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Australian Sport TV Ratings.. Rugby Falling

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TOCC

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AS if the ARU didn't have enough problems on its hands with disgruntled five-eighth Quade Cooper, now comes a report that shows viewers are turning off the game in droves.
Global sports research agency Repucom International has just finished compiling its 2012 Football Benchmarking Report, which compares figures from Australia's football codes - AFL, NRL, Super Rugby and the A-League - based on OzTAM ratings and AGB Nielsen audience research.
While AFL and the A-League were the big winners and the NRL remained steady, it was the alarming dip in fans watching the Super Rugby competition that should have the powerbrokers at ARU headquarters concerned.
Having drawn a cumulative audience of 8.8 million when the Queensland Reds won their first title in 2011, that figure slumped to 7.8 million this year when the Reds were the only team of five Australian franchises to make the finals.

Despite their inability to win back-to-back titles, the Reds were still the most popular franchise with 1.89 million viewers followed by the NSW Waratahs with 1.71 million and Melbourne Rebels with 1.33 million.

see the rest of the article here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...switch-off-rugby/story-e6frg6n6-1226525246762
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Its a sad day when we are overtaken by the A-League, they have also been breaking more and more tv ratings records in the their 2012-2013 so its only going to get worse
 

Scotty

David Codey (61)
Yes, but the a league is played when there is little competition from other codes and there are more Australian teams in a league than super rugby.

But the drop in audience is alarming.
 

p.Tah

John Thornett (49)
The figures are slightly misleading.

The A-League has a 25 round season (125 games)
Super Rugby has an 18 round season (125 games). However only 78 games are at a decent time in Australia (i.e. not at 3am). I would hazzard a guess that the ratings for the SA home games would be minimal. Therefore you can't compare the cumulative totals. If you look at the ratings per game in the Australian/NZ time zone versus the A-League we are ~ 20% higher per game than the A-League.

Rugby has higher game attendance than the A-League and the highest rating programs on Foxtel. If you put the A-League in winter versus the AFL, RL and Super Rugby the viewing would be substantially smaller. (SANZAR needs to develop a Super Rugby Sevens over summer).

The Reds Final had a audience of 500k in 2011. If we don't make the final that's a substantial number of viewers we lose. Overall the Australian sides performed quite poorly in 2012 so it's not surprising the numbers dropped. It'll be interesting to see what 2013 has install.

In saying that it's excellent growth by the A-League.
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Interesting to see that the Rebels are the third most watched team ahead of the Force and Brumbies..
 

Hugh Jarse

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
^^^ The Mexicans love their sport. They would fill the MCG for the World Tiddlywinks Championships.
 

kronic

John Solomon (38)
Yes, but the a league is played when there is little competition from other codes
This.

The other two codes have FTA components and that particular competition is their sole focus, more or less. The ARU and FFA have respective national teams, which aren't covered under this. Both rate quite well.

In our case, the game more or less relies on the national team performing to generate interest in the domestic competition. In the case of football/soccer, this has proved not to be the case of late. A couple of marquee signings have helped the bandwagon grow.

We all know the Australian sports fan is an interesting beast, preferring a domestic only sport, over the international variety. Guess it's some sort of "island" psyche.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
The biggest difference in the 2012 Super Rugby TV audience would be the fact that the Reds didn't host the final as they did in 2011. That extra game involving an Australian team (and being the most important game of the year) at prime time would account for at least half the drop in audience numbers from 2011 to 2012. The poor season by the Waratahs probably accounted for the other half.

The biggest reason why the AFL had such a big year would be that Sydney won the premiership. This would have given the AFL a lot of viewers that otherwise wouldn't have watched the grand final or a couple of finals before that. AFL fans in the traditional Aussie Rules states will generally watch the grand final regardless of who is playing.
 

No4918

John Hipwell (52)
The Reds had 2 less home games than 2011. And since that was the semi and the final which had over 500,000. It would be reasoable to think the semi had a few hundred thousand so those 2 games contributed to probably 750-800,000 of the drop.

Tahs fans think there side is responsible for half the drop?o_O It's all about the finals.

Would need to look at this over about 5 years to see any trend and how much the finals success in 2011 has skewed the results.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
The Reds got a home final in 2012 though, it was just in the 3 vs 6 playoff whereas in 2011 they got that week off for being minor premiers.

I am sure the Tahs poor season had an impact on TV audiences as it did on crowd numbers.
 

flat_eric

Alfred Walker (16)
Seeing as the A-League season isn't even at the halfway point, how are those ratings calculated, year to date or projected forecast? Actually now that I think about it I would assume 2011 represents the 2010/11 season and 2012 represents 2011/12. In which case it doesn't even take into consideration the phenomenal growth so far recorded in the current season (2012/13).
 

Hugh Jarse

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
Apples and oranges.

There is NO international aspect to the AFL. International Mungo rates less than State of Origin, and there is really only the Kiwis and Soap Dodgers as viable opposition.

I'd say total Diveball numbers would skyrocket in a World cup year, but a lot of their games are in pub club and mass outdoor venues where it is hard to calculate numbers. But for a fairer comparison to AFL ansd NRL, Socceroos + A League games should count.

Rugby numbers should include also the Wobs games as well as the Super Rugby games.
 

Hugh Jarse

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
Just saying that the first two columns would be very close to the total WORLDWIDE TV audience for those two codes.

Soccer would obviously win hands down by about lots of billions.

Rugby Figures worldwide, while dwarfed by Soccer (The Sun) would still Jupiteresque against Pluto (Mungo and AFL) if the worldwide viewing figures were comp-ared on a Solar System scale.
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Even removing the Reds Grand Final match of 2011, the 2012 figures are 500'000 short or a 6% decline in viewers from 2011, the figure is even worse if you factor in the overall growth of Foxtel subscribers.. We can argue that the cumulative figures aren't everything, but when it comes to sponsors and broadcasters they are a massive factor.

Rugby Union is in a pretty bad state if it takes a team like the Reds of 2011 to rake in the fans every few years, the fact that rugby union is showing a decline in ratings whilst the other sports are all displaying growth is a major concern.
 

Ignoto

Greg Davis (50)
Do the stats taken for the Super games count those watching it abroad? Reason being, you're taking out a huge segment of those watching the game because their team is playing an Australian team. For instance, when the Reds played the Stormers, you're going to have all those fans concerned about watching the Reds, but only those Stormers fans based in Australia. While comparing that to a Collingwood vs Geelong game, you've got two teams based in Australia so more people are involved in watching the game within Australia.

Because Super rugby is an international game, it needs to include those watching the game from outside of our borders, otherwise you're only getting a small indication of who's watching it.

Then there's also the fact of how dodgy TV-Ratings are. I don't think I've come across anyone who has the monitoring box to give them feedback on what is being watched. So the figures are so unreliable of knowing who's actually watching.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Then there's also the fact of how dodgy TV-Ratings are. I don't think I've come across anyone who has the monitoring box to give them feedback on what is being watched. So the figures are so unreliable of knowing who's actually watching.

I am on the ratings panel.

I do my bit by watching as much rugby as possible. It does make me feel bad when I go to the pub to watch rugby rather than watching it at home and contributing to the ratings.
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Seeing as the A-League season isn't even at the halfway point, how are those ratings calculated, year to date or projected forecast? Actually now that I think about it I would assume 2011 represents the 2010/11 season and 2012 represents 2011/12. In which case it doesn't even take into consideration the phenomenal growth so far recorded in the current season (2012/13).

Exactly, the '2012' figures are from the 2011/2012 season.. Which is scary considering the A-League has been beating their chest about massive growth already in the 2012/2013 season
 

Ignoto

Greg Davis (50)
I do my bit by watching as much rugby as possible. It does make me feel bad when I go to the pub to watch rugby rather than watching it at home and contributing to the ratings.

If you leave the tv on while you're out, will they know you're not watching it?
 
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