The Penrith Panthers have won their third premiership title after defeating the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Sunday night’s nail-biting Grand Final showdown at Suncorp Stadium.

The historic match was the most watched NRL Grand Final in five years, achieving a cross platform audience across Channel 9 and 9Now of 3.596 million (Metro: 2.202m / Regional: 1.031m and 9Now: 363,000).

9Now secured the biggest ever Live BVOD audience in Australia with an unprecedented 363,000 tuning in to watch the Panthers claim ruby league glory. This number is up +108% year-on-year, superseding the mammoth numbers of last year’s Grand Final. This equates to 41.3 million minutes watched and 921,000 stream starts.

Streaming numbers for People 25-54 on 9Now were also up +96% year-on-year to 220,000.

9Now continues to dominate live streaming, once again taking out the Top Four biggest live streamed programs year-to-date across commercial free-to-air television:

Nine’s Director of Sport, Brent Williams said, “Congratulations to the NRL, the Panthers and the Rabbitohs for an exceptional season finale. It’s been a challenging season for everyone involved but significant audience growth across all our platforms for the Grand Final indicates that the passion from fans is stronger than ever.”

“Nine’s total television approach has seen our traditional linear broadcast complemented by the continued growth of 9Now as a premium destination for big sporting events. We are thrilled with the phenomenal result which has capped off a truly remarkable rugby league season.”

• The 9Network was the No. 1 Network on Sunday across the 5 City Metro with:
o People 25-54: 57.6%
o People 16-39: 63.6%
o GS + Child: 55.7%
o Total People: 47.1%

• Channel 9 was the No. 1 primary channel on Sunday across the 5 City Metro with:
o People 25-54: 49.5%
o People 16-39: 57.1%
o GS + Child: 49.0%
o Total People: 40.4%

Source: OzTAM Live VPM, NRL Grand Final, 3/10/2021 v 25/10/2020, Includes coviewing on connected TVs, 3/10/2021 Based on prelogs

For further information please contact Channel 9 Publicity:
Oge Ike
E oike@nine.com.au

Monday, October 4, 2021