Despite the smallest audience ever watching the NRL Grand Final on television this year, Nine has released its review of the season which indicates record audiences and revenue.

The figures Nine released revealed the NRL Grand Final had a streaming average audience of 84,000.

Here are the highlights from Nine’s report card:

2019 Season and State of Origin

• 8.766 million people tuned into the 2019 NRL season on Nine – including regular season, Finals and Grand Final (Excludes State of Origin) (National cume reach – season, finals, grand final).

• 9.537 million people tuned into the 2019 State of Origin series on Nine (National cume reach – season, finals, grand final).

• State of Origin Games I & II dominated broadcast numbers, are the two most watched programs of the year across all networks.

2019 Finals Series

• 6.094 million people tuned into the 2019 NRL Finals on Nine – including Qualifying, Semi, Preliminary and Grand Final matches only (National cume reach – season).

• 5 City Metro Average for both Preliminary Finals saw an increase of 15% year-on-year.

• The NRL Grand Final for 2019 became the 6th most watched program of the year-to-date across all networks.

STREAMING

2019 Finals Series

• The 2019 NRL season, including Finals, saw 118.2 million minutes streamed in total on 9Now, an increase of 85% year-on-year.

• The 2019 NRL season, including Finals, saw 6.6 million stream starts on 9Now, an increase of 122% YOY.

• The top VPM of the 2019 NRL season was the NRL Grand Final, which achieved a live average VPM of 84,000, an increase of 86% year-on-year.

• 9Now saw 29,000 new sign-ups for the 2019 NRL Grand Final Day alone.

2019 State of Origin

• The 2019 State of Origin series received an Average VPM of 84,000 streamed in total on 9Now, an increase of 78% year-on-year.

• The 2019 State of Origin series saw 1.9 million live streams in total on 9Now, an increase of 194% year-on-year.

• The 2019 State of Origin series saw 28.6 million minutes streamed in total on 9Now, an increase of 83% year-on-year.

• State of Origin Games II & III dominated live streaming numbers, taking out the top two spots of the year-to-date in live VPM.

DIGITAL

• Total number of WWOS page views for NRL content in 2019: 47 million views.

• Most read story – ‘Jorge Taufua’s savage Cameron Munster hit sends American sports fans nuts’

• Total NRL video views on WWOS in 2019: 14.1 million views.

• Most watched video – ‘Taufua goes bang!’

SOCIAL

Facebook, Twitter & Instagram

• Cumulative reach for all of Nine’s NRL content in 2019 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: 259.9 million impressions.

• Cumulative engagements for all of Nine’s NRL content in 2019 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: 71.6 million engagements.

• Combined video views for all of Nine’s NRL content in 2019 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: 143.4 million views.

YouTube

• Combined video views for all of Nine’s NRL content in 2019 on YouTube: 30 million views.

• Cumulative minutes watched for all of Nine’s NRL content in 2019 on YouTube: 143.7 million minutes.

• New subscribers to the NRL on Nine YouTube channel in 2019: 48,000 new subscribers.

Nine’s director of sport Tom Malone commented:

“As viewers move from linear to digital, and consume in long form, short form, big screen and small screen, Wide World of Sports has adapted our coverage of rugby league to reach viewers anywhere, anytime on any device. These results are a great vindication of our strategy to hold exclusive rights where we can, and hold all rights for all platforms. Of course the players deserve the most credit – they’ve put on another amazing year of thrilling athleticism and feats of great strength and courage – once again proving that rugby league is the greatest game of all.”

Nine’s director of sales – sport, Matthew Granger said:

“It has been a stunning year for rugby league on Nine with a record revenue result across the season and State of Origin, once again hitting a high note for advertisers as Australia’s top rating programme in 2019. Our partners and sponsors have enjoyed great success off the back of their campaigns both on air and online via 9NOW, and we’re already engaging them around what promises to be a huge 2020.”