2020 crowds and ratings

[KOB1987]

The reason I find these numbers disappointing is twofold:
Firstly, Oz rugby fans are acutely aware due to political Shit fight that ended with Castle getting axed, and the players having pay cuts that the game is in absolute dire straits - this has all come about after the Super Rugby has its initial start -
Secondly, Oz rugby fans have (like other sports fans) been starved of live sport - and live rugby in particular. Fans from other sports responded to the return of games with huge ratings numbers.

It appears nothing can motivate the Australian rugby community to return to Watching the game - or at least paying to watch the game.

If the two biggest rugby states can only pull 69k after all that has happen. well I don’t think we can expect to see numbers above that any time soon.

I would have thought 100k would have been reasonable after all that has happened and considering how other sports fans have reacted.

It's not really that simple though, people have become used to doing other things. Remember that the NRL was the first sport (outside horse racing) to return to our screens, and the May 28th kick off date was hyped for an age:

Nine can thank Peter V’landys (the horse racing guy) for pushing hard for the return of NRL as the reduced rights deal was only revealed moments before the first returning match. The match did 535,000 in Sydney and Brisbane. Add in Gem and the number climbs to 619,000, but there seems to have been a modest hunger only for the returning sport in non-NRL markets.

 

[KOB1987]

On face value I'm not wrapped with the numbers, BUT what I'm more interested in is where they go from here.

 

[sunnyboys]

It's not really that simple though, people have become used to doing other things. Remember that the NRL was the first sport (outside horse racing) to return to our screens, and the May 28th kick off date was hyped for an age:

Nine can thank Peter V’landys (the horse racing guy) for pushing hard for the return of NRL as the reduced rights deal was only revealed moments before the first returning match. The match did 535,000 in Sydney and Brisbane. Add in Gem and the number climbs to 619,000, but there seems to have been a modest hunger only for the returning sport in non-NRL markets.

“The first match of the recommenced 2020 NRL season has set a ratings record.
The combined audience watching on Nine and Fox League across Australia was 1,353,000.

The Parramatta Eel’s 34-6 victory over the Brisbane Broncos last night to re-start the 2020 Telstra NRL Premiership season figures detailed below don’t include live streaming on connected devices.

The breakdown of the audiences:

Metro FTA 619,000
Regional FTA 333,000
Fox League 401,000

The metro splits for the audience watching on Nine:

Sydney 286,000
Brisbane 249,000
Melbourne 49,000
Adelaide 18,000
Perth 17,000

The audience watching on Nine was the biggest regular season game since the season opening match in 2016.”

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

“The first match of the recommenced 2020 NRL season has set a ratings record.
The combined audience watching on Nine and Fox League across Australia was 1,353,000.

The Parramatta Eel’s 34-6 victory over the Brisbane Broncos last night to re-start the 2020 Telstra NRL Premiership season figures detailed below don’t include live streaming on connected devices.

The breakdown of the audiences:

Metro FTA 619,000
Regional FTA 333,000
Fox League 401,000

The metro splits for the audience watching on Nine:

Sydney 286,000
Brisbane 249,000
Melbourne 49,000
Adelaide 18,000
Perth 17,000

The audience watching on Nine was the biggest regular season game since the season opening match in 2016.”

The restart of the NRL was talked and reported about for literally weeks across every major news broadcast in Sydney and Brisbane. Every fan knew when it was restarting and a big deal was made. And even then the next week those audiences effectively halved. Rugby restarted with barely a whisper. Big difference.

 

[VassMan]

That's the problem though, no one except for us tragics knows it's on!

 

[RebelYell]

That's the problem though, no one except for us tragics knows it's on!

This is exactly it. Nobody knows how to take this code to a new audience. FWIW, I would have liked to see some creative scheduling here - e.g. midweek fixtures when no other sport to compete with. I appreciate that is hard when there's only two matches per week, but having say a Tuesday & Wednesday night to ourselves would maybe give us a chance of attracting a new audience. I note that the A-League will be playing almost every day when they resume...

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Just over 15K at FMG yesterday of which ~14K were presales: weather looking like it was turning to shit an hour before kickoff probably accounts for the small number of walk-ups. As tends to happen the worst of it blew through by half time & it was actually sunny again at my place ~3km up the road.

 

[KOB1987]

Geerob confirming this morning that those viewer numbers DON'T include Kayo.

 

[louie]

According to Georgina Robinson on twitter Kayo don't release stream numbers. Interesting footnote to the numbers.

Lots of people who normally go to the club, pub or RSL to watch pay TV games may not be doing so ATM.

 

[Derpus]

So in reality it probably is an improvement given the slate of cancellations that Foxtel went through at the start of the lockdown - it probably represents a greater % of their subscriber base than before.

Also, anyone who signed back up for the sport will have just got Kayo because Foxtel with a box is dumb.

Still, much work to be done.

 

[Dctarget]

Yeah no wonder those numbers are dismal. They’re going to consistently drop as people switch to Kayo. Being only on Fox fucks us compared to NRL & AFL on free to air.

I’m sure we could do a poll on the front page of people who watched the game. I’d imagine GAGR is broad enough to give a decent insight. Work out what percentage of people watch on kayo then using that percentage you can get a more appropriate number.

Say Kayo is 40% of viewers, then total screens being watched is closer to 120,000.

 

[Derpus]

I wonder why they don't release streaming numbers. Maybe they are required to release broadcast numbers under some legislation but not streaming numbers.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

19,875 at Forsyth Barr Saturday night.

 

[Rebels3]

I wonder why they don't release streaming numbers. Maybe they are required to release broadcast numbers under some legislation but not streaming numbers.

Well the numbers released aren’t from foxtel. Online numbers are a lot more accurate than tv numbers because it directly passes data of usage straight to the system controlling it. The tv numbers be it neilson, oztam, Roy Morgan etc. are a rough indication from perhaps a base of 1000/2000 families selected across Australia to track their viewing habits, this is then weighted against the country and supplies numbers such as the 69k reported. There would be a margin of error either more or less than the figure reported. I’d think Fox are wanting their data to be kept a secret to avoid organizations using them as a bargaining tool come negotiation time, the online figures would be the only true data they would have of exactly who’s watching on any of their platforms.

 

[Derpus]

Well the numbers released aren’t from foxtel. Online numbers are a lot more accurate than tv numbers because it directly passes data of usage straight to the system controlling it. The tv numbers be it neilson, oztam, Roy Morgan etc. are a rough indication from perhaps a base of 1000/2000 families selected across Australia to track their viewing habits, this is then weighted against the country and supplies numbers such as the 69k reported. There would be a margin of error either more or less than the figure reported. I’d think Fox are wanting their data to be kept a secret to avoid organizations using them as a bargaining tool come negotiation time, the online figures would be the only true data they would have of exactly who’s watching on any of their platforms.

That's remarkably anti-competitive. Makes sense though to me though.

 

[sunnyboys]

It’s quite good news that the Fox numbers don’t count Kayo.

It would be nice to have that info.

Not sure how to make an accurate guess of how many Kayo subs tuned in.

 

[Wilson]

fwiw Nielsen have started tracking streaming numbers, but they don't seem to get broadly released and they're not particularly useful to the organization themselves as they have there own, more accurate tracking

 

[Rebels3]

fwiw Nielsen have started tracking streaming numbers, but they don't seem to get broadly released and they're not particularly useful to the organization themselves as they have there own, more accurate tracking

The Neilson numbers would be acquired through a questionnaire or actual numbers for certain games they can supply would be through software a selected group of people have installed on their computer to track their internet habits. In some cases a journal of viewing habits is recorded. The figures wouldn’t be exact, there would be a solid margin of error for the figures they supply either more or less to what’s reported.

Even tho there is a margin of error with any numbers supplied, sometimes large if the sample size isnt correctly representative. You can still see trends if those selected to supply information have taken to watching the game on a more consistent basis, so still very relevant to the discussion and a relative reflection on the popularity of the sport and viewing figures.

 

[Wilson]

The Neilson numbers would be acquired through a questionnaire or actual numbers for certain games they can supply would be through software a selected group of people have installed on their computer to track their internet habits. In some cases a journal of viewing habits is recorded. The figures wouldn’t be exact, there would be a solid margin of error for the figures they supply either more or less to what’s reported.

It's done through a box attached to the router with the specific devices used for streaming on the network programmed into it. As far as I'm aware the group coincides with those with the standard nielsen box.

 

[rugboy]

Just out of interest the Tahs v Reds was the 6th most watched program on Friday night on foxtel, which isnt a bad result. Surely Foxtel would be some way hesitant about losing a sport that high up. It would have greater relevance on the future success on Kayo as a sport only platform.