TV tales

Since the move to BT Sport in 2013 Premiership Rugby have not been shy about telling everyone how well that move has worked in terms of TV viewers.

Using http://www.barb.co.uk/ we at Leicester Tigers Ultra SubMarines have been tracking the viewing figures from the past 11 Premiership Finals and they tell an interesting story.

These figures are based on the average viewers for a programme, other figures may be based on a peak audience which will obviously be higher.  For instance it is claimed the 2015 Premiership Final's peak audience was 297,000; but BARB reports the average figures at 165,000.  Obviously BT's preference for a long pre-game build up and post game analysis will hurt an average but the Premiership Final's record average viewing figures were 394,000 in 2009; the last final before the announcement to move away from Sky Sports.  So whilst you've probably read about a huge rise in viewing figures these are all based from the historic lows recorded on the short lived ESPN.

As we can see from the high point on Sky Sports we have actually lost c.60% of viewers.

Successful growth in TV audiences according to Premiership Rugby

BARB also allows us to track the weekly figures from the 2014-15 season.  BT Sport showed 66 games in the regular season and it is these we shall review.

BT Sport regularly show one game on each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The kick off times on Saturday and Sunday migrate a bit around the day but the times are pretty consistent.  On Saturday at 3:15 you can be pretty confidant of catching a game.

Does the kick off time have an affect on the viewing figures?

A simple analysis says that it does.  Traditionalists will rejoice that the most popular time for armchair fans is good old Saturday at 3 o'clock.  As a canny reader will spot that was just the one game though, Saracens hosting of Quins at Wembley.

Generally Saturday was the best day with a consistent 150,000 people tuning in.  The low of 77,500 can be explained as the last day of the Premiership season which saw 155,000 people watch the two games simultaneously broadcast.  Friday nights are the next most popular, a fairly consistent 100,000 tuning in each week, whilst Sundays saw very changeable audiences with a peak 162,000 seeing Gloucester play Wasps over Christmas whilst only 32,000 saw Wasps travel to Sale in October.

That begs the question do the teams involved make a difference to the viewing figures?

Saracens v Bath failed to get in BARB's weekly top 10 so is excluded from these figures

It looks like they do.  Overall Northampton were the most watched team with 1,988,000 views over the course of the season, just beating Tigers by 6,000.

Tigers though had two fewer games broadcast and were well ahead of any rivals on a per game basis.  These figures are interesting when compared with attendances (excluding "big games" at Wembley, Twickenham and Stadium MK).


The TV figures are much closer to the competition average smoothing the results, with Irish attracting the least viewers but only 22.35% less than the average.

Welsh in contrast attracted 70.61% less than the average attendance.  Similarly Tigers attracted TV audiences 26.35% up on our rivals but our attendances were near enough double the competition average.

What this does show is that those clubs that have been successful in building their attendances have also been successful in bringing fans in front of the TV.  The only club to buck that trend is Wasps and this due to bump in attendances generated with the move to Coventry.  It will be interesting to see if their new found fan base is willing to part with their hard earned cash for a BT Sports subscription next season.

Overall the most watched game in the season was Tigers 32-12 loss at The Stoop whilst Sarries "Big Game" at Wembley and Tigers trip to Northampton pre-Christmas were the others with an average over 200,000 views.  The Premiership Final would be the 7th most watched game on this measure.

According to data published this was the most watched regular season match in 2015 in either Rugby Union or League.  For those who love rivalry between the codes the same source gives the Super League an average viewership of 114,327, 2% above the Premiership's figure.

TV Cash to Force Celt Changes?

On Wednesday PRL announced a stonking new TV deal worth “up to” £152m with new players in the Rugby market BT.  You’d have thought this whopping TV deal would have been welcomed with open arms, especially in a double-dip recession, but no!  ERC immediately pooh-poohed the deal claiming that PRL had broken IRB rules, they don’t say what, and an ERC mandate, they don’t say how.  This is because as well as selling domestic league games PRL sold the rights to their clubs home games in some, as yet unknown, European competition(s).  4 hours later ERC & Sky announced a renewed deal for the Heineken Cup and Amlin Cup for 4 years beyond the current contract which ends in 2014.

PRL gave their notice to quit ERC on June 1^st, as did LNR (League National de Rugby) their equivalent in France, effective from June 2014.  You may have spotted a rather obvious problem with ERC’s plan at this point.  That is that ERC won’t exist past 2014, at least in current form and certainly not with English and French clubs, and even if it were to be saved at this moment in time it has no right to sell English club games beyond 2014.

Now ERC claim that PRL had no right to sell the package they did either; that is simply not true.  PRL have sold the rights to their own games in any future tournament, something they are completely within their rights to do.  After all the SANZAR nations sell their rights individually to domestic TV so the IRB clearly have no problem with this arraignment.

If reports are to be believed PRL’s deal is split into two parts: an £100m domestic deal and an £50m European deal.  ERC haven’t released the amount of their new Sky contract but last year PRL received £8m from ERC as their share of the collective spoils.  English clubs receive 24.5% of the ERC pot (alongside the French, the Irish, Welsh and Scots get 14% each whilst the Italians get 9%) which by my maths makes the overall total £32.65m.  That total includes the sponsorships paid by Heineken, Amlin, FedEx, Addidas, Land Rover and the TV rights to France, Italy, Ireland plus the TV rights to the Ulster, the Welsh regions and the Scottish regions in the UK.  This deal is, reportedly, worth £17m more for significantly less.  The French rights would be worth a similar amount to the English rights, with the sundry other deals also to be added on top it is hardly optimistic to state the total value would top £100m.   That is a 200% increase in revenues.

So why are ERC so exercised over PRL’s deal?  Obviously PRL have to some extent gone behind the backs of their European partners, but more than that ERC, or rather the constituent unions, are worried that the clubs are becoming too powerful and their own influence might be on the wane.

Will ERC really be able to turn their collective noses up to over £100m?  I doubt it, the Welsh game is in disarray domestically and is desperate for the cash, similarly the Scots, Irish and Italians heavily subsidise their domestic games with revenues from internationals.  The cash will surely be enough to buy the structural changes that PRL and LNR have been so desperate to achieve.