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More fans are watching television coverage of the NRL’s 2020 competition while a number of clubs are reporting increased membership according to Roy Morgan’s annual survey of the health of the sport.

Although impacted by the pandemic and restrictions on crowd attendances, the research giant records a growth of 1.2% in supporter base, or 25.9% during the past few difficult months.

The NRL has been primarily a TV sport during season 2020 and almost 6.3 million or 29.8% of Australians are watching the NRL on TV matches, up almost 1%  on 12 months ago.

In spite of recording their first wooden spoon since joining the competition in 1988, the Brisbane Broncos have again topped the annual Roy Morgan NRL club supporter ladder with 930,000 supporters. A figure which does represent a drop of 8.5% on a year ago.

In second place are southern rivals the Melbourne Storm on 901,000, an increase of more than 3%, ahead of the North Queensland Cowboys in third on 535,000, down almost 3%.

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, July 2018-June 2019, n=14,383 & July 2019-June 2020, n=15,007. Base: Australians 14+. *New Zealand Warriors support only includes Australian-based supporters.

Sydney Roosters, the 2019 premiers, are one of the big winners over the last year with their support increasing 14.2% to 298,000 while support for the runners-up, the Canberra Raiders, was up an even larger 58.3% to 209,000.

However, reports Roy Morgan, the most widely supported club in the Sydney heartland of rugby league is the South Sydney Rabbitohs who increased their support by more than ten% to 470,000.

Roy Morgan is an Australian market research company headquartered in Melbourne.

Main image: In spite of recording their first wooden spoon since joining the competition in 1988, the Brisbane Broncos have again topped the annual Roy Morgan NRL club supporter ladder. Courtesy of the Brisbane Broncos.

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