The near clean-sweep of the Louis Vuitton finals by Alinghi proved less attractive to television viewers than the previous challenger series won by Prada.
Just 389,000 of all potential viewers watched the last race between Alinghi and Oracle, compared with nearly 700,000 people who tuned in on February 6,2000 - also a Sunday afternoon - for the nail-biting decider of the 4-4 tie between Prada and AmericaOne.
Last weekend's challenger series final competed with the final round of the New Zealand Open golf on TV2, which had an average audience of 319,000 between noon and 6pm, according to ACNielsen ratings.
TV One's coverage of the trophy presentation between 7pm and 8pm attracted just over 530,000 viewers.
The first five races in this year's challenger series attracted a top average audience of between 177,000 and 283,000 viewers to the weekday racing. The nine races in the previous challenger final drew a top audience of 200,000 on weekday racing. The 2000 finals featured more weekend racing, which attracted audiences of up to 400,000 viewers.
TVNZ head of sport Denis Harvey said he was happy with the ratings, but could not compare them directly with the 2000 final.
TV One did not offer live coverage until the semifinals in 2000, and the final was raced at the end of January and early February. Mr Harvey said the close series in 2000 and the interest in Prada would have had an impact on the ratings.
Mr Harvey said advertising around the event was pre-sold and he did not believe the final audience figures would affect revenue.
