2020 crowds and ratings

[RebelYell]

From The Aus today - no mention of Super Rugby but I am sure an interesting read for anybody following this thread...

The Kayo sports streaming service is accounting for more than 30 per cent of Foxtel’s major football match audiences as ratings for the NRL and AFL boom.

Foxtel has enjoyed surging ratings since the resumption of both codes after the COVID-19 pandemic caused early-season shutdowns.

Ratings on the Fox League channel for NRL games are the highest ever for Foxtel, combining viewers across the main Foxtel services and digital sources such as Kayo, Foxtel Go and Foxtel Now, while AFL matches have also attracted big audience increases.

Released for the first time using data from linear and digital sources, Foxtel’s AFL ratings on the Fox Footy channel for live matches for the first 12 rounds of 2020 are up 34 per cent compared to the same rounds last year

Live NRL audiences on Fox League are up 18 per cent compared to the corresponding rounds 1 to 14 of the 2019 season, including the round 6 match between the Sydney Roosters and Parramatta that attracted the largest NRL audience ever of an average 507,000 viewers.

Foxtel Sports executive director Steve Crawley said the AFL ratings highlighted the success of the league’s decision to squeeze 33 matches into 20 days for its round 9 to 12 fixtures.

 

[Grumped]

Foxtel only:
Brums v Force 46,000
Rebels v Tahs 44,000

For comparison, the Tour de France starting at a later time on Saturday night had 158,000 viewers.

 

[Crashy]

A-league GF on Sunday night 84k.
Ranked 14th for the day with the AFL first with Carlton / Collingwood number 1 with 254k.

A-league and Union have a lot of lost ground to make up in 2021. I think the Reds / Brumbies game on Sat night should crack 60k with any luck.

 

[Grumped]

Foxtel only:
Reds v Brumbies 48,000
Rebels v Force 39,000

 

[Derpus]

Anyone got crowd/fox figures from last night?

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Anyone got crowd/fox figures from last night?

53k according to mediaweek.

 

[RebelYell]

Really poor

 

[Derpus]

Crowd looked decent at least

 

[qwerty51]

Especially when you consider how bad the Broncos are.

 

[Dctarget]

Did anyone know that SuperAU was on?

 

[VassMan]

Only a little bit higher than normal games. Goes to show it's mainly rusted on supporters who were watching both games each weekend.

 

[Crashy]

89k watched the Reds Brumbies game. Was ranked 14th.
Storm vs Tigers drew 246k.
i'd give that a 6/10.

 

[VassMan]

Wow, when you put it into comparison with league it's terrible.

 

[Beer Baron]

Is it though? given the service that is showing it is doing zero do advertise it - what do we expect.
If we were on a carrier that was spending a bucket on marketing and still getting those numbers than i would agree its terrible.
Foxsports.com.au had almost zero coverage before and after the game.

 

[Braveheart81]

Is it though? given the service that is showing it is doing zero do advertise it - what do we expect.
If we were on a carrier that was spending a bucket on marketing and still getting those numbers than i would agree its terrible.
Foxsports.com.au had almost zero coverage before and after the game.

I think this is a false expectation though.

Anyone who had any interest in rugby knew it was on and anyone who doesn't isn't going to spend their Saturday night watching it just because they saw a couple more ads.

The Storm vs Tigers game at 5:30 didn't get that rating because they spent all week advertising the game on other channels.

 

[Beer Baron]

I think this is a false expectation though.

Anyone who had any interest in rugby knew it was on and anyone who doesn't isn't going to spend their Saturday night watching it just because they saw a couple more ads.

The Storm vs Tigers game at 5:30 didn't get that rating because they spent all week advertising the game on other channels.

Looking at it as a one off agreed. But the whole season... i disagree. I have spoke to plenty of rugby fans who will watch a game when they know its on - they didn't even know Super Rugby AU was on - how would they??

 

[Braveheart81]

Looking at it as a one off agreed. But the whole season. i disagree. I have spoke to plenty of rugby fans who will watch a game when they know its on - they didn't even know Super Rugby AU was on - how would they??

Masses of social media, a reasonable amount of mainstream media in the newspapers that publish anything relating to rugby. Anyone who has ever engaged with any of the super rugby franchises or Rugby Australia will have been getting emails about it weekly or more.

How many hours of sport are these so called rugby fans watching that they can both be completed unaware that Super Rugby AU was being played for the last three months but would have started watching if a few more TV commercials were played by Fox Sports?

This seems like a massive leap in logic to me. This whole "lots more people would watch rugby if only they knew it was on" trope is a convenient excuse for lack of interest in my view.

 

[dru]

Masses of social media, a reasonable amount of mainstream media in the newspapers that publish anything relating to rugby. Anyone who has ever engaged with any of the super rugby franchises or Rugby Australia will have been getting emails about it weekly or more.

How many hours of sport are these so called rugby fans watching that they can both be completed unaware that Super Rugby AU was being played for the last three months but would have started watching if a few more TV commercials were played by Fox Sports?

This seems like a massive leap in logic to me. This whole "lots more people would watch rugby if only they knew it was on" trope is a convenient excuse for lack of interest in my view.

BH I don’t think it’s a leap in logic at all. It is the actual purpose of advertising.

There are plenty of Wallaby supporters who don’t do Super but are still potential targets. I’d be surprised if those guys would not have tried the finals in non-trivial numbers had they been targeted.

 

[Braveheart81]

BH I don’t think it’s a leap in logic at all. It is the actual purpose of advertising.

There are plenty of Wallaby supporters who don’t do Super but are still potential targets. I’d be surprised if those guys would not have tried the finals in non-trivial numbers had they been targeted.

I'm saying the leap in logic is that the only way to market to these so called rugby fans is ads on Fox Sports and all the other ways that sporting codes engage with fans somehow doesn't work on rugby fans.

The Wallabies facebook page has 656k followers for example. The email list would presumably be similar.

I am saying it is genuinely hard to be unaware that Super Rugby AU was being played and be a rugby fan in any way shape or form.

How many events do you find out are on because you get advertised to on TV? For me it would be very close to zero.

I am saying that this trope that people who are actual rugby fans had no idea we've just had 12 weeks of Super Rugby AU is bullshit. Anyone saying that is full of shit.

 

[dru]

I'm saying the leap in logic is that the only way to market to these so called rugby fans is ads on Fox Sports and all the other ways that sporting codes engage with fans somehow doesn't work on rugby fans.

So you agree that advertising could (should) have an impact? The rest of what you say I am with. But it wasn’t the initial proposition. Foxtel advertise heavily in other codes but steadfastly have done little or nothing with rugby. It is not outrageous to expect that your broadcaster will actually advertise. And it is no leap that a failure to do so would have an impact.

These guys are really pour partners for rugby in Australia.