The GIANTS have declared they are ready for the bright lights of prime time television and will push the AFL to unleash them on Friday night footy.
Not only are the GIANTS starting to put more bums on seats, TV eyeballs are also starting to tune into the game’s rising premiership force.
Figures reveal the orange army in the great West are enjoying their highest-rating season ever on Fox Footy, and the blockbuster against the Swans was not only a Spotless Stadium sellout but Sunday’s most-watched program nationally on pay TV.
GIANTS chief executive David Matthews insists supporter base size should have no impact on which teams receive the plum slots on Channel 7 and Fox.
GWS are hoping to make their Friday night debut in a final-round, finals-eve blockbuster away to ladder leaders North Melbourne later this year, but Matthews says the GIANTS will be lobbying the AFL hard for Friday Night Lights at Spotless Stadium next season.
“I think it’s a realistic aim,” Matthews told the Daily Telegraph.
“It’s regarded as one of the key slots both by broadcasters and clubs and in many ways you’ve got to earn the right to play on Fridays.
“We’ll continue to push for opportunities on Friday night football. We think twilight (matches are also) a good slot both in terms of attendance and TV viewership. It’s probably our natural timeslot.
“We’re thrilled with the figures so far. I don’t think it’s about whether you’re 100 years old or five years old, it’s what sort of footy you’re playing. We’d love to get a Friday night game.”
With an average Fox audience of 236,000 viewers this year, the GIANTS are up 23 per cent on last year’s viewership and counting.
The 336,000 audience they pulled against Geelong two weeks ago is the club’s greatest ratings success.
The GIANTS’ landmark victory over the Swans, described by Heath Shaw as the most significant in the club’s history, was Fox’s No.2-rating twilight match of the season with 250,000 viewers and the second-most watched Sydney derby of all time, pipped only by the GIANTS’ very first match in the competition in 2012.
It also comfortably beat its main competition, the Manly and Penrith NRL match on Fox, which had 126,000 watching on pay TV.
Matthews said the players deserve enormous credit for producing an entertaining style of footy that has the club in sixth place and almost certain of a maiden finals appearance.
“There’s an acceleration in so many areas of the club,” he said.
