Melbourne Storm recorded its third highest rating ever on Fox Sports when the 2020 National Rugby League season resumed at the weekend.
Storm’s round three clash with last year’s grand finalists Canberra reached 350,000 viewers on Fox League, trailing only last year’s historic Cameron Smith 400th match which had an audience of 370,000 – the highest in 2019 for the rugby league channel – and the 2016 minor premiership showdown against Cronulla that drew in 499,000 people.
The Storm v Raiders match was also No.2 for Fox Sports in round three behind the game which relaunched the season, Brisbane v Parramatta, on Thursday night.
Saturday night’s game was also aired live on Fox Sports 1 in the United States, Sky Sports in Great Britain, BeIN Sports in France, Sky Sports in New Zealand and SportsNet in Canada.
Melbourne will make its return to free-to-air television on Friday night with a home game at AAMI Park against the South Sydney Rabbitohs to be screened on Channel Nine/Gem.
Storm’s clash with the Raiders received back-page coverage in Melbourne’s two newspapers on both Saturday and Sunday, continuing the strong levels of media coverage the club has received during the COVID-19 pandemic.
