Highest Ever Rugby Television Audience for RTÉ’s Six Nations Coverage

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Broadcast Details: Friday 23rd March, 12.00am

  RTÉ Sport  Highest Ever Rugby Television Audience for RTÉ’s RBS 6 Nations Coverage The 2007 RBS 6 Nations tournament proved a record-breaking hit with Irish fans this year, as RTÉ Television’s audience figures for the championship reached the highest level ever. RTÉ Two’s comprehensive live coverage of all 15 games in this year’s tournament […]

 

RTÉ Sport
 

Highest Ever Rugby Television Audience for RTÉ’s RBS 6 Nations Coverage

The 2007 RBS 6 Nations tournament proved a record-breaking hit with Irish fans this year, as RTÉ Television’s audience figures for the championship reached the highest level ever.

RTÉ Two’s comprehensive live coverage of all 15 games in this year’s tournament attracted the highest ever Irish television audience for the RBS 6 Nations Championship, with an average of 391,000* viewers tuning in for each match. This is an increase of over a third on the average viewership of 286,000* reached during the 2006 tournament.

As the Irish Rugby Team clinched their third Triple Crown in four years, Irish fans tuned in to support their team in record numbers, with a 43% increase in television viewers for all of Ireland’s matches live on RTÉ Two.   

This year’s tournament also saw RTÉ Two’s coverage of Ireland’s historic victory over England at Croke Park become the most-watched rugby match on Irish television, with a record peak of over 1.2million viewers tuning in. The game is also the most watched sports programme of the last ten years on RTÉ Television.
Glen Killane, Group Head of Sport RTÉ, said: “The first games in Croke Park and the outstanding performances of the Irish team captivated the country. RTÉ is proud to have been able to make these landmark occasions available to all free to air.”
The RBS 6 Nations tournament will be live and free-to-air on RTÉ Television until at least 2009.

*Source: AGB Nielsen Media Research
Date: Friday, 23 March, 2007  

For further information please contact:  
Laura Fitzgerald, Press & Publicity Officer, RTÉ Television, Ph: 01 208 2872 / 087 2923931, Email: Laura.Fitzgerald@rte.ie

Note To Editor

RBS 6 Nations
 
Average Audience for all 15 matches 2007 : 391,000*
Average Audience for all 15 matches 2006 : 286,000*
Average Audience for all 15 matches 2005 : 242,000*

Average Audience for Ireland matches 2007 : 621,000*
Average Audience for Ireland matches 2006 : 435,000*
Average Audience for Ireland matches 2006 : 390,000*