Yeah but what was its SBS rating?

Heaps of people would watch through NBL TV though right?

32K is a good figure for NBL historically. Haven't been too many STV games rate higher than that.

It may be a high figure for the NBL, but its very low in comparison to other major sports and programs.

Attendances are up, the game night presentation and TV product is decent(it could be better) so why aren't the ratings better? Why does the NBL consistently get no better than 20-40k in national viewers for any game - doesnt matter if its the finals, it doesnt seem to make a difference.

Is it a lack of promotion? Fox not interested enough? A stigma that the league is still dead by the majority of people?

You'd have to imagine that more people watch on NBL.tv than Foxtel. Does Foxtel hate that there's an NBL.tv?

Id say if you have Fox, you would choose to watch on Fox over watching it on nbl.tv

Nbl.tv is great if you dont have Fox.

And only about 30% of the population have Foxtel.

Back on Ten some games early in the deal got around 80k but 30k is pretty much standard for NBL on Fox.

I wouldn't be too upset about those numbers with AFL pre-season games on now and probably NRL pre-season games too.

The NBL does it's best work ratings wise early in the season once the footy seasons have finished and before the Big Bash starts up.

Was that post meant for the game thread?

btw last night it was Live playing at the Adelaide 500, Cold Chisel was Friday night's band.

It probably isn't that high anymore that was back in the day before Netflix etc

How high is NBL TV viewership though? I'd be unsurprised if most people weren't even aware it existed.

Literally less than 1% of the TV ratings for the AFL grand final (which was more than 3.5 mil)

Justify it all you want, but it's a poor figure. No wonder people laughed at Lisch when he said the Boomers could become Australia's favourite sporting team.

FWIW, some posts above mentioned various events in Adelaide which may have impacted on TV ratings. In Perth, the Ed Sheeran concert was on later in the night so thousands would have been preparing to go out to that, which could have impacted the ratings on Fox for Perth viewers.

Also, going by social media comments, a lot of Perth fans were pissed off it wasnt on FTA.

Literally less than 1% of the TV ratings for the AFL grand final (which was more than 3.5 mil)

You can't compare 32,000 on Foxtel with any number on free-to-air.

Foxtel's top 20 shows usually rate above that. e.e.g, their #20 show on Thursday night rated 33,000 viewers. The #19 show (The Bolt Report) also rated 33,000 viewers. Their #1 show on Thursday night was the live test coverage from South Africa, which rated 208,000 viewers.

That puts the 32,000 in context.

FWIW (and I know this isn't comparing apples & apples), but normally one game a round on Foxtel is FTA only, and the rest are on FTA and delayed on FOX (or vice versa). On avg, you'd get about 180k as a minimum (this also prob includes pubs though).

^ Thats AFL btw

"Literally less than 1% of the TV ratings for the AFL grand final (which was more than 3.5 mil)

Justify it all you want, but it's a poor figure. No wonder people laughed at Lisch when he said the Boomers could become Australia's favourite sporting team."

Australias game vs USA was the most watched event of the entire Olympics in Australia, and the Boomers follow up games also rated extremely well.

"You can't compare 32,000 on Foxtel with any number on free-to-air.

Foxtel's top 20 shows usually rate above that. e.e.g, their #20 show on Thursday night rated 33,000 viewers. The #19 show (The Bolt Report) also rated 33,000 viewers. Their #1 show on Thursday night was the live test coverage from South Africa, which rated 208,000 viewers.

That puts the 32,000 in context.

"

Yes it does. The game did okay all things considered. Comparing NBL that is only on Foxtel and is playing during the festive season in one of the involved states vs the AFL grand final, which is literally the centerpiece of a day and is on FTA is just absolutely ridiculous.

That said, "NBL games have only ever drawn around 30k" isn't a great argument either. They should be in the millions but they should at least be going up.

That's not a correct comparison at all. The NBL competes in the same media market as the AFL/NRL and other domestic national sports. The Olympics are once every four years.

We're starting to take our eye off the prize in this conversation. The ratings are relatively good all things considered, but of course probably should be better given the effort that has been put in. This is why the NBL is looking to expand its reach because there does seem to be a fairly low ceiling for what the league can achieve in this country alone. It's never going to be a top sporting league in Australia. It might be relatively well attended, but most fans only "kinda" care about their local team and aren't the type to tune in to watch other teams play eachother. Chances are most of the 30 thousand who watched are not the same 30 thousand who would watch Melbourne vs. New Zealand. Unless the NBL signs with a more visable FTA network there will be little improvement with ratings.