Footy is back and so are some impressive numbers for broadcaster Seven.

Having had to lick its wounds for much of 2019 from the MAFS‘ onslaught, last night’s launch AFL game (Richmond beat Carlton 97-64) would have brought wide smiles to Tim Worner’s team.

Last night’s match pulled 728,000 viewers according to OzTAM metro numbers.

Seven is this morning claiming the result was six per cent up on last year’s opener and enjoyed an increase of 14.4 per cent in Melbourne (not surprising given both teams were locals).

Alternatively, Nine’s NRL coverage of the Saints-Rabbitohs match managed 411,000.

On the back of the footy, Seven had an easy Thursday night win pulling 36.8 per cent of the audience eyeballs. Nine had 24.3 per cent, 10 pulled 19.2 per cnet, the ABC had an off night and 13.2 per cent and SBS had 6.4 per cent.

As reported elsewhere on B&T today, Seven’s footy also kyboshed The Project’s Waleed Aly-Scott Morrison showdown. It managed a disappointing 387,000.

10’s Gogglebox probably also felt the footy’s wrath. It was down, but still managed 567,000.

Other standouts for Seven were its 6pm news (887,000), The Chase (480,000), Home And Away (414,000) and the AFL post-match (361,000) and pre-match (342,000).

Over at Nine, its best was its 6pm news with 775,000, followed by ACA with 481,000 and Hot Seat with 429,000.

The ABC did well with its 7pm news (602,000), 7.30 (468,000) and Escape From The City (366,000).