The number of people watching live Premiership rugby union on television rose by 40% in its first season of exclusively live coverage on BT Sport.
Figures released by Premiership Rugby showed that the top flight of English club rugby union recorded an average live weekend TV audience of 358,000 across the 22 rounds of the 2013-14 regular season from September to May, an increase of 40% on last season, while the average single match audience also increased to 118,000, up 38% on last season.
The largest single BT Sport audience for a live match was recorded in October when 276,000 people tuned in to watch London Wasps take on Leicester Tigers.
A combined season audience of 7.88 million watched Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs live on BT Sport this season, compared to 6.14 million for the same period last year when live TV coverage of English rugby union’s top flight was broadcast jointly by ESPN and Sky Sports.
BT Sport claimed exclusive live rights to screen 69 Aviva Premiership matches per season for four years back in September 2012, with its contract starting from the 2013-14 season onwards.
The Aviva Premiership also has a significant terrestrial TV presence in the form of ITV Sport’s weekly one-hour highlights show, which have also reported a 6% rise in viewing figures on this time last season.
ITV Sport’s average weekend audience for the 8.00pm airing of its highlights show on ITV4, as well as its late-night repeat on the main ITV network, is 434,000, bringing a combined weekend average TV audience for BT Sport and ITV’s coverage of 792,000.
Dominic Hayes, commercial director at Premiership Rugby, said: “We expected to see a rise after moving our live TV coverage to BT Sport, but this increase is beyond anyone’s projections. We are delighted.
“We firmly believe that the Aviva Premiership is the most exciting and compelling domestic league in the world and these figures prove that it is a very appealing TV proposition.
“These figures coupled with the 3% rise in attendances this year show that the league is stronger than ever.
“It has been a great season and the Aviva Premiership Rugby Final on 31 May is set to be a fitting climax.
“When you look at the audience for the Aviva Premiership Rugby Highlights Show on ITV each weekend (434,000) it means almost 800,000 people are watching Aviva Premiership Rugby each weekend.
“The numbers from pubs and clubs, and through BT Sport’s app and website, are in addition to this – so the total TV audience is actually much higher.”
The rise in BT Sport and ITV audiences is also reflected in the digital reach of the Aviva Premiership with particular success after the relaunch of Premiership Rugby’s YouTube channel at the start of the season, attracting 2.99 million views, up 122% on last season.
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