BY A.J NASH

The NRL has won this season’s war against the AFL – on television anyway.

More people watched rugby league over Aussie Rules in 2018 and it’s the first seasonal win for the NRL since 2010.

“The NRL has also bucked the overall trend in the Australian TV market, “ Roy Masters wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald.

“..Where cumulative ratings have experienced a decline of 7.2 percent in total over the last year.

“The NRL’s cumulative audience this season was 94.3 million, compared to the AFL’s live audience of 89.2m. This excludes State of Origin figures.”

Including Origin figures, rugby league’s audience would in fact be 105 million people.

Other key points from Masters’ story include:
• NRL average free-to-air audience of 600,181
• AFL’s average free-to-air audience of 307,793
• AFL’s free-to-air average down 13%
• NRL’s average pay TV audience of 240,879
• AFL’s average pay TV audience of 184,821
• AFL’s highest rating team is the Sydney Swans but that is only ranked 3rd against NRL teams
• NRL viewership is up 21% in NZ