Thursday night delivered a classic Seven vs Nine primetime split-screen battle, with AFL on Seven and NRL on Nine going head-to-head in a tightly contested ratings showdown, as total television reach across Australia hit 12,047,000 and audiences continued to fragment across broadcast and BVOD.
News again set the baseline for the night, with Seven News taking out the top program overall.
It delivered a national reach of 2,254,000 and an average audience of 1,376,000, ahead of 9News on 1,923,000 reach and 1,182,000 average viewers, with Nine again slightly stronger on BVOD (205,000 vs 171,000).
But the key story was the primetime footy duel between the networks, with AFL and NRL anchoring their respective schedules.
On Seven, AFL: Thursday Night Football led with a 1,918,000 reach and 715,000 average audience, while on Nine, Thursday Night NRL Live posted a 1,433,000 reach and 601,000 average viewers, plus 125,000 on BVOD as catch-up viewing kicked in across the night.
On Nine it was The North Queensland Cowboys and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles facing off in Round 7 of the 2026 NRL Telstra Premiership.
Elsewhere, Tipping Point Australia continued its strong run for Nine with 1,434,000 reach and 776,000 average audience, narrowly ahead of the NRL lead-in crowd, while A Current Affair posted 1,356,000 and The Chase Australia delivered 1,327,000 for Seven.
Network 10 maintained a steady presence, with Gogglebox delivering 735,000 reach, The Claudia Winkleman Show on 650,000, and 10 News rounding out the network’s key entries with 595,000.
The ABC remained steady with ABC News (EV) on 1,193,000 and 7.30 on 1,133,000, while Home and Away stood out in BVOD with a 242,000 streaming audience, the highest of the night.
Overall, the night was defined by a familiar rhythm: news at the top, AFL vs NRL driving primetime rivalry, and BVOD continuing to reshape how big audiences are ultimately consumed.
