AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan today said last night’s round 15 Collingwood v Carlton match at the MCG had now completed the AFL’s six-match trial for the 2014 season of Sunday night match broadcasts, with a clear position laid out for the competition going forward.

Mr McLachlan said the AFL had trialled both Thursday night (six) and Sunday night (six) matches during the 2014 Toyota AFL Premiership Season to assess their worth before discussions began for the next broadcast rights agreement.

He said the results had been mixed, with the AFL pleased with the response to Thursday night games but also aware the football public had rejected Sunday night matches.

Last night’s match drew a crowd of 40,939 – well below both club and AFL expectations – and had total television ratings of 1.019 million viewers across free to air and subscription television partners, Mr McLachlan said.

“It is the AFL’s view that the trial in 2014 has shown us that there is a place for Thursday night matches as event games in our schedule but there is not the same appetite for Sunday night in the fixture,’ Mr McLachlan said.

“Sunday night matches have drawn strong viewer numbers on both the Fox Footy Channel and the Seven Network but crowd numbers have been strongly impacted, particularly in the games played in this timeslot in Melbourne in rounds one, three, 12 and last night.

“We will always look at new initiatives – just as we have done in the past with Friday night and Saturday twilight football – but match-day attendance is a core ingredient of the success of our game and, in this instance, we acknowledge the very strong feedback from our fans and our clubs in relation to Sunday night football, particularly in Victoria.

"While the two national Seven/Fox Footy Sunday night matches (Rounds 3 and 15) have drawn comparable television viewers to a Friday night game, the impact on attendance does not justify moving matches into this new timeslot and the AFL remains committed to attendances at the ground as critical to our game,” he said.

Please find attached below the viewership and crowd numbers for the Thursday matches (five of six) and Sunday night matches (six of six) played for the 2014 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.

THURSDAY NIGHT
ROUND
 
MATCH
 
BROADCASTER
 
AVG. TV AUDIENCE
 
CROWD
 
1

Geelong vs. Adelaide Crows
FOX
 
446,754
 
23,622
 
2
 
Richmond vs. Carlton
SEVEN
 
1,084,586
 
62,037
 
5
 
Brisbane Lions vs. Richmond
SEVEN
 
1,060,444
 
20,676
 
9
 
Adelaide Crows vs. Collingwood
SEVEN
 
1,193,119
 
50,051
 
11
 
Sydney Swans vs. Geelong Cats
SEVEN
 
1,029,669
 
37,355
 
19
 
Fremantle vs. Carlton
SEVEN
 
-
 
-
 

SUNDAY NIGHT
ROUND
 
MATCH
 
BROADCASTER
 
AVG. TV AUDIENCE
 
CROWD
 
1
 
Carlton vs. Port Adelaide
FOX
 
446,297
 
24,640
 
1
 
West Coast Eagles vs. Western Bulldogs
FOX
 
353,921
 
36,752
 
3Essendon vs. Carlton
 
SEVEN
 
979,585
 
62,730
 
11West Coast Eagles vs. North Melbourne
FOX
 
319,688
 
35,914
 
12
 
North Melbourne vs. Richmond
FOX
 
196,172
 
32,977
 
15
 
Collingwood vs. Carlton
SEVEN

1,019,315
 
40,939