Although there was disappointment from Fox Sports and News Corp how it was treated by the NRL in the ongoing TV rights deal, a look at the rankings for week 33 indicate how the sport and Fox Sports need each other.
The five NRL matches that Fox Sports screens were in the top 10 most-watched shows during week 33. Another sport attracting a big crowd this week was rugby with game two of the Bledisloe Cup being the second most-watched show this week with over 300,000 viewers.
You have to go down the chart all the way to #20 to find the highest-ranking non-sport program – the movie The Equaliser with 97,000 watching.
Photo: Fox Sports’ NRL commentary team