I am not too concerned with figures for two reasons.

1. There was about 6 weeks where i think there was only one top 4 v top 4 match, which would have dented the figures (top 4 in tv terms: wigan, wire, saints, leeds)

2. Football world cup would have taken some viewers/ if people watching a lot of football, less time for rugby.

However you spin it there is still a downward trend from 2012

Not sure why I said Warrington played Friday nights when not on TV. I think probably because my perception is shaped by seeing them on TV quite often playing in that particular timeslot, hence the error.

Same number of fixtures between those top 4 teams are televised by Sky every season since 2009. When those top 4 fixtures are scheduled makes little to no difference whatsoever to the overall season viewing figures.


There was a soccer World Cup in 2010 when England actually made it through to the knockout stages, yet Sky viewing figures for SL were higher back then.

To all you stattos with more knowledge than me on the subject:

Has the change to Thursday nights affected figures in any way? How do viewing figures compare to the Saturday 6pm games over the years?

Comparative viewing figures I have for Thursday and Saturday viewing figures are as follows...

[uSuper League fixtures on Sky (2008-2014)[/u
Saturday SL fixtures: 13,888k/108 = 128k average
Thursday SL fixtures: 3,243k/23 = 141k average

SL attendances appear to be affected more by Thursday night timeslots. 22 SL fixtures played on a Thursday this season saw a 10.6% fall in comparison to the same fixtures last year. That figure of 10.6% also compares unfavourably with an overall fall of 4.9% in SL attendances in 2014.

Total attendance for 22 Thursday night fixtures in 2014 = 193,901
Total attendance for same fixtures played in 2013 = 216,988
% decrease = [u-10.64%[/u

[uLargest comparative attendance losses relating to the above figures were...[/u
Wigan V Warrington - 20050 to 15656
Wakefield V Bradford - 8084 to 4049
Warrington V Wigan - 14028 to 11550
Wakefield V Widnes - 7543 to 3932
Leeds V Huddersfield - 15013 to 13104
St Helens V Warrington - 14715 to 12854

[uCurrent Viewing figures for 2014 are...[/u
Friday: 3179k/20 = 159k
Thursday: 1886k/15 = 126k
Saturday: 1373k/13 = 106k (mostly Catalan)
Sunday: 316k/2 = 158k
TOTAL: [u6754k/50 = 135k[/u

Erm... could it also be that some households can no longer afford Sky Sports packages etc....

My household is one of these, and I know many others who no longer subscribe - there are many reasons why attendance/viewing figures are down, we all have different lives/lifestyles

According to more recent reports, Sky's subscriber base has reached it's upper limit of 10.5 million (5 million HD customers) and any future increased profitability needs to be based upon a strategy of flogging extra services to existing customers like HD packages, phone line and broadband.

Sky do not divulge information with regard to how many of those 10.5 million current customers subscribe to Sky Sports packages but it's a reasonable guess that if their subscriber base has reached it's upper limit, it's unlikely that Sky Sports subscription packages have nosedived in the opposite direction. My guess is that it's movies which tend to get dropped first when people are feeling the pinch (after all, sport is the new opium of the people these days), which may explain the bombardment of offers available for Movie packages.

Has Premier Sports had any effect on these figures - showing 8 NRL games per week?

I would imagine subscriber numbers are relatively low but I cancelled Sky Sports in favour of Premier a couple of years ago and know quite a few other that did the same.

I guess people get fed up of paying their subscription fees to essentially fund football and an extra euro football channel

I also cancelled Sky in favour of Premier Sports. Is William Eve a RL fan? I only ask, because he seems to enjoy ragging the game.

To be fair there is plenty of choice

Do we even know how the viewing figures are collected and collated? By that I mean is there a difference between you or I sitting at home watching any game just because we are RL fans, there's nowt else on and we are in charge of the remote and someone gathering a group of friends and saying let's not bother with the M62 on a work night, I don't fancy watching on my jack let's all go down to the pub/social club to watch a big draw game?