Left the thread mid season because their was only so much hearing about the obvious reasons Salford and Bradford's figures were down on a weekly basis. Returned at the end when full season numbers were available to give a analysis on.



You accuse anyone of suggesting a view you don't agree with as a "Moonie", tough luck if you don't want to be called agenda driven.



Quite right you did include it all, that's why I compared the other seasons to this and pointed to the obvious major issue of Catalan home games being included on Sky this year. I've never omitted the Catalans figures, you did. Like you say "the figures are there for people to interpret in their own sweet way"......so don't sulk when they interpret them in a way you don't like. Would you like us all to just turn and say "my god William you were right all along and SL in this country is doomed".....coming from a man who hates people being "sheep" that would seem a hypocritical thing to do.



Yes, if you can find a quote from me that says they're not then go for it. What some of us have tried to do is add context to the figures, they'll obviously be reasons for drops, we've tried to debate the reasons why until you come along with your RL apologists line simply because it's not your view.

Why do people keep commenting and keeping these threads alive? Just ignore them. It's just boring.

Ironic as I am myself commenting I know...

I'd be interested to know how many people subscribed to Sky Sports in 2008, compared to now.

Let's be honest, Billy could have quite easily made all this up. What right minded person could be bothered getting their abacus out and checking the sums? Even if I wanted to I wouldn't have the time! Have you considered night school?

Is that what I'm being charged with?

Is this a witch hunt?

ThePrinter is still investigating the numbers on the BARB website to see if there's a case to answer.

He'll report his findings in due course.

Let's hope his investigation is a damn sight quicker than a RFL one, eh?

Nope just had a look at the Catalans ones really as those were the ones that sprung to mind upon seeing the seasons total. The general looking at this years numbers but not putting them into a copy and paste speed sheet like yourself is that the middle part of the season was slightly disappointing when the Premiership football was on. Just looking at the fixture list alone, the season has ended with quite a few big matches between the top sides and we had quite a few early on. The number of big clashes on Sky during the 'summer' months could've been much stronger but the fixture planners seem to have preferred to load up the end of the season to either A, take some attention away from the CC....B, go into the playoffs on the back of some big exciting clashes to whet the appetite.

We've also seen some of ridiculous choices with regards to games picked, Leeds and Saints both at home to. London rings a bell.

If you say so. I'm confident your agenda for checking out the viewing figures on the BARB website were entirely honourable




The middle part of the SL season is during the Premiership soccer off-season! However, you are correct in pointing out that Sky viewing figures during the summer months (or middle of the season) appear disappointing. This is a trend which is replicated every season I've looked at from 2007 onwards though it appears more pronounced in 2014 for some reason. For instance, Friday night SL games which produce the highest SL viewing figures compared to any other timeslot recorded 87k, 86k and a 96k in June this year. July was 110k, 97k, 119k and 120k.

The viewing trend is -----> highest viewing figures at the beginning of a new season (just like attendances) during Feb/March which then tail off in April/May as early season enthusiasm wears off. They then plummet even lower during the summer months. It isn't rocket science to work out why that's the case as folk embark on summer holidays and indulge in summer activities. SL attendances are also lower during the summer months for the same reasons.


Fixture scheduling will have some detrimental effect on viewing figures for sure, just not as much detrimental effect as the summer months do.

It is to be hoped the current "double whammy" downward trend is turned around next season as the increase in the number of big matches throughout a more relevantly structured regular season is replicated by an accompanying increase in aggregate attendances and higher viewing figures.

I don't know the stats for sure but this is a guess from recollection slightly but we do seem to have more and more games played on the Friday night. For example when Cas played Saints at home early on in the season, it was a great game that Saints won at the death.....we also had 4 other matches taking place that Friday night. Some big guns as well, Wigan, Leeds, Wire and Bradford all at home so straight away you're lobbing off the roughly 40k who attended those matches instead of being able to watch the TV game.

Sometimes they get it right. Leeds vs Wigan the only game on a Friday night back in May (245k), Wigan vs Saints in June likewise (202k)......you start adding 2/3/4 fixtures to the same night then you start lobbing off a few thousand each extra match hosted.

I know clubs have preferred game days but as we know Sky get their way. I find it strange they don't ask for the Friday schedule to be pretty much a single game night to maximise the potential RL fan audience actually watching.

Double-edged sword. For me, it should be one Thurs, one Fri and rest of the non-TV games played Sunday.

However, clubs will argue that their commercial income will be reduced by moving games (although it could be argued they'd get more families and fans on Sunday games) and so the RFL wouldn't want to implement anything which may damage the income coming to clubs and the financial strength of the game, understandably.

That said, I do think it is disappointing as I do believe more fans would travel to Sunday games compared to Fri night trips down the 62. And TV games would generate more viewers too, which can only be good from a branding perspective to clubs and Super League itself.

All the big clubs... Leeds, Wigan, Saints, Warrington and Hull... are all committed to Friday night home schedules when they are not on TV.

Most of the other teams prefer Sunday afternoon home games.

I assume they've all done their market research into the optimum timeslot for maximising their home attendances?



It's not an issue I'd considered but one would assume that both attendances and Sky viewing figures would benefit without the distraction of other SL fixtures taking place at the same time.

Don't know where you have got your information from William but Warringtons home games are usually Sunday afternoons when not on TV.

Saints play on Fridays to maximise hospitality income.

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.