Pulling the biggest metro TV audience of 2019 was the AFL Grand Final on Seven. However the audience numbers were down year-on-year and the match was narrowly beaten by State of Origin #1 for the biggest national TV audience of the year.
Seven’s AFL Grand Final audience for 2019 was 2,939,000 national (metro 2,197,000, regional 742,000).
Because of a bigger regional crowd, the first State of Origin clash has bragging rights for the biggest 2019 audience with 3,090,000 (metro 2,060,000, regional 1,030,000).
Despite the size of the audience, it was the first time an AFL Grand Final TV audience had fallen below 3,000,000 national viewers.
The match on Seven between Richmond and GWS was called by Seven sports veteran Bruce McAvaney and Seven’s Brian Taylor.
Seven will be back covering football in February with the start of the AFLW and then the special Bushfire Relief State of Origin clash on February 28 in Melbourne.
Runners-up in the category were Australian Open on Nine, for their first year as broadcaster, and Tour de France on SBS, the home of the cycling event for more than 30 years.
