We all know that soccer is taking off in Australia ever since John Aloisi kicked that winning goal in the penalty shootout against Uruguay back in 2005 to qualify the Australian Socceroos for the 2006 World Cup. What some of you may not know however, is the popularity that the Socceroos are still creating on Pay TV.
When Australia played Uzbekistan in a 2010 World Cup Qualifier earlier this year in 2009, a massive 431,000 viewers tuned in to watch Australia go within a whisker of World Cup qualification for South Africa right there and then. Not in the entire 13 year history of Australian subsciption based television has there ever been an audience of this proportion watching a Pay TV sports program, let alone a non-sports progam!
Sure, Free-to-Air television audiences easily surpass Pay TV viewers, but hey, that's totally understandable because it's FTA is 'free' based and Foxtel has only just registered their 1,000,000 subscriber. You've only got to take a look at Channel 9's 'Underbelly' series which attracted in excess of 2 million viewers and the Australian Open Tennis final which has seen more than twice this amount in the past.
Five Most Watched Pay TV Programs
1. Soccer: 2009 South AFrica World Cup Qualifier - Australia V Uzbekistan: 431,000
2. Soccer: Asian Football Confederation 'Asian Cup' Japan v Australia 2007: 419,000
3. Cricket: Chappell-Hadlee trophy 2007: 415,000
4. Cricket: South Africa V Australia Test, day 2 2009: 358,000
5. Rugby Union: 2008 Bledisloe Cup: 350,000
Five Most Watched Non- Sporting Events on Pay TV
1. Parkinson - The Shane Warne interview 2007: 332,000
2. High School Musical 2 premiere 2007: 314,000
3. Australia's Next Top Model final 2008: 259,000
4. Die Hard 4 premiere 2008: 244,000;
5. Rock Star Supernova 2006: 235,000.
So why did the Socceroos break this record? Is it because soccer is finally starting to establish itself as a domaint sport here in Australia after the success of making the last World Cup? Or are we just a sport's mad nation who bands together when our little old country (as a sporting underdog) terriers' its way up the ranks toward a crack at the pinnacle of all sporting events? Maybe its a mixture of both. I think Australians absolutely love their sports, soccer's popularity (or should I say football) is snowballing and yes, we all love a big event!
The Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) are obviously worried with the success of Soccer here in Australia, although they don't admit to such. This can be witnessed with the AFL's somewhat hastiness in their plans to penetrate and establish a new team in the heart of NSW's Rugby League stronghold 'West Sydney'. The AFL have already announced a new team for the Gold Coast to commence in 2011 which is also home to the newest Rugby League side to enter the competition ' Gold Coast Titans'.
The Titans inaugural season commenced back on March 18 2007 as the newest member of the current 16 team National Rugby League competition. Realistically, these two football codes have only had each other to contend with, except for the poaching of players that the Australian Rugby League and International Rugby clubs do from time to time. Both the AFL and NRL reaped the benefits of Pay TV exposure, but this is changing, and changing in a big way now that the Socceroos have hit the big time after John Aloisi making history.... and you know what..... Johnny Warren told you so!
Get all the best Live, National & International Football Matches featuring the Australian Socceroos, AFL 2009, A-League 2009/10 and NRL 2009 action when you get a Sports Pay TV Package right here at Youcompare Pay TV