Rugby TV ratings 2015

[Highlander35]

It doesn't. But Super Rugby doesn't suit the FTA broadcasters, and the fact that the ARU isn't full control doesn't help, when tge AFL, NRL, FFA and ACB can shuffle things about for their leagues. The NRC more or less can't survive outside of Fox, the funding is essential. Leaves only the local league, well established, full control, relatively small amounts of money changing hands.

 

[RugbyReg]

I think it was Oscar Wilde who said "the only thing worse than club rugby being on tv is club rugby not being on tv"

 

[RedsHappy]

Just re declining Fox S15 viewership numbers:

Look, this is a comparatively small factor I grant, but I really believe a factor in this decline has to do with Fox's lack of change and serious refresh of the truly hapless Fox S15 commentators with their often heavily biassed and idiotic, cliche-saturated standards of contribution, etc. I'd pay for a button to turn most of them off and just get refs' feed and crowd noise.

It's getting worse I think, not better.

Related, I am finding Rugby HQ, their main weekly 'portal' show, less and less engaging and worth watching. It's got increasingly 'entertainment' orientated (and it does most of this badly), there's less and and less useful analysis, no one utters a word that could cause a moment's upset in RU officialdom so every panel member is restricted to the dullest banalities, and so on. What is it giving a rugby audience that's adding some value to their experience of Fox rugby coverage?

FWIW, many in my rugby circles are finding Fox's generally good camerawork and technical production the sole positive attribute of their coverage. The rest is getting more and more tired, tiresome and boring.

In the top USA and EU sports broadcasters, the calibre of their in-game commentators and then ditto their between-game analysis shows are considered absolutely essential to overall ratings success. This topic is not just an ephemeral issue for Australian rugby TV coverage.

 

[wamberal]

I think it was Oscar Wilde who said "the only thing worse than club rugby being on tv is club rugby not being on tv"

I'm pretty sure he was a Sydney University supporter.

 

[Joe King]

Will the ratings remain higher if these matches are played more often? If you played 16 local derbies instead of 8 would the extra interest be maintained for those additional fixtures?

I tend to think they wouldn't.

Oh I see, if they closed off the conferences, a team would be left with only 8 games in the regular season, and would need extra games to make more revenue. Yes, playing another team from your conference more than twice in a regular season would be stale.

But what if they added a couple more teams to each conference? Is that a possibility? If the conferences were closed off in that instance, it would only be the best teams from the 3 conferences playing each other at the end.

I'm sure they've got a few reasons not to do this. But wouldn't it see a lift in ratings at least?

 

[Braveheart81]

In the top USA and EU sports broadcasters, the calibre of their in-game commentators and then ditto their between-game analysis shows are considered absolutely essential to overall ratings success. This topic is not just an ephemeral issue for Australian rugby TV coverage.

Where does this get developed though?

Our market in most sports just isn't big enough to provide the pathways for many front of camera broadcasting jobs.

There are so few commentators and experts that aren't legends of the game in most sports here.

The sports with the best experts and commentators all have enough depth that there is a proper career development path such that people are interested in pursuing it as a career and have a place to start out as well as avenues to progress their career.

American sporting broadcasts are still littered with legends of the game but the difference is they're really good at the broadcasting bit because there are a lot of other people wanting to do what they're doing.

In relation to the Foxsports rugby broadcast, does anyone have any idea where Tom Lawton came from this year? It seems almost as if he told some of his mates he needed a job.

 

[Strewthcobber]

One of the biggest issues facing the ARU and setting up a domestic comp is how much money is generated having our teams play south African teams in European friendly timezones.

We literally cannot afford to lose that income. But it means massively disrupted competition schedules with teams disappearing for nearly a month at a time with all the problems that causes.

 

[TOCC]

One of the biggest issues facing the ARU and setting up a domestic comp is how much money is generated having our teams play south African teams in European friendly timezones.

We literally cannot afford to lose that income. But it means massively disrupted competition schedules with teams disappearing for nearly a month at a time with all the problems that causes.

This unfortunately is the crux of it all...

I do wonder if Super Rugby is still the best format for the players, fans and broadcasters... I would rather see 'Super Rugby' evolve into a form of the European Rugby Champions Cup(Tier 1), and those teams who don't qualify for the top tournament, battle it out in a European Rugby Challenge Cup(Tier 2 ).

Picture this, each country runs their own domestic tournament from Feb-May, a domestic champion is awarded based off their standing in the table(like the EPL). Then, the two club championship tournaments begin, qualification for each tournament comes from the highest ranked teams in each country(e.g. Tahs, ACT, Rebels would qualify for Super Rugby based on current standings). Both tournaments are simple round robin's with a semi and grand final system.

-Super Rugby Championship (highest ranked teams)
Aus-3 teams
RSA- 3 teams
NZ- 3 teams
Arg- 1 team
Japan- 1 team

-Southern Hemisphere Club Championship (lower ranked teams)
Aus- 2 Teams
RSA- 3 Teams
NZ- 2 Teams
Arg- 1 Team
Japan- 1 Team
USA - 1 Team


Some cons to this are that the same teams may get stuck in the lower tier tournament and thus generate lesser sponsorship money, however the pro is that they are more likely to win games against similarly ranked opposition and thus gives the fans something to cheer about.

 

[Gnostic]

Well I'm about to commit sacrilege (again).

I still regard myself as a fairly rabid Rugby supporter. I watch every test I can access, regardless of who's playing. I still watch the Shute every week regardless of who's playing and record it when it clashes with a Super game, which I watch all of them every week.

I'll watch the 7's and the the women's games.

But (and here it comes) I find last year I had no interest in the NRC and I'm not looking forward to it now. There is just nothing there that appeals to me. That is the big problem with compromises, it just ends up with a lot of people not alienated so much as just apathetic.

Now in the Super 12 days I regularly had between 7 and 10 mates around to watch the games. I am the last one, nobody else watches anymore. They'll go to the local matches in town but that is about it.

In the past when I have said things like this I have been categorised as being a part of the problem. But the fact is that if you try and sell a product that few people want to buy that product will not be on the shelves long.

 

[boyo]

. I'd pay for a button to turn most of them off and just get refs' feed and crowd noise.

You're not the Lone Ranger.

 

[wamberal]

Well I'm about to commit sacrilege (again).


In the past when I have said things like this I have been categorised as being a part of the problem. But the fact is that if you try and sell a product that few people want to buy that product will not be on the shelves long.

We still watch the Shute Shield. We do not watch the NRC, it holds no interest for us, although we did follow the Central Coast Rays in the ARC, attended most home games.

We now watch the Soup very selectively, we find the NZ derbies more interesting than most of the local games.

As for the Tests, we will wait and see. Certainly, the days of getting up at any hour of the early morning to watch a game live from the NH are long gone.

I wonder how many other Mr and Mrs Wamberals there are, former tragics (still members of our district club, and Soup franchise), but in a downward spiral of interest in the game.

 

[RedsHappy]

One of the least commented up aspects of Australian rugby over the last 5 or so years is simply this:

The ARU spends remarkably little serious money in promoting and marketing the game in the manner now required to viably compete with other winter sports. Why?

- one, the JON II era left the business close to bankruptcy; particularly, the vast surplus from RWC 2003 was wantonly squandered

- two, it's not often realised, but virtually all the ARU's 'spare 'cash from late 2012/2013 - such that it is or was - has gone on very large multi-million $ subsidies to keep the Rebels alive, by now, in the order of $10m+. This is where much of a potential serious code-wide marketing budget has gone, and, after this, there's been little spare given item one above

- three, by dint of the quality of its output, it's very clear that the ARU's marketing department is of debatable competence and appropriate insight and flair of a kind essential to attract attention to the best aspects of the code in the Australian sports marketplace, the 2015 version

Further, it's a total myth to assume that merely increasing the quantum of rugby played in any one year - a la the NRC - has anything necessarily to do with a genuinely strong and successful marketing program to actually market the code properly and drive media or gate interest in it. These are two different things altogether and they're often mistaken.

 

[Train Without a Station]

RH your points about Melbourne are correct. But this is an investment that is very likely to pay dividends long term.

The other thing to consider, is that the Rebels have also increased Australia's share. Extra TV market and extra game each week.

Presently the ARU are subsidizing them to a diminishing level. I believe the total is around $8M, not $10M+. Come 2016 they are now self-reliant, but also part of a $15M revenue increase to the ARU based on the same current costs if the rumoured TV deal is correct.

They have already provided some value.

You have to consider that marketing would not guarantee a greater return, and would not give any long term benefit.

 

[Joeleee]

We still watch the Shute Shield. We do not watch the NRC, it holds no interest for us, although we did follow the Central Coast Rays in the ARC, attended most home games.

We now watch the Soup very selectively, we find the NZ derbies more interesting than most of the local games.

As for the Tests, we will wait and see. Certainly, the days of getting up at any hour of the early morning to watch a game live from the NH are long gone.

I wonder how many other Mr and Mrs Wamberals there are, former tragics (still members of our district club, and Soup franchise), but in a downward spiral of interest in the game.

Hmm it's interesting that you still watch the Shute Shield but not the NRC. I can't bring myself to watch SS, because the teams mean less to me than the NRC ones. I think that's a problem, where there's a big gap between rusted on club rugby supporters who started with the game 15-20 years ago/have played club rugby and the rest of the rugby following population.

The club supporters are more likely to go to a club game than the others do of going to an NRC game, but the population of potential "others" is so much larger, and they will only move to an NRC type competition, and not to a club one. It's a tough nut for the ARU to crack and it will take a few years of pretty disappointing numbers for it to pick up (and there's no guarantee it will pick up).

 

[wamberal]

I agree that it will take a long while to build up interest. Did you miss the point that we did get attached to our local ARC team?


Both Shute Shield and ARC teams have (or had) much clearer identities. What a huge pity that we did not persevere with the ARC!!!

 

[Train Without a Station]

Really? A team forced on the clubs had a much clearer identity than teams which were based on clubs forming together on their own accord?

I think you just see what you want to see.

 

[TOCC]

I don't watch the Shute Shield and I only occasionally watch the live stream of the QLD Premier Grade, but I watched a lot of the NRC matches.

For various reasons, NRC held greater appeal in places like QLD, WA and Vic. I think NSW Rugby at various levels shot themselves in the foot by a few poor decisions and poor marketing of the NRC last year.

Hopefully the various levels of NSW Rugby get their shit together and properly support the NRC in 2016, it has the potential to be a strong domestic companies, but it needs the full support of NSW rugby.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Highlander35]

My perception was that there were no issues with the Spirit, City or the Rising at all. There were minor issues with the Vikings and Country, for the naming and control, and the heavy Gold Coast link respectively. The Rams and Rays didn't appear to have any issues, at least structurally, and both seemed to have a reasonably strong following. The issues appeared to be Randwick, Easts, Uni and Country sides figuring out what the hell was going on with the Stars and Eagles. So far that does appear to be the primary difference between the ARC and the NRC outside the co - operation, every team in the ARC has a logical successor in the NRC, except the Fleet (I think that was the team) have been split, with Districts joining the Rams, Uni going alone, and Randwick & Easts forming a reluctant partnership with the Eagles.

Anyway, I'll be watching every NRC game broadcast, and attending every Rising homs game, because I want the competition to succeed, for Victorian Rugby, Country Rugby and Australian Rugby in general.

 

[half]

We are tracking at 3.5million so far, averaging 58k (will finals etc to come)

Do you have an update on the averages...

 

[wamberal]

Really? A team forced on the clubs had a much clearer identity than teams which were based on clubs forming together on their own accord?

I think you just see what you want to see.

Errrrr, yes, that is obvious. My little local franchise, the Rays, had a significant local following. Made up or not, it had a strong local flavour.