RLWC - TV viewing figures

[Damien]

1 hour ago, Mojo said:

Please don't act like you didn't see all the posts in here just before the world cup saying how average this samoan team was and they're all players that looked good because of the nrl system

Another moving of the goalposts that has sweet fa to do with if England fans supported Samoa v Australia. 

Edited November 23, 2022 by Damien

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

In case I've missed it: 

600k average wheelchair final (from 7pm to 10pm) 

800k women's final 

1.4million mens final 

[Toby Chopra]

3 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

It tells me that RL is not in a great place in the UK. The wheelchair viewing is lower than we'd like but a step forward has been taken, same with the women. The men's final is okay for a non-England match but it's a World Cup final in a good timeslot.

It's really hard to see any quick win on the back of those numbers though that brings us riches. Basically, we need to be running BBC friendly international fixtures to build up visibility.

Yep, or rather, UK RL is in the same place it was in at the start if the tournament. Which is stable but underperforming. 

But we didn't break through with the world cup, so "reach over revenue" arguably didn't work. (If you believe that was a real strategy and not something made up afterwards!) 

[RigbyLuger]

Where/who did the 2.5m figure come from?

[Leonard]

2 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

Where/who did the 2.5m figure come from?

I have only seen that quoted in the context of both England v Samoa games, that did really well.

[Leonard]

5 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

Yep, or rather, UK RL is in the same place it was in at the start if the tournament. Which is stable but underperforming. 

But we didn't break through with the world cup, so "reach over revenue" arguably didn't work. (If you believe that was a real strategy and not something made up afterwards!) 

Fact is they still got well over 30m viewers compared to 2013 having 13m, I think, and whatever Premier Sports added.

[Toby Chopra]

7 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Fact is they still got well over 30m viewers compared to 2013 having 13m, I think, and whatever Premier Sports added.

Sure, and there's value in that, to show we can deliver audiences across multiple games and events on FTA. If only we had a content package to follow up with. 

But as we debated on another thread, there doesn't seem to be much evidence of substantial new audiences being attracted, the numbers suggest it's mostly existing RL watchers filling their boots for free. (I know I did).

Nothing wrong with that, I'd still say the World Cup has given the UK game a shot in the arm, but mostly through engaging current and lapsed fans.

Hopefully that will show up in season ticket sales in next few months. 

[Mojo]

27 minutes ago, Damien said:

Another moving of the goalposts that has sweet fa to do with if England fans supported Samoa v Australia. 

You ignoring the other posts that agree with me too? it's ok bro you win

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Maybe learn the lessons of history and don't jumble together out of nowhere a tour to take place in under twelve months time.

Tbh, we've never been a big draw in NZ really. Just a few random test matches was never going to do that. A credible Nations tournament is imho the only way of making any kind of success of travelling without playing in Oz. 

Hopefully we can start to monetise our TV deals, because in reality, a TV deal should pretty much fund a tour on its own. 

NZ crowds are odd. They are very up and down but they are absolutely up when it comes to a credible tournament. 

Crowd wise 2019 wasn't actually horrendous when you look at NZ as a whole, so I do think there is something for us to work with, but it absolutely has to be right. 

[Futtocks]

37 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

It was up against the annual Children in Need charity extravaganza on BBC1. That always draws a lot of viewers away from other programming.

Okay, this explanation for the Wheelchair final's low rating  didn't gain any traction on this thread.

How about this, then?

[HawkMan]

23 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Fact is they still got well over 30m viewers compared to 2013 having 13m, I think, and whatever Premier Sports added.

30m is a bit misleading , it's an aggregate figure, not 30m different pairs of eyeballs. 31 games,  30m views,  so about 1m per match, in other words, a solid figure, but not a " breakthrough " number. It shows RL provides a steady dependable audience for Sky and the Beeb , but neither will be having a rethink on their RL broadcasting strategy in all likelihood.

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

30m is a bit misleading , it's an aggregate figure, not 30m different pairs of eyeballs. 31 games,  30m views,  so about 1m per match, in other words, a solid figure, but not a " breakthrough " number. It shows RL provides a steady dependable audience for Sky and the Beeb , but neither will be having a rethink on their RL broadcasting strategy in all likelihood.

It should be remembered that the 30m is across the 61 games that RLWC staged. 

When we talk about the 14m from 2013, we should remember that tournament had 28 games. So broadly 500k per game average, which appears to be the same as this year, despite the bulk of the tournament being on Premier. 

[Futtocks]

Edit: Unnecessary post, because someone else made the point.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Futtocks

[Dave T]

Just now, Futtocks said:

So the 30m was calculated differently from the 13m?

No. 

[Futtocks]

4 minutes ago, Dave T said:

No. 

Is there a way of getting an average per tournament then? Men's, Women's and Wheelchair, separated out?

I'd certainly like to see how the Wheelchair figures at the start of the World Cup compared to those for the latter stages.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Futtocks

[Dave T]

6 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Is there a way of getting an average per tournament then? Men's, Women's and Wheelchair, separated out?

I'd certainly like to see how the Wheelchair figures at the start of the World Cup compared to those for the latter stages.

It's all a bit sporadic tbh, I think only a subscriber would have the info, so not sure if a journo would try and provide the details. 

[Dave T]

I would add on the numbers, I expect the 14m and 30m numbers to be based on averages. A lot of the great numbers that have been quoted have been peaks - I expect the peak for the Wheelchair final could easily have been approaching the 2m, which is the number that was mentioned on the BBC. 

[Leonard]

27 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Tbh, we've never been a big draw in NZ really. Just a few random test matches was never going to do that. A credible Nations tournament is imho the only way of making any kind of success of travelling without playing in Oz. 

Hopefully we can start to monetise our TV deals, because in reality, a TV deal should pretty much fund a tour on its own. 

NZ crowds are odd. They are very up and down but they are absolutely up when it comes to a credible tournament. 

Crowd wise 2019 wasn't actually horrendous when you look at NZ as a whole, so I do think there is something for us to work with, but it absolutely has to be right. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Great_Britain_Lions_tour

We did get 25500 in Auckland and as I posted earlier, the last 3 Tonga games there did the same figures. 

The issue on that tour was non "heartland" in Hamilton and Christchurch.

Clearly they need to play in Auckland. 

[Leonard]

11 minutes ago, Dave T said:

It's all a bit sporadic tbh, I think only a subscriber would have the info, so not sure if a journo would try and provide the details. 

Barb figures might have it. But I'm not volunteering for that job. 

[Dave T]

Just now, Leonard said:

Barb figures might have it. But I'm not volunteering for that job. 

Barb reports have changed, meaning you can't get as much as you previously could, certainly not numbers for red button on a Thursday afternoon. 

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, Leonard said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Great_Britain_Lions_tour

We did get 25500 in Auckland and as I posted earlier, the last 3 Tonga games there did the same figures. 

The issue on that tour was non "heartland" in Hamilton and Christchurch.

Clearly they need to play in Auckland. 

It's important to note that that game was a double header with Tonga v Aus too. 

The other test match for NZ v GB got 8.8k. The double header for that one was Fiji v PNG. 

I think back in 2010 we got 20k in Wellington and then 15k in 2014 in Dunedin

[Dave T]

9 minutes ago, Leonard said:

 

The issue on that tour was non "heartland" in Hamilton and Christchurch.

Clearly they need to play in Auckland. 

Hamilton delivered a couple of big crowds in the 2017 WC, it was obviously felt a good choice for the GB game, yet bombed. 

Similarly the other NZ v GB game got 8.8k.

The only decent crowd had all of the top four playibg a double header. 

I think it shows the challenge we have in NZ. 

I do agree that we should be doing it, but we just need to make smart scheduling choices and stage the events well. 

[Futtocks]

22 minutes ago, Dave T said:

It's all a bit sporadic tbh, I think only a subscriber would have the info, so not sure if a journo would try and provide the details. 

Yes, I suppose that level of detail might be paywalled. But the massive media response to the wheelchair game might show a steep line on a graph. After all, there were plenty of people on this Rugby League-specific forum* who'd never watched it before, let alone the "civilians" who stumbled upon it at random.

*and the TRL membership is mostly made up of people who like RL. I think.

[ShropshireBull]

Figures show there is serious commercial value in an annual comp in NH but because RFL will not do the work required to get to a situation where we have three competitive teams in NH (with a rotation SH side) we leave big chunks of cash on the table every year. 

[Archie Gordon]

The TV figures for the finals are underwhelming but mainly because the expectations around the women's and wheelchair events had grown in the past weeks.

The big question is what next? We know that we have an ENG-FRA (friendly?!) DH but do we know if it will be on TV? It's all a bit predictable so far - gain some traction then quickly revert to the tried-and-failed. How big a say do IMG have in this? Surely they can't be happy with what's being served up next year?