Super Rugby Round 1 Breaks Records
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2/22/2011
By ARU Media Unit
Round 1 of the new expanded Super Rugby competition kicked off last weekend in style with more than 64,800 people turning out to the three Australian games in Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane while a record number of viewers tuned into Fox Sports’ coverage of the first round of action across the weekend.
The record number of viewers started to accumulate during the highly anticipated debut of the new Melbourne Rebels on Friday night when, at its peak, their game against the NSW Waratahs at AAMI Park attracted an average audience of more than 319,000 viewers on Fox Sports 2HD and Fox Sports 2.
This figure set a new regular season game record by itself, surpassing the previous figure set in 2008 when the Waratahs took on the Highlanders in round 3, which the Waratahs won by just 3 points.
On Saturday night the Brumbies took on the Chiefs in the nation’s capital and the viewer numbers kept adding up with the game attracting a larger audience than any of the 2010 regular season Super Rugby matches.
Then on Sunday the Reds vs Force game continued the viewing trend with the Rugby Relief fixture also securing a larger audience than any of the 2010 regular season Super Rugby matches.
When the siren went at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday evening Fox Sports’ audience numbers were up 51% on last year’s Round 1 figures with almost 930,000 unique viewers tuning in to watch all 7 games and experience the excitement of the new expanded Super Rugby competition.
This was nearly double the number of unique viewers Super Rugby attracted in round 1 last season when just 590,000 tuned into the start of the 2010 competition.
The two round 1 Australian derbies, Rebels vs Waratahs and Reds vs Force, saw 51,584 people come through the turnstiles to watch the first of 20 local derbies in 2011.
The attendance figures are the best turn out for two local derbies held in the same round since the Force played their inaugural game against the Brumbies, and the Reds tackled the Waratahs in round 1 2006.
The record viewer numbers and impressive round 1 local derby crowds follow figures released earlier this year by the Australian Rugby Union that showed there were more Rugby Union players in Australia last year than at any time since the game was introduced to this country in the mid-1800’s.
In 2010 a record 209,571 people played Rugby, an increase of 16,990 (8.8%) on 2009 and a substantial increase of 7.7% on the previous record of 193,382, achieved in 2006.
With more people playing and watching the game and with Super Rugby delivering more teams, more games and more finals 2011 is shaping as an exciting year for Rugby in Australia.
Super Rugby continues this weekend with the highly anticipated local derby between the Waratahs and the Reds at ANZ Stadium, while the Brumbies will travel down the Hume Highway to take on the Rebels, and the Force will put their feet up and take an easy 4 points thanks to the bye.
ROUND 2:
Friday 25th – Highlanders vs Chiefs
Friday 25th – Rebels vs Brumbies
Saturday 26th – Cheetahs vs Bulls
Saturday 26th – Hurricanes vs Crusaders
Saturday 26th – Waratahs vs Reds
Sunday 27th – Sharks vs Blues
Sunday 27th – Stormers vs Lions
http://www.superrugby.com.au/News/Ar...2/Default.aspx
