Has anyone discovered yet why the RFL believe their viewing figures of 353,000 for the Wigan/Hudds opener last week are 38% higher than the 188,000 viewers for the Leeds/Hull opener in 2013?



Or are the resident RL moonies on this forum happy to accept what they've been fed?

Cracking Thread this one......CJ's voluntary tackle could be at risk methinx.



Great opening night viewing figures BTW and here's hoping that it continues strongly all season. Knock-down Nigel is definitely getting his moneys worth from his Bumper Book of Spin!.....the only thing puzzling me is that a great number of "Self Appointed Defenders of the RL Faith" who berate me for comparing RL to RU seem to be comparing RU to RL in this thread.

This is what happens when they get the attendance thread locked. However are they going to cope without it this season?




353,000 is a great figure. Shame about the comparison to last years opening viewing figures. The RFL really are hopeless when when it comes to providing positive, agenda driven news spin. Can't even get that right




Ahh, but that's because the RFL did the very same today. They compared SL viewing figures to Aviva Premiership viewing figures, so comparisons between RL and RU are no longer boring and it's now OK to do so.

MOONIES! MOONIES! MOONIES!

Good news is not and will never be tolerated in Rugby League.

Go find somewhere else to show your joy!

Oh, it is not the announcement of Good news that bothers me...in fact, I say again that the audience figures announced are spectacular and further proof of how the RLWC Legacy is shining like a beacon, guiding the game forward, but the sudden need to compare bananas with apples, mickles with muckles and Union with League. Such "pointless" comparisons are normally shouted down with cries of "foul" and "union troll"....it does seem strange that they are now welcomed with open arms.

I wonder will that be the case in all future instances of comparison?

There is also the can of worms that crowing about this increase in audience does open up......as in, if the game continues to capture such impressive audience figures, or even better, grows them further, it does raise the subject of exactly how good the deal starting in 2017 will actually be, when we get to 2017.

Since attendance threads are banned, it's handy that we can at least find this one easily enough, due to the clever use of ALL CAPS in the title.

What's good for the goose........

.......absolutely!

.......absolutely!

Are the RFL not just comparing figures with (football aside) the 2 most watched sporting events broadcast on other channels last weekend and for obvious reasons of course as it helps to reinforce just how good the SKY deal is.

RU just happened to be one of them, which has gotten the usual suspects in an orgasmic tizzy, but so did Darts. How come we don't get darts attendances, sponsorship figures and TV license deals day after day after day after day after day...


"The audience was also 288,000 more than tuned in to watch the live Premiership rugby union match, Worcester v Leicester on BT Sport 1, which was watched by 65,200 people – 543 per cent higher - and 293,500 (593 per cent) more than the 59,500 who watched live World Trophy darts on Eurosport."

Don't worry, there will be attendance thread exceptions which shall be encouraged and allowed, so long as they focus on just the positives. I predict that this weekend's Hull KR V Leeds attendance will get plenty of positive coverage on these forums. Just don't mention any negative one's.

Can we therefore monitor the difference between attendees and stadium capacity, since we're not directly comparing attendance (i.e. as a percentage of free "space" - ableit then we'd probably argue that (say) that Bradford supporters are fatter than London supporters, so 26% free space at Odsal might actually mean people are still closer together than 15% free space at The Hive).