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This week’s Roar and Against debate is about which product is better to watch on television considering the poor pay television ratings for Super Rugby versus the National Rugby League pay television ratings.
Each week two writers will go head-to-head, and will only have 250 words to get their point across on one of the big sporting issues of the week.
It will be up to you, in the comments section, to decide the winner. That winner will stay on and take on a new challenger and new topic. That challenger can be anyone, including any commenters who throw their hat in the ring.
To debate this week’s topic, Roar guru Scott Pryde and Roar editor Patrick Effeney will have a re-match after finishing neck and neck in last week’s debate on the Australian cricket team’s woes in Twenty20.
This week’s topic comes after the ARU announced the rather meagre goal of having 100,000 viewers for each Super Rugby match played in Australia. This comes as the NRL continues to average around 200,000 viewers just on pay television for each game.
TV ratings prove league is better to watch at home than union
AGREE
Scott Pryde (Roar Guru)
Rugby League has always been the superior football code in Australia. It receives better coverage, analysis and talk in the media, plus the TV ratings, particularly when compared to rugby, absolutely put it on a pedestal above the pack.
I draw Roarers back to the TV deal for Super Rugby before this season got underway. For the first time in recent memory the competition would be ‘on’ free-to-air TV.
Not really though, just a replay of an Australian game on Sunday morning.
Really, the ratings they have received for that, and the live games on pay TV are – to put it short – not good. The NRL meanwhile, receives massive ratings for both its games on both pay TV, and free-to-air TV, with three live per week on the latter platform.
Broadcasters willingness to pick up the games and make a massive profit from them, as Channel Nine have been doing for years and years, compared to rugby where broadcasters are simply scared to touch it prove a thing or two about which sport is better to watch.
Many who don’t understand the game of rugby union, simply find it boring. It is not enjoyable to ‘watch blokes kick the ball over the sideline and then throw it back in’. Union has more to it than that, but for an audience that don’t know the game that’s what it is like.
Right at the moment, league is the best sport to watch at home, and the population of Australia are voting with their remote controls.
DISAGREE
Patrick Effeney (Roar Editor)
If you think TV ratings are the be all and end all of what’s good about sport then you might as well kiss off everything else you love aside from NRL and AFL.
Golf? Gone. Football? Don’t think so. Cycling? Forget about it.
No, instead it would just be hit up after hit up, and hit out after hit out.
TV ratings are a reflection of a number of things, but certainly not the quality of any given contest. Some of the matches played between two New Zealand sides in Super Rugby are the best footy you’ll see around – and that includes the NRL. And the Brumbies, Waratahs and Rebels are all capable of beating those teams, as are the Reds and Force from time to time.
I’ll concede that rugby league provides a more consistent form of entertainment – you know tries will be scored and something great will probably happen (though tell that to the people who rocked up to watch the Eels beat the Wests Tigers 8-0 in one of the worst games you’ll ever see).
But rugby, played well, is the most beautiful game to watch. Think the Highlanders and Hurricanes of 2015. Think the Waratahs of 2014, when they had the second highest rating show on Foxtel ever in the final. And think the Reds of 2011, when they broke the record for the highest viewership on Pay TV of all time.
Rugby union, played well, is just as entertaining as a truly great State of Origin contest or a close NRL final.
Television ratings do nothing to prove otherwise.
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.