The big news here in NZ over the weekend has been the announcement that rugby TV viewing is down 21% from two years ago. Viewing figures were also down last year, but that was probably a result of the controversial All Black conditioning programme. Most people assumed the numbers would bounce back this year. They haven’t. The figures for accumulated TV audiences after 9 rounds of the Super 14 tournament read like this:
2006: 5.2 million
2007: 3.6 million
2008: 4.1 million
What has caused this? Apparently cricket is to blame. While rugby viewing is down 21%, cricket audiences are up 22%. The seasons practically overlap now. The logic is that Kiwi fans are fed-up with rugby after the fiasco of 2007 and are switching to cricket.
My view is that Kiwi fans should be given a little more credit. We’re not the fickle, fair-weather fans broadcasters make us out to be. If the fickle-fan hypothesis was true, then this decline would’ve been seen after each last World Cup tournament.
No, there’s an even better reason why numbers have fallen in the past two years. In 2006, Rupert Murdoch sold the Super Rugby broadcasting rights to SkyTV and SkyTV has priced many viewers out of the game. How do I know? I am one.
I tried to hook up with Sky as soon as I arrived in Auckland two months ago. I wanted a subscription that would let me watch the entire S14 season. The fees were a little high – $49 for this, plus $19/month extra for that and then another $15 for these – but I figured this was still a better option than arranging baby-sitters and going out to watch the games in pubs. However, I was told that I had to pay for a year-long contract and that if I ended my subscription early (say, after the rugby season), then there would be all sorts of penalties imposed. At that point I said “forget it.”
When I’m not in NZ I live in Hong Kong so I’m no stranger to satellite and cable broadcasters’ pricing tricks. But SkyTV have a captive market in NZ and they know it. I’m sure they paid squillions for the rights and they expect a return. But their contractual inflexibilities add a layer of transaction costs that deter fans like me. Plus, I’ve seen virtually no promotion for the games on the free-to-air channels.
I’m sure SkyTV have an excellent product. But their pricing, distribution and promotional strategies are killing the golden goose. Everything on their website screams “if we build it, they will come.” Come on SkyTV, get with the 21st century and start treating the customer like a king because he is. Hire someone with a marketing degree, host a few focus groups, but do something soon because you are killing Super Rugby in NZ. My suggestion is you make it real easy for fans to take-on season-length contracts, offer a variety of subscription packages and that you think about having very low sign up fees matched with pay-per-view games.
And here are two suggestions for the NZRU: Give Prime TV a pat on the back for doing a good job broadcasting one solitary delayed game of the week on free-to-air TV and allow delayed Internet downloads of games from reputable sources such as media.zone.com.
Filed under: All Blacks, New Zealand, SkyTV, Super 14, rugby
The population of New Zealand is about 4M (as of 2009) (source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population)…. How can viewership stats of Rugby be more than it ?
Hi Rohit,
I think you will find the numbers are for accumulated viewership, so if half a million Kiwis watch one Super 14 game every 2 weeks of the S14 season, that will add up to nearly 4m “viewers.” If the entire country watched on average 2 games per week that would be a massive 122m “viewers”.