Bulls continue to set new benchmarks
Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:55
The Bulls victory in the Super 14 Final in Soweto not only broke down all boundaries by becoming the biggest rugby game ever to take place in a township, but it broke all television records as well.
Figures released by a leading independent sport and sponsorship research company, show that rugby made significant inroads into the black population, with black viewers accounting for almost 30 percent of the total viewing audience.
According to the latest AR viewership figures, a new record viewing audience of 2,9-million South Africans of 16 years and older watched the Final between the Bulls and Stormers at Orlando Stadium on television this past weekend.
This massive improvement was more than double the 1,4-million viewers that watched the Final in 2009 between the Bulls and Chiefs.
The historical significance of the game prompted SABC to also broadcast the game live, and it had an immediate effect on viewership, tapping a new wealth of fans.
The total recorded audience was also considerably higher than the 950,000 adults who watched the Bulls semifinal clash the week before.
Around 60 percent of fans watched the match on SABC2 and 40 percent on SuperSport - allowing for a significant growth in black viewership, which increased by 127 percent this year compared to the 2009 Super 14 final.
The total black viewership was over 840 000, almost 30 percent of the total audience and a significant boost to the sport in the country.
Clearly the success of the Bulls semifinal win over the Crusaders and the excitement and hype surrounding the Final in Soweto, along with the mouth-watering clash between two of the oldest South African rivals, played a major part.
Despite the record viewership represented by the rating, the actual audience figure is much higher if you take into account the social aspect of watching a massive final together with friends.
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