- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Rugby World Cup final between New Zealand and France was watched by 1.22 million on Nine last night and 648,000 on Fox Sports – the second highest rating program ever on pay TV.
According to OzTam, the final received a metro total people audience of 1.22 million, with 436,000 in Sydney tuning in, 290,000 in Melbourne, 286,000 in Brisbane, 96,000 in Adelaide and 112,000 in Perth.
On the pay TV side, the game received a national (metro and regional) audience of 648,000, making it the second-highest rating program in the history of pay TV.
The top-rating program on pay TV was the Australia-New Zealand Rugby World Cup semi-final which picked up 719,000 viewers. (Regional free-to-air TV figures have not been released yet.)
What do we make of this? Well, at first glance, these figures are not surprising. You expect big audiences for the likes of quarter-finals, semis and the final, as the bandwagon grows.
The Rugby World Cup on Fox Sports has rated well all tournament. It has broken a few ratings records for pay TV, and is rightly viewed as a big success for the pay TV industry.
On the free-to-air side, things aren’t as good. But 1.22 million is a solid result, considering the Wallabies were bungled out the week before, with that semi-final against the All Blacks with 1.77 million viewers, a great result.
When you take out Australia from the equation, the figures were bound to drop. This is a viewing trend seen in other sports in Australia as well.
The interesting thing here is looking at ratings for the whole tournament, free-to-air versus pay TV. You have to say that the outright winner has been pay.
The fact that a dedicated channel was provided which showed all games live, uninterrupted and with arguably better commentary has given it a leg up. It also got a leg up from the inept way that Nine has broadcast the World Cup.
By delaying games, showing some on Gem and making strange commentary choices – does Ray Hadley know the difference between a breakdown and the play-the-ball? – Nine buggered itself.
When you compare ratings for individual games of free-to-air versus pay, pay comes out looking impressive. For many matches pay equalled the result on free-to-air, and for some games pay bettered it. Remember compared with the 2007 World Cup, this was a tournament that was broadcast in our prime-time and featuring an Australian team with some chance of success (debatable, some would say).
From all of this, I make a few points – TV numbers are not everything. Crowd attendances, media coverage levels and participation rates are all also important. However, TV numbers do matter. T
he ARU needs a solid free-to-air TV partner, one that will respect the sport and give it the proper airtime it needs. Ten seems to be the only option (and also without a top-line sport after it lost the AFL), but considering neither of the three commercial networks are going to pay much money for the rights, why not SBS or at a pinch, the ABC? They would do a good job. Free-to-air coverage is vital for a sport to grow.
Pay TV money is becoming the lifeblood of sport in Australia, just ask the FFA or NRL. But having regular free-to-air airtime, at a decent hour, is also crucial.
A balance between both is needed. The ARU really needs a game of Super Rugby each weekend, one of the Aussie games, on free-to-air if it wants to grow.
Overall, 2011 has been good year for the ARU. The launch of the Melbourne Rebels, Queensland winning the Super Rugby, good Super Rugby ratings on Fox Sports, the Wallabies winning the Tri Nations and making the World Cup semis are all positive. But all of this needs to be built on.
John O’Neill and his staff can’t rest on their laurels if they want Australian rugby to grow and move out of its position as the number four football code.
Unless better free-to-air coverage can be secured, rugby’s status in Australia will continue to yo-yo dramatically depending on the fluctuating fortunes of the Wallabies.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.