Rugby TV ratings 2015

[wamberal]

We are in a fight for survival, the sooner all stakeholders start to understand that (including the IRB by the way) and start to work together for the sake of the game, the better.

"Working together" implies making sacrifices for the greater good.

 

[Marcelo]

I look at the ratings and think more and more that we don't have another 10 years. The game is dying here at professional level. My worst fear has always been that the game here will be like soccer, a small domestic comp by semi amateurs with the car majority of wallabies based OS. Test matches become friendlies. That was before the A League, now we would be lucky to have a domestic comp of that standard. So you say the current system is not working for growth in Australia, even if our sides are maintained by outside interest and media sales, the end result is the game is contracting and that means more talent to Soccer, AFL, and League.

Why are u so negative??? 10 years ago people said the same but we are still alive!!!

There is still hope. Next year rugby sevens will be an Olympic sport. That will be beneficial, Australia is a country with great culture at the Olympic Games, after watching the rugby at the Olympic Games many people could join our sport. I'm sure many guys from the league would like to win a gold medal, and their only chance is changing the code, ARU should take advantage of that.

Olympic sport = More money, more investment

Hopefully the reaction of people to see rugby at the Olympic Games, many people don't follow our sport everyday and don't know about it.

If the Australian Media are intelligent, they should help spread the Olympic Sevens because is a competition where Australia has a great opportunity in the near future. Sevens is a hybrid game between Union and League, Australia is the number one power at the League and a Top 3 team in Union.

 

[p.Tah]

Interestingly I think the biggest growth we will get in the game is through women's 7s. We have looked at women's role in rugby as mums and supporters of the men's game, but in time it will be the female participants, referees and supporters of the women's and men's game that will give us the growth we are looking for.
The women in the 7s circuit are trail blazers and it won't be for quite a while before we realise how important the women's circuit is in the development of the game.

 

[Gnostic]

7s is not pro 15s. More and more with the world 7s tour players will be specialists. I am negative because in 10 years we are still here but have degraded our viewing base. Apart from the Reds less people are watching on TV and less people attend games. We don't have the Shute on FTA now. The maintenance of the professional end of the game has not seen real growth. If I'm wrong about 7s I'll be very happy, but so far 7s has shown limited appeal in Australia. That is the only market I'm concerned with in this thread. Globally the game is very healthy, it is locally where thinking must change.

 

[wamberal]

Globally the game is very healthy, it is locally where thinking must change.

Thinking has changed locally, that's our problem. A lot more people used to think that rugby was a game worth supporting and watching, but they have changed what they think. Frankly, as a long-term supporter and player, I sympathise with them.

Some of the local games so far this season have been virtually unwatchable. We used to watch every local game in real time. Now I record them, and fast forward through the dross.

I do not like loig at all, but frankly the NRL is all over us, and with their next broadcasting deal they will grind us into the dust.

 

[boyo]

If the Australian Media are intelligent, they should help spread the Olympic Sevens because is a competition where Australia has a great opportunity in the near future. Sevens is a hybrid game between Union and League, Australia is the number one power at the League and a Top 3 team in Union.

That's a big "if". Most of them pander to their network's reality shows.

 

[Jagman]

We don't have the Shute on FTA now.

Yes it's on 7's 2 channel. It's actually a better result than ABC because they will actually be able to mention the sponsor's names etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Marcelo]

7s is not pro 15s. More and more with the world 7s tour players will be specialists. I am negative because in 10 years we are still here but have degraded our viewing base. Apart from the Reds less people are watching on TV and less people attend games. We don't have the Shute on FTA now. The maintenance of the professional end of the game has not seen real growth. If I'm wrong about 7s I'll be very happy, but so far 7s has shown limited appeal in Australia. That is the only market I'm concerned with in this thread. Globally the game is very healthy, it is locally where thinking must change.

Like it or not, the healthy state of the game around the world is beneficial to Australia. For example, the new broadcasting agreement will give more money to the ARU by the Super Rugby fans from GB:

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/a...ils-out-australian-rugby-20150215-13fnqs.html

In the coming years the ARU will feature extra money and those HUGE Spring tours with 5 games to raise money won't be necessary.

Another important point, right now we have many Pacific Islanders players at the highest levels: Wallabies and Super Rugby. Union is the most popular sport on the Pacific Islands by far but they are tiny islands and have no money. The ARU must invest in the islands and the best players should go to Australia, they are cheap and are the best players in the world. We must seize that the Kiwis despise the islanders and we must become their godparents.

Once a year Wallabies should visit the islands, I know it's a waste of money but imagine the happiness of Pacific islanders with the Wallabies in their homeland, all Pacific islanders would prefer to play for Australia. Or maybe some Super Rugby team must go to Pacific Island before the season. Remember that Speight was about to be an all black, he played in Waikato.

 

[kiap]

Kiwis despise the islanders

That's a bit rich. A lot of Kiwis are from PI backgrounds. Numbers are also growing in Aus.

So, yes, we can be more involved in fostering PI rugby as a two-way thing (Australia is already doing some of that with the Pacific in Union (PiU) program, and the ARU inviting Fiji and Tonga into the National U20s tournament, etc., which helps them and helps us).

But that doesn't mean the best players will come to Australia.

As far as professional rugby goes, PI players are affected by the same market forces as other rugby players. They'll want to play where the money is. And while that does include Australia and NZ, it increasingly means Europe and Japan.

 

[Joe King]

Interestingly I think the biggest growth we will get in the game is through women's 7s. We have looked at women's role in rugby as mums and supporters of the men's game, but in time it will be the female participants, referees and supporters of the women's and men's game that will give us the growth we are looking for.
The women in the 7s circuit are trail blazers and it won't be for quite a while before we realise how important the women's circuit is in the development of the game.

I think this is important. Women's 7's has the potential to attract women over the other sporting codes because of the Olympics and a world-wide circut. Getting the tick of approval from more women/mums can only help get more kids into the game. It may not be much, but it's a step in the right direction.

 

[Joe King]

To me it seems quite likely that super rugby will evolve into something a bit closer to what hoggy is talking about anyway.

Though probably closer to the NFL structure than the European rugby and soccer structure.

I think that a 6th Australian Super Rugby team is fairly likely at some stage in the next 5-10 years. Perhaps the ANZ consortium will make a play for a new team. Then you could always have local matches in the best time slots.

I don't think rugby would do any good trying to copy the AFL and NRL unless you had a Frank Lowy type willing to bankroll it. Even then I just don't think the sport is popular enough for 10+ fully professional teams.

I know people like the cross-conference games, but IF a domestic competition really was the best thing for rugby in Australia, then the simplest step would be to close off the conferences of 6 teams each. Play all the teams in your own conference twice, home and away, before the top two teams from each conference move through to the cross-conference finals.

It would be the best of both worlds and make for better viewing for the majority. It could also finish before the mid-year tests (even better if the mid-years ever did move to July!), and the RC could then flow on from the mid-years without the disruption to Super Rugby. Might even give a chance for some of the test players to play some NRC games before the end of year tour.

But of course, it wouldn't suit NZ or SA because there is no real point of difference with their already established domestic competitions, and it would just be more of the same for them.

But perhaps if there ever was a 4th conference made up of 2 Arg teams, 2 US teams, and 2 teams from Canada, they would be force to close off the conferences because the travel would be too much. So (assuming this would be better for OZ rugby) maybe we should be pushing for Super Rugby expansion as the only way to really change things.

 

[Marcelo]

That's a bit rich. A lot of Kiwis are from PI backgrounds. Numbers are also growing in Aus.

So, yes, we can be more involved in fostering PI rugby as a two-way thing (Australia is already doing some of that with the Pacific in Union (PiU) program, and the ARU inviting Fiji and Tonga into the National U20s tournament, etc., which helps them and helps us).

But that doesn't mean the best players will come to Australia.

As far as professional rugby goes, PI players are affected by the same market forces as other rugby players. They'll want to play where the money is. And while that does include Australia and NZ, it increasingly means Europe and Japan.

Tongan Thor said his dream is play for the Wallabies because some Tongans played there:

https://au.sports.yahoo.com/rugby/a...ion-taniela-tupou-dreams-of-a-wallaby-jersey/

When I said that Kiwis despise the Pacific Islanders I meant about the negative of the ABs to play there. Remember the campagnain: #ABsToSamoa ??

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/10237177/ABs-to-Samoa-a-dream-come-true-for-Williams

They had to insist for many years for the ABs play there. The NZRU didn't want because it's a waste of money, the ARU should invest in the islands and carrying Wallabies once a year or an Aussie Super Rugby team. Give hundred balls with the Wallabies logo to the kids and perhaps many other PI's kids will have the dream of playing for Australia as Tongan Thor.

If we can't compete against the NRL and AFL by Australian talents, then we should recruit the best PI players in industrial quantities. Now we have some talents of the islands in our team as Tevita Kuridrani or Henry Speight but we must strengthen this partnership and recruit more PI players and the talents like Joe Rokocoko and Malakai Fekitoa also play for Oz.

If we are generous with the Polynesians islanders, they would prefer the gold jersey shirt over the black jersey

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

@MHCS says ".......Kiwis despise the islanders....."

Seriously? On what evidence?

Pre-GFC it was a rare year NZRU didn't send a 2nd- (NZ Maori, Junior AB) or 3rd-level (Heartland XV) to at least one of the PI nations. Around the same time whenever Fiji etc played the AB in NZ it was treated as their home game i.e. the PI side got the gate less "touring" AB expenses & got to sell the TV rights & pocket most of the cash therefrom. Fiji at least we're given the option of the AB going there but turned it down on the basis they'd make more $$$$$$ playing at Albany than Suva.

No non-PI Union has done more for PI rugby than NZRU.

Honestly, your comment is just about the most ridiculous I've seen on this site. It belongs on the PlanetRugby fora in amongst the drivel spouted by the various Bok-something/ something-Bok's who troll there.

 

[wamberal]

When I spent a year or so in Tonga as a volunteer some years ago, every kid wore an All Blacks jersey, or so it seemed.


It also seemed that every family had relatives living in New Zealand.

 

[Marcelo]

@MHCS says "...Kiwis despise the islanders..."

Seriously? On what evidence?

Pre-GFC it was a rare year NZRU didn't send a 2nd- (NZ Maori, Junior AB) or 3rd-level (Heartland XV) to at least one of the PI nations. Around the same time whenever Fiji etc played the AB in NZ it was treated as their home game i.e. the PI side got the gate less "touring" AB expenses & got to sell the TV rights & pocket most of the cash therefrom. Fiji at least we're given the option of the AB going there but turned it down on the basis they'd make more $$$$$$ playing at Albany than Suva.

No non-PI Union has done more for PI rugby than NZRU.

Honestly, your comment is just about the most ridiculous I've seen on this site. It belongs on the PlanetRugby fora in amongst the drivel spouted by the various Bok-something/ something-Bok's who troll there.

The NZRU didn't want to make an ABs tour to Samoa because it would generate waste of money, this has been said by several people of NZRU. Samoa had to insist too much for their test at home against ABs, that's a fact. Perhaps I misspoke but again, the NZRU didn't want to take his first team to the islands. You have to better interpret the messages, I don't want a war and nobody talks with intention to offend, is only a comment of the issue. Or maybe the ABs have played 3 games per year in the PI in the last 10 years and I didn't hear it?

When I spent a year or so in Tonga as a volunteer some years ago, every kid wore an All Blacks jersey, or so it seemed.


It also seemed that every family had relatives living in New Zealand.

Not only in the PI, but throughout the world of rugby. So I say, we must point to the islands. With a investment we can attract many talents like Kuridrani and Speight

 

[Braveheart81]

We must seize that the Kiwis despise the islanders and we must become their godparents.

Once a year Wallabies should visit the islands, I know it's a waste of money but imagine the happiness of Pacific islanders with the Wallabies in their homeland, all Pacific islanders would prefer to play for Australia.

You have to better interpret the messages, I don't want a war and nobody talks with intention to offend, is only a comment of the issue.

I think the onus is on you to take more care in what you say.

You have a habit of talking in baseless generalisations that will cause offence to some people.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

An occasional sidetrack or tangential post is usually ok in the threads, but the above sidetrack adds no value whatsoever IMHO.

Can we return to topic - TV Ratings for Rugby?

I assume that the Digital channels of the FTA networks are also rated. It will be interesting to see what the InTrust Shute Shield Rates at, compared to when it was on Aunty. Saturday 3pm ABC has been a default setting for so long that many rusted on viewers probably don't know how to find channel 7 two.

It may take a few weeks for the message to get through, and for the numbers to stabalise before valid comparisons can be made to previous years rating figures on ABC.

 

[Strewthcobber]

I assume that the Digital channels of the FTA networks are also rated. It will be interesting to see what the InTrust Shute Shield Rates at, compared to when it was on Aunty. Saturday 3pm ABC has been a default setting for so long that many rusted on viewers probably don't know how to find channel 7 two.

It may take a few weeks for the message to get through, and for the numbers to stabalise before valid comparisons can be made to previous years rating figures on ABC.

Might be pretty tough to find the ratings for us plebs for a little while as well. Only the top 20 multi-channels get reported which means something like 150,000 viewers (and almost always dominated by kids shows on abc2!)

Shute shield just in Sydney/nsw won't get near that. Hopefully some of the other sources report the deeper numbers.

 

[Marcelo]

An occasional sidetrack or tangential post is usually ok in the threads, but the above sidetrack adds no value whatsoever IMHO.

Can we return to topic - TV Ratings for Rugby?

Ok bud, sorry

 

[Train Without a Station]

Just wanted to drop by to note something for all the fucking knuckleheads that bang on about no FTA killing rugby and how fucked the ARU are for signing a Pay TV deal. Even though there was no interest from FTA anyway.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/...ock-programming-upheaval-20150318-1m28og.html

While the decision has not been finalised, Fairfax Media understand the network's content division recently concluded that SBS's 35-year relationship with football – among Australian television's most iconic – should be scaled back dramatically.
The government broadcaster has the rights to show the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and one A-League match on free-to-air television each Friday night.
Tentative discussions have been held with other free-to-air broadcasters about offloading their A-League commitments for the next two seasons. SBS and Fox Sports signed a four-year, $160 million agreement to share the rights until 2017

Despite an upgrade to the primary channel this season, the residual impact of the original decision remained, with ratings hovering either side of 100,000 viewers nationally.

Makes 100,000 viewers for Super Rugby on a service that has about 33% market penetration look not too bad in comparison.