There has been much talk about the demise of the Currie Cup due to the new Super Rugby tournament structure, but it seems that the grand old dame of South African rugby is made of sterner stuff! Below a look at the TV numbers of all this year’s rugby tournament in comparison with last year’s Currie Cup numbers:
One obviously needs to take cognisance of the amount of Super Rugby being played, and that a large number of those games shown on TV would be between two teams from either Australia or New Zealand, or between an SA side and one of our SANZAR partners (and thus only attracting one fan base), but to see the average viewership per Currie Cup game subtantially bigger than Super Rugby is an indication of the strngth of local rugby in South Africa.
SARU no doubt base discussions with SANZAR on numbers like these, assuming that the Currie Cup will always be strong. But it will be interesting to see how the Currie Cup does this year – in the second year of the new S15 structure. The fact that it is back to being a six side “Strength vs strength” tournament will no doubt keep it attractive, but if 2016 is all about making Super Rugby even bigger, this is the tournament that will suffer …
A slightly deeper look into the 2012 tournament numbers thus far:
Source: All numbers and images courtesy of sport marketing giants RepucomSA, using numbers from TAMS and DSTVi. Follow them on Twitter – @repucominsights
Hi Tank
Can you tell me how they get these numbers?
Through DSTVi – a tracking device on your decoder …
Currie Cup will or has started to be strangled by the Super 15, 18, 20 etc. and the tri, quad nations, Tests and more tests, and they will continue until there is no space for the same players to play CC
Play Freestate vs Lions at 9:40 or 11:40 on a Saturday morning and compare those numbers. S15 doesn’t just feature teams from other Countries but non optimal viewing times as well (although SA definately gets the better times compared to the others).
The discrepancy between Friday games and Saturday afternoon games (in SA) is huge, so factor in the morning game times and using an average for all games certainly doesn’t tell the whole story.
Agree Tank, will be very interesting to see how the Currie Cup this year is impacted. The exclusion of the Leopards and Pumas will perhaps not have such a big impact on the total numbers because very few of their games were actually broadcast last year and the average viewers should pick up as a result. However, its the stadiums that will start to run empty because of all the rugby.
No problem looking on TV at it at home how the same two teams play each other 4 (in this case even 5) times a year, but buying tickets to attend all of them is another issue. We’ve already seen how empty the Shark Tank, Ellis Park and Loftus has become and that was with top class Super Rugby matches. The longevity of the Currie Cup may rely a bit more on physical attendance than TV viewers though…
Agreed. And if you only looked at the numbers of the all SA S15 derbies being played at optimal times, you could then use those numbers as an indication of what the Currie Cup could be! I definitely feel as if the S15 has had an impact on the Currie Cup … Still pretty reslient though …
Those number showed xxxx people decoders were on the SS channel. But does it show how many viewers. What about those in Hotels, Pubs etc etc. Then there is no more open time and no more free rugby on Saturdays which must have been a massive viewer lost for them as well.
But this shows a couple of things. We pay most of the rent in the competition and we lose the Currie Cup where Australia gain a competition. But SA get about 3 percent more out of the deal money wise. What happened to he who makes the most money make the rules?
Other thing I want to know is why SARU have a 50 percent stake in the EP and Rugby union alias the Kings? Currently those unions show zero return of investment money wise. But Super Rugby will change that. So what is the real reason for them to want to enter the Kings? Don’t say rugby development and that other nonsense. Clearly there is a conflict of interest here as 50 percent stake in both unions make the main holder in the Kings franchise.