Week 1 viewing figures

[Eddie]

Very impressive according to this, I’d love to know the actual figures but regardless of that, 56% up on the 2020 average is a lot  

https://www.superleague.co.uk/article/1908/2021-season-gets-off-to-a-record-breaking-start?fbclid=IwAR2KIvj9YXKbh09Rt0DUZteaR0SmQnr1_SXIpq06qkN7CRQgG4AEXShrfyU

[Damien]

Great stuff and good ammunition with TV rights discussions ongoing.

[Eddie]

Must admit I did have a couple of the games both on tv and on my iPad, to help boost viewing figures. I also usually have the Thursday/Friday NRL games on with no sound when I’m working, for the same reason, properly sad

[DoubleD]

Particularly interesting that the Catalans game received the highest audience for a regular season game in 15 years 

[Eddie]

Some of the games clashed with Challenge Cup games on IPlayer too, which would have reduced SL viewing figures. Will be interesting to see if they hold up this coming weekend. 

[Chris22]

10 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

Particularly interesting that the Catalans game received the highest audience for a regular season game in 15 years 

That game was in the Saturday evening slot that Sky gave us the boot from years ago, and on the Main Event channel. Potentially a winning formula, especially in the summer months when there is no football.

[JM2010]

Does anyone know what the actual figures were?

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

11 hours ago, Eddie said:

The 2021 Betfred Super League season got off to a record-breaking start with fans tuning in to watch Catalans Dragons defeat Hull Kingston Rovers with a golden point drop goal from Catalans' James Maloney.

The game recorded the highest match audience for a regular season game in 15 years.

https://www.superleague.co.uk/article/1908/2021-season-gets-off-to-a-record-breaking-start?fbclid=IwAR2KIvj9YXKbh09Rt0DUZteaR0SmQnr1_SXIpq06qkN7CRQgG4AEXShrfyU

We had West Wales Raiders with massive streaming figures that were 50% up on Featherstone v Bradford.

Catalans deliver the biggest Sky tv ratings for the sport in 15 years.

Yet people still question what these clubs bring to the game and resist new expansion clubs entering the league. Thankfully Elstone is now gone and Catalans home games are going to be back on tv in France and Sky Sports in the UK.

[Rupert Prince]

12 hours ago, Chris22 said:

That game was in the Saturday evening slot that Sky gave us the boot from years ago, and on the Main Event channel. Potentially a winning formula, especially in the summer months when there is no football.

Do the names that sky give to their chanells mean anything?  Just curious.

[Eddie]

12 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Do the names that sky give to their chanells mean anything?  Just curious.

I didn’t think they would either, but someone (Tommygilf I think) pointed out that pubs often have Main Event on as a default, so it’s much better to have your games on there. 

[Dave T]

3 hours ago, Rupert Prince said:

Do the names that sky give to their chanells mean anything?  Just curious.

 

3 hours ago, Eddie said:

I didn’t think they would either, but someone (Tommygilf I think) pointed out that pubs often have Main Event on as a default, so it’s much better to have your games on there. 

If RL is on Arena only it may get half the viewers it gets if on Main Event too.

[Eddie]

7 minutes ago, Dave T said:

 

If RL is on Arena only it may get half the viewers it gets if on Main Event too.

I find that bizarre, I’d never flick on the tv and choose what I was going to watch because of the channel it’s on. Maybe that’s because I only put the tv on if there’s something I specifically want to watch, but even if I did just turn it on I still wouldn’t watch some ###### on Main Event if there was something I preferred on Arena. 

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I find that bizarre, I’d never flick on the tv and choose what I was going to watch because of the channel it’s on. Maybe that’s because I only put the tv on if there’s something I specifically want to watch, but even if I did just turn it on I still wouldn’t watch some ###### on Main Event if there was something I preferred on Arena. 

When you turn the TV do you flick through all the channels in the Guide? I know I don't.

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, Dave T said:

When you turn the TV do you flick through all the channels in the Guide? I know I don't.

No but if I want to watch sport for example,  I’ll go to sky sports and see what’s on, not just stop at the first channel and watch whatever’s on it. It’s not like there are too many sports channels to flick through. 

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

No but if I want to watch sport for example,  I’ll go to sky sports and see what’s on, not just stop at the first channel and watch whatever’s on it. It’s not like there are too many sports channels to flick through. 

RL fans know where to watch RL if they want to. That will be how we can get 100k no matter what.

Casual fans who are browsing what to watch on the TV make up the rest. They won't check every channel. Being front and centre on the main channels is important.

TBH it is like saying we don't understand why Red Button games only get tens of thousands versus a million or so on BBC One.

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

Main Event (5pm-7.30pm) average 103k, peak 232k

Arena (5pm-7.30pm) average 170k, peak 203k

Arena much higher than normal due to leeds match not being on main event

Match average will most likely have been over 300k combined 

[Padge]

No fans at games.

[Mr Frisky]

12 minutes ago, Padge said:

No fans at games.

Well observed, its been like that for 12 months...

 

[Eddie]

6 hours ago, Padge said:

No fans at games.

So that’s roughly 8k on average then, these increases are much greater than that. 

[Eddie]

7 hours ago, Rugbyleaguesupporter said:

Main Event (5pm-7.30pm) average 103k, peak 232k

Arena (5pm-7.30pm) average 170k, peak 203k

Arena much higher than normal due to leeds match not being on main event

Match average will most likely have been over 300k combined 

Thanks. Where did you get the figures please, are they available for each match? 

[MZH]

On 29/03/2021 at 21:30, DoubleD said:

Particularly interesting that the Catalans game received the highest audience for a regular season game in 15 years 

I think it was more down to the time slot and the circumstances than the clubs involved tbh. Saturday evening with no football or other major sport on the TV, at a time when we are all still largely stuck in the house. You would expect good viewing figures. Not that I'm being negative about it btw, more people watching a bit of RL is always great.

Incidentally a guy I work with (Scottish) who has never shown much of an interest before mentioned to me that he watched a bit of my team the other day (Hull vs Huddersfield). He had been flicking through the channels and came across it late in the first half and ended up watching most of the second half too. Said he thought it was really entertaining and was asking me a bunch of questions about it.

He is a big Celtic fan and only has a passing interest in Rugby Union and said he found the RL much quicker and more open and exciting. I got the impression that he would tune in again if he saw it was on. Just shows that if we can actually get our game in front of new people then the product will sell itself to a large degree.

[Heritage XIII]

Catalans on a fb post said their match got 288k average viewers & peak of 446k

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Thanks. Where did you get the figures please, are they available for each match? 

So I know someone who has access to overnights- but a bit cheeky to ask for too many as barb charge for these. 

I'm unsure if peak is by minute or every 5 minutes. 

For other games we will need to wait two weeks until barb publicly release (unfortunately we only get programme averages for these) and figures skewed by how much pre and post match there is

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

1 hour ago, MZH said:

I think it was more down to the time slot and the circumstances than the clubs involved tbh. Saturday evening with no football or other major sport on the TV, at a time when we are all still largely stuck in the house. You would expect good viewing figures. Not that I'm being negative about it btw, more people watching a bit of RL is always great.

Incidentally a guy I work with (Scottish) who has never shown much of an interest before mentioned to me that he watched a bit of my team the other day (Hull vs Huddersfield). He had been flicking through the channels and came across it late in the first half and ended up watching most of the second half too. Said he thought it was really entertaining and was asking me a bunch of questions about it.

He is a big Celtic fan and only has a passing interest in Rugby Union and said he found the RL much quicker and more open and exciting. I got the impression that he would tune in again if he saw it was on. Just shows that if we can actually get our game in front of new people then the product will sell itself to a large degree.

The time slot and not clashing with football will have helped, but surely that’s not the first time thats been the case in 15 years? Do you think a game with say two of Salford, Leigh or Wakefield would ever attract viewing figures Catalans achieved in round 1?

[Dave T]

23 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

The time slot and not clashing with football will have helped, but surely that’s not the first time thats been the case in 15 years? Do you think a game with say two of Salford, Leigh or Wakefield would ever attract viewing figures Catalans achieved in round 1?

Salford delivered the highest ever Grand Final viewing figure in RL history. 

But this is one of those examples I refer to where these clubs are criticised for no reason, when the claims are this only happened to TWP.