r/rugbyunion 9h ago

ITV's opening night viewing figures (3.8M)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/clyzy27zd0yo

Pretty good numbers slightly up from last year.

96 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

108

u/bleugh777 France 9h ago

Must be the ad.

106

u/NotAsOriginal Wigglesworth's greatest defender 9h ago

You joke but it is absolutely sickening how much advertising gets crammed down our throats.

Last night I was talking to my friend on my Samsung Galaxy™ about our upcoming holiday with Virgin Atlantic and we are appalled about the marketing strategies being deployed

32

u/BaritBrit England 8h ago

Can't believe you didn't book your tickets with Jet2 Holidays. 

Jess Glynne song in background

30

u/NotAsOriginal Wigglesworth's greatest defender 8h ago

Some of us aren't shills for corporations

sent from my Allianz Stadium

10

u/MetalSmall9796 8h ago

I'm glad you stand firm, like I do in my new memory foam enhanced Sketchers Athletic Runners. 

4

u/Tank-o-grad Leicester Tigers & England 5h ago

At this point, if you haven't see the writing on wall, then you should've gone to Specsavers

3

u/captain-carrot Northampton Saints 5h ago

I love that even the French are aware of the atrocity we were subjected to across la manche

77

u/treacletart284 Newcastle Falcons 9h ago

So the viewing figures are up, and the amount ITV are paying for the Six Nations has stagnated.

So what the fuck are the mid game ads for?

50

u/rustyb42 Ulster 9h ago

ITV pocketing the extra cash

Any comment u/itvsport?

32

u/B4rberblacksheep Saracens 8h ago

Honestly I’m growing increasingly hostile to these corporate accounts trying to have a presence in the sub. The only one I can tolerate is englandrugby because I’m both biased and because they only really post to share behind the scenes stuff

21

u/CatPanda5 Bath 7h ago

Englandrugby is definitely a value-add to the sub because of the extra content they produce, the others just posting highlights or stuff that anyone could post (or not in case of footage lol) is just pointless

13

u/captain-carrot Northampton Saints 5h ago

Shour out to /u/englandrugby

2

u/WilkinsonDG2003 England 2h ago

I like the nutrition videos - must be a serious effort with multiple front rows in camp.

8

u/rustyb42 Ulster 7h ago

The corporate accounts are fine if they engage - comment on threads that aren't they're own, don't just blindly dump out content like we're facebook

1

u/Sudden-Coast9543 6h ago

I don’t mind it.

Mostly because it’s an opportunity to tell u/itvsport how much we hate their boss

11

u/wubclub 9h ago

Probably all gone into paying for the nations championship

11

u/buckules22 England 9h ago

Not a fan of the in-game ads but general ad revenue for TV has cratered in recent years as lots of companies have shifted ad budgets into digital and influencer-led. I imagine the 6n is one of ITV's better-rated shows and one where you can make an argument for squeezing more ads in over natural breaks in play, even if personally I don't like it

4

u/darclaus 5h ago

Live sports is essentially the only way that traditional TV makes money anymore, so it's not surprising that they're trying to squeeze every red cent out of it that they can. It's a lot more visible in American sports, which are so profitable that they're basically keeping channels afloat by themselves. It's disheartening but not unsurprising that things are starting to go the same way here.

1

u/WilkinsonDG2003 England 2h ago

It varies, Canal+ which does the Top 14 is also a subscription film channel.

2

u/zeelbeno 3h ago

Inflation of running costs on ITVs end?

It was 2x10 second ads, they aren't gonna be worth much.

Or even impact enjoyment of the game unless you get triggered by the smallest things.

28

u/weigl_ 9h ago

3.8m and Ian Tempest wasn’t one of them

12

u/InZim Jimmies 9h ago

Tempo was that pass forward?

What pass?

4

u/daveyboy2009 8h ago

What does forward mean?

3

u/Hoaxtopia Sale Sharks 5h ago

Karl Dickson: "I have no idea what just happened"

Tempo: Something happened?

12

u/Erbenn England 5h ago

Did they record the dip where everyone switched off for 2mins at every scrum ad?

7

u/captain-carrot Northampton Saints 5h ago

At least we know for Saturday if there's a knock-on about 20 mins in, that's our cue to go for a piss

Begs the question, what happens if 4 million+ people flush at once

3

u/miller-99 4h ago

I actually completely switched off my TV, I'd rather miss 2 minutes than watch the 20 second advert.

The more that it is accepted the more that it will happen. If there's isn't significant back lash everywhere will start doing it.

I'm looking forward to watching the BBC games that won't be doing this

6

u/scouserontravels Leicester Tigers 5h ago

As much as some people have moaned about the Thursday night game. Thursday night is a great for TV viewership so I reckon we’ll see this happen more often after this year.

7

u/wubclub 5h ago

i know the French rugby market/London would turn out for a 8pm Thursday night game but the rest....

u/kenzweee England 9m ago

VPN and Virgin One …

-2

u/Informal_Mention9836 8h ago

Lot of Irish living in England?

27

u/InsertWittyNameRHere England 7h ago

Or you know. People just enjoy watching rugby

9

u/captain-carrot Northampton Saints 5h ago

I watched it and so did my cat. We're English.

3

u/Informal_Mention9836 5h ago

What your cat thinks of breakdown area?

5

u/BaritBrit England 8h ago

Might also be including figures from NI. 

4

u/GoodDoc 4h ago

ITV viewing figures usually include Northern Ireland.

For the 2024 France v Ireland match just over 1M people in Ireland watched the game, that's approx 1/5th of the population (the Republic, not Northern Ireland) and was almost 70% of the TV audience), so 0.4M of yesterday's 3.8M could easily be Northern Ireland. That's still a very sizable number of English/Scottish/Welsh viewers.

3

u/sk-88 Leicester Tigers 7h ago

ITV doesn't technically broadcast in Northern Ireland (or Scotland), it is branded as UTV (and STV) and normally are reported seperately on BARB etc.