The huge exposure of domestic football compared to rugby union on UK television was reaffirmed last month in the audience figures for the season-ending climaxes in both sports.
The May finals of the Champions League and the FA Cup are currently shown live in the UK on both live free-to-air and on pay-television. The two attracted a combined average audience of 11.4 million and 5.5 million respectively which, according to analysis by TV Sports Markets, were significantly higher than the Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup rugby finals also in May this year, both of which were shown exclusively on pay-television broadcaster BSkyB.
The Guinness Premiership Final attracted 438,000 viewers who watched the Leicester Tigers narrowly beat London Irish 10-9 in the tightest final in years, narrowly less than the 461,000 average who witnessed Leinster's win over Leicester in the Heineken Cup live on BSkyB.
However, the average audience for match coverage on pay-television was 1.8 million for the Champions League on BSkyB, 16 per cent of the combined audience, and 188,000 for the FA Cup on Setanta, just over 3 per cent. The graph shows having the climax of the events available on free-to-air channels in addition to subscription sports channels boosts the exposure dramatically.
Premier Rugby and the ERC, the rights-holders for the Guinness Premiership and the Heineken Cup respectively, both have deals for exclusive live coverage on pay-television until at least 2013. Although a live free-to-air offering would have increased the television exposure of both events, nevertheless a non-exclusive package would most certainly have decreased the value of the pay-television rights deal.
TV Sports Markets provides comprehensive coverage of UK sports ratings in its highly acclaimed fortnightly newsletter, which follows the business of televised sport around the world. To learn more about TV Sports Markets, visit www.tvsportsmarkets.com, or for bespoke research, please contact Ben Speight (ben@tvsportsmarkets.com).
