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Challenge Cup Final Viewing Figures


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4 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

Dave Woods tweeted that it peaked at 1.6m and average at well over 1m for the 3.5 hours it was on and was the most watched programme on any channel throughout. Encouraging?

Are these better than normal?

In the ballpark but up a bit. I think the figure quote for 2018 was 1.3m. Not sure about last year.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

In the ballpark but up a bit. I think the figure quote for 2018 was 1.3m. Not sure about last year.

This would seem to be good, although the NRL GF is over 2.5 million, and FA Cup 8 million.

The problem we have in building up an audience for RL is that there is little RL on TV. 

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12 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

This would seem to be good, although the NRL GF is over 2.5 million, and FA Cup 8 million.

The problem we have in building up an audience for RL is that there is little RL on TV. 

Yes, not being as high as the FA Cup Final is a real kick in the teeth.

FFS.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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2 hours ago, Rupert Prince said:

This would seem to be good, although the NRL GF is over 2.5 million, and FA Cup 8 million.

The problem we have in building up an audience for RL is that there is little RL on TV. 

I thought there were already 7 live games a week during a normal season.

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13 minutes ago, JohnM said:

I thought there were already 7 live games a week during a normal season.

Perhaps I should have clarified it with 'National TV'.

It is of course easy and a bit fatuous to sneer about the fact that 8 million watch the FA Cup, and we should just ignore or accept it.  But millions are 'groomed' to watch the FA Cup.   The BBC spend a lot of time building it up over the season.  They have a long back catalogue and back story with it. 

And why should they not?  After all its relatively cheap TV.  They also spend a lot of time building up league games and later reviewing them... Football Focus and Match of the Day.  (Going all the way back to the days of editor Sam Leitch who would turn a real drab 0-0 game into a blockbuster)

I am suggesting that a SKY Sports channel misses the great number of the general, casual, public and they pass by RL.  We miss national exposure.  As such we do not get the TV ratings we should.

It goes without saying that their 'grooming' perseveres with that sport called 'Rugby Union', sometimes known simply as 'Rugby'.

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1 hour ago, Rupert Prince said:

Perhaps I should have clarified it with 'National TV'.

It is of course easy and a bit fatuous to sneer about the fact that 8 million watch the FA Cup, and we should just ignore or accept it.  But millions are 'groomed' to watch the FA Cup.   The BBC spend a lot of time building it up over the season.  They have a long back catalogue and back story with it. 

And why should they not?  After all its relatively cheap TV.  They also spend a lot of time building up league games and later reviewing them... Football Focus and Match of the Day.  (Going all the way back to the days of editor Sam Leitch who would turn a real drab 0-0 game into a blockbuster)

I am suggesting that a SKY Sports channel misses the great number of the general, casual, public and they pass by RL.  We miss national exposure.  As such we do not get the TV ratings we should.

It goes without saying that their 'grooming' perseveres with that sport called 'Rugby Union', sometimes known simply as 'Rugby'.

We do have around 7 live terrestrial games a year iirc, plus internationals are shown on the BBC. Highlights of SL are also on the BBC. Its not a bad amount. 

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45 minutes ago, Dave T said:

We do have around 7 live terrestrial games a year iirc, plus internationals are shown on the BBC. Highlights of SL are also on the BBC. Its not a bad amount. 

If you count games streamed on the website as well, I think there were 11 challenge cup games shown for free on the BBC this year which is really good in my opinon.

I would like the super league show to be an hour long and on at a better time when it's first shown but TV schedules don't seem as important in the modern day with online streaming being so prevalent so it's not particularly a problem I don't think. I only ever watch the super league show on catch up to be fair cos I think what's the point in staying up and remembering to watch it when I can just watch at a more convenient time. 

As you say, it's a decent amount of coverage. 

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8 hours ago, Rupert Prince said:

This would seem to be good, although the NRL GF is over 2.5 million, and FA Cup 8 million.

The problem we have in building up an audience for RL is that there is little RL on TV. 

Last year the biggest audience for any TV  programme in Aus was for State of Origin Game 1 which had 3.23M. The AFL GF attracted 2.95M with the NRL GF at 2.66M.  SOO 3 had 2.91M with SOO 2 at 2.84M.

Predictions are that this years TV audiences for the above events will be larger.

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9 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

If you count games streamed on the website as well, I think there were 11 challenge cup games shown for free on the BBC this year which is really good in my opinon.

I would like the super league show to be an hour long and on at a better time when it's first shown but TV schedules don't seem as important in the modern day with online streaming being so prevalent so it's not particularly a problem I don't think. I only ever watch the super league show on catch up to be fair cos I think what's the point in staying up and remembering to watch it when I can just watch at a more convenient time. 

As you say, it's a decent amount of coverage. 

Probably the only thing I'd like to see improved would be number of weekends rather than the double headers. It'd be good to have more coverage over more weekends to make us harder to miss. 

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The point is that the BBC have zero terrestrial football, but they heavily trail it and show extensive highlights over 2 days at the weekend.  They get the most out of their FA Cup coverage.  The impact on the general public is substantial on all this.  (Ditto the Six Nations).  I know loads of football personalities thanks to TV, yet when i have seen games live (as opposed to highlights) I find the games slow and boring.  

I dont think streaming and satellite channels used by the converted is comparable. Lets remember the value to our sponsors... they want to see exposure.

The loss of the Aussie tour was tragic and our lack of international exposure is a major drawback.  The big plus is that in Mark Chapman we have the best presenter my a country mile.  

So I think you and others are far to sanguine.

PS... All of which i think should encourage us to limit our season in 2021 to prepare properly for the World Cup.  We should play some sort of representative game(s) even if 'trial' or faux 'origin' matches.  Our national side needs to be prepared and we should prepare the public for them too.

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5 hours ago, SL17 said:

Positive figures. Can they be replicated with a bbc trophy tourney?

Or does that question require a new thread?

I know some people a while back were advocating an overhaul of the Challenge Cup, introducing group stages, which, I guess, would see group games on each week.

Though it depends on how you feel about the cup. Personally, I don’t think there’s a real market for it and couldn’t see clubs swapping guaranteed Super League home games with Challenge Cup games against lesser teams. 

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1 hour ago, Dave T said:

Probably the only thing I'd like to see improved would be number of weekends rather than the double headers. It'd be good to have more coverage over more weekends to make us harder to miss. 

Not sure how you manage to spread the Cup over the weekends like that whilst not getting folk annoyed about late (ish) changes to the Super League schedule - as we don't have any spare weekends to play with.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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I think in a normal year - when you include internationals - there is a fair bit of league on terrestrial. The BBC has a similar number of weekends showing league as it does union.

But we clearly do need more as we need to broaden that base and embed viewing habits, and the extra games need to be of the highest attractiveness and competitiveness. 

With all due respect to the Championship and the other home nations International teams, that can only mean one thing: some superleague games on terrestrial.

The union premiership deal with C4 shows it can be done - you can have 4 or 5 games a year on terrestrial without it hurting your core pay-TV product. In fact it helps BT/Sky as it's effectively free advertising for them. A SL game a month from May to August on the BBC, to fill the gaps between the CC rounds could work well for all parties. 

Slightly concerningly the broadcast tender doesn't seem to allow for this, but perhaps there's more flexibility in there than immediately apparent. 

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31 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

The point is that the BBC have zero terrestrial football, but they heavily trail it and show extensive highlights over 2 days at the weekend.  They get the most out of their FA Cup coverage.  The impact on the general public is substantial on all this.  (Ditto the Six Nations).  I know loads of football personalities thanks to TV, yet when i have seen games live (as opposed to highlights) I find the games slow and boring.  

I dont think streaming and satellite channels used by the converted is comparable. Lets remember the value to our sponsors... they want to see exposure.

The loss of the Aussie tour was tragic and our lack of international exposure is a major drawback.  The big plus is that in Mark Chapman we have the best presenter my a country mile.  

So I think you and others are far to sanguine.

PS... All of which i think should encourage us to limit our season in 2021 to prepare properly for the World Cup.  We should play some sort of representative game(s) even if 'trial' or faux 'origin' matches.  Our national side needs to be prepared and we should prepare the public for them too.

I agree with much of this. Although below I have advocated that some SL games on terrestrial is what we should be aiming for, the World Cup year is the exception. You're right, we need to do everything we can to boost the profile of the England team in the lead up to the autumn and home international games on terrestrial can be part of that. 

I'm not sure the SL clubs see it that way though. They've been so battered by the pandemic they just want to get back to normal as quickly as possible. I get that, and I expect they have absolutely no financial leeway left. But if there was one year where delaying getting back to normal was worthwhile, even at some short term financial cost, it was 2021. 

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28 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Not sure how you manage to spread the Cup over the weekends like that whilst not getting folk annoyed about late (ish) changes to the Super League schedule - as we don't have any spare weekends to play with.

Agreed, it wouldn't really work with the current offering. Imo it's a downside of the condensing of the cup and delaying the entry of the top teams, but I understand its a balancing a t. 

I'd obviously love 4 or 5 live SL games and mid-season test match on BBC across the year, but doubt it's gonna happen. 

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I would rather see a couple of mid season internationals on the BBC for more coverage rather than additional cups or doing anything negative to the Challenge Cup just to get more weekends, especially when we are already trying to boost the Challenge Cup as it is. 

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2 minutes ago, Damien said:

I would rather see a couple of mid season internationals on the BBC for more coverage rather than additional cups or doing anything negative to the Challenge Cup just to get more weekends, especially when we are already trying to boost the Challenge Cup as it is. 

Need to think about more than England there as well. A tri-series featuring Wales and France would be an opportunity to get more games on the BBC via a Wales v France as well as England v France and England v Wales. S4C could be persuaded again I'm sure to take the game even if BBC Wales chose not to.

Plus that may be all that's possible in 2021 anyway.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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16 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Need to think about more than England there as well. A tri-series featuring Wales and France would be an opportunity to get more games on the BBC via a Wales v France as well as England v France and England v Wales. S4C could be persuaded again I'm sure to take the game even if BBC Wales chose not to.

Plus that may be all that's possible in 2021 anyway.

That's exactly what I was thinking. A couple of mid season games each shouldn't be too much to ask and could be 3 more weekends on the BBC.

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All very well saying more internationals but they need to be "top grade" that will attract casual viewers or attendee's that may become  long term fans of the game.  Unfortunately we only have limited countries that are recognisable to casual viewers, i.e. Australia and NZ.  Australia not wishing to participate being an additional problem.   Of course that recognisable aspect is what they pick up from Union, like it or not.

Yes I know we have the likes of Tonga, Somoa, Fiji, etc etc etc but even in Union they are not as marketable and hence unlikely to bring in the big viewing figures.   I guess a start for building on anyway.

We need France and hence we should be setting that country and French clubs as the priority in any expansion thoughts or any investments in time and monies resource if we have any.

As to SL clubs not buying in, then the RFL could agree to share all proceeds with a reasonable amount going as compensation towards losing revenue during a season.... or better still clubs have to continue to play over the international break just like Union.... Get them as part of the whole marketing effort as they have an incentive both money wise as well as visibility.

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