A leagues failure at our feet., This is a "mainstream" geographical franchise issue... We have NOTHING to do with it.

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Should have said in the eye's of the mainstreamTV industry.....

Soz!!

Nine Entertainment is in advanced negotiations to retain one of the world’s biggest sports tournaments, the English Premier League, in a six-year deal that would be worth almost $US600 million ($860 million).


Thats close to the145 million they just signed for the NRL...

We need to talk up our local leagues at all levels....

Fell quite disappointed by the lack of noise coming out of both FA & APl especially FA during the world cup saying most of the team started in the A_L and many of those A-L players started in lower leagues with state based clubs... I would add SBS as well they were great in saying what European team they played for but hardly mentioned their Australian background.

Football us life said:

Should have said in the eye's of the mainstreamTV industry.....

Soz!!

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That is a pretty big caveat to add in, but fair.

I am of the view that football is the largest sport, in terms of participation and interest, in Australia. Where the comparisons go astray is to try and assign popularity of a sport, to the popularity of a competition. You can do it for sports with only one professional competition, but not football. The popularity of football in Australia is commonly assessed., by those with an interest in doing so, by the crowds and TV viewership of the A-League to the NRL and AFL. As much as we would love for the A-League to capture the gigantic following in the sport, for many reasons (fair or not) it does not do it (currently...).

But the TV ratings for the World Cup show that there is a huge interest in the sport that are extremely committed and willing to wake up at absurd times to follow the games. These ratings do not include the 'house-wife crowd' with little interest in the sport that will watch State of Origin or Grand Finals because it is on at a convenient time and it seems like the 'in thing' to do. This crowd do not otherwise watch the sport or care for it. The level of commitment required by football fans to achieve the WC ratings has never been tested in the other sporting codes that football in this country is regularly compared to. The best opportunity that football has had for sustained coverage at such suitable times, with mainstream media interest, was the Women's World Cup in 2023, which absolutely blasted the TV ratings and includes the largest TV audience in Australian history (and 2 of the 3 largest of all time).

The frustration for me is, despite the metrics showing the significant popularity, it continues to lack support from the media and government (noting the lack of support from the government is because of the lack of support from the media, there is no pressure on them to invest in the code as the media will not hold them to account on it and, if they did support it, there will be very little publicity provided for it). We are sitting through a World Cup with huge interest around the country. We have had good success in the past two competitions and all politicians have been taking photos with the scarf and/or jersey (tag still attached). Football Australia, for about 5 years now, have been asking for $50m to fund a national football home (for the name national teams, at all age levels, that represent the country on the global stage). All requests have been ignored. Within a week of us being knocked-out, the government announces a $250m commitment to assist in the support of Rugby League in the pacific region. This is on top of the $600m previously committed to PNG for rugby league. And I am yet to read one article in the mainstream media attacking the government for committing nearly $1bn to pacific rugby league, or questioning why this was prioritized.