Nearly 4 million Australians watched the Hawks claim back-to-back-to-back premierships on Channel 7 in a convincing 46-point win over West Coast.

Seven’s coverage of the 2015 AFL Grand Final achieved a combined average of 3.523m viewers including regional areas, down 195,000 viewers on last year.

This years coverage peaked nationally at 3.989m viewers, the peak number is down 262,000 viewers on last year. No doubt these numbers were heavily affected by the one-sided contest and lack of a Sydney team competing.

Due to the game being listed as a simulcast, its impossible to know how many viewers watched in HD via 7Mate compared with the standard coverage on 7’s main channel.

 

The audience in metro areas averaged 2.635m viewers and peaked at 2.896m viewers, giving Seven a network share of 81.6 per cent. By comparison the 2014 Hawthorn/Sydney grand final audience had an average metro audience of 2.813m viewers, a peak of 3.128m viewers, and a network share of 88.6 per cent.

In 2013, Hawthorn's defeat of Fremantle averaged 2.717 million metro viewers and peaked at 3.289 million. In 2012 an average of 2.937m metro viewers tuned in when Sydney defeated Hawthorn.

 

Individual Metro Averages.

                        2015            2014
Melbourne      1.330m         1.310m
Sydney           434,000      551,000
Brisbane         316,000       275,000
Adelaide        324,000       302,000
Perth              492.000      376,000

 

Most concerning for the AFL is the gradual audience decline in Sydney. In 2005 991,000 viewers tuned in for the Swans victory, the following year 765,000 witnessed the Swans loss to West Coast. In 2012 the audience declined to 610,000 for the Swans victory over Hawthorn, and just 551,000 Sydney viewers stuck with last years defeat for the Swans. Without a Sydney team involved, yesterdays ratings declined further to 434,000

Data source - Seven Network
Data Copyright - Oztam, Regtam