Were the NRL’s American viewership figures really so bad?
Americans were not at all interested in watching the NRL double-header in Vegas on the weekend, according to local commentary around the US ratings. “There’s no sugarcoating it”, a ‘TV ratings expert’ told The Guardian. But is this accurate? Was it a bomb?
“We had a 61,000 average viewership on Fox Sports 1 for the first game, which was more than one third of the marquee college basketball clash between Xavier and Georgetown which preceded our games,” NRL boss Andrew Abdo told Nine, who hold the local broadcast rights to the NRL.
“That figure also compares to some US Major League Soccer games on Fox Sports 1,” he added.
“The second game attracted an average audience of 44,000. These are the two most watched NRL matches in the US on record.”
Abdo also said “the exposure the game received and the reviews of the matches by US fans and media will be a massive boost for year two and beyond. We are very focused on the long-term opportunity this presents for the game”.
Abdo is correct. This is only year one. The NRL have signed a five-year broadcast deal in the US.
In the pre-game excitement, however, NRL chairman Peter V’landys seems to have forgotten the long-term plan, raising the immediate stakes to Vegas level.
“It’s on who watches it on TV tonight in America,” V’landys told the AFR on Sunday morning.
“If we are really going to capture any new audience it’s going to be through that way.”
So, 61,000 watched the first game, 44,000 watched the second. Let’s not forget, however, attendance figures of 40,746 at the actual ground.
Let’s compare with a sampling of the other sports airing across America last Saturday.
First, the highest rating sports broadcast in the US on Saturday was a prime time NBA game, LA Lakers vs Denver Nuggets, on NBC, which pulled 3.046 million viewers. So, that’s the roof.
The season-opening Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix drew 1.12 million on ESPN. NASCAR Xfinity Series racing from Las Vegas drew 1.03 million.
Fox aired college basketball game Michigan State vs. Purdue in primetime, which was watched by 1.32 million.
These all wallop the NRL, true.
But what about Utah Jazz vs Miami Heat on NBA TV? Only 200,000 caught that game.
College basketball on Fox Sports 1 at midday? Just 100,000 viewers. The PGA tour Cognizant Classic over on NBC? Just 110,000. The Xavier and Georgetown college hoops match that led into the NRL games — and ran overtime by around 19 minutes — was seen by 162,000 viewers.
Compared to all this, the NRL’s American debut doesn’t seem so bad. With at least four more years (a chant the Americans love) to build a US audience, it actually seems like a very solid start.
I gotta say, I like the odds.
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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What V’Landys and Abdo are banking on is the gambling revenues that might flow from a US viewership. Really? Rugby League is a niche game struggling to keep footholds in NSW, Qld, the English Midlands and with very small pockets of support in France and NZ. The NRL is muscled by Pacific Islands players. V’L and the Ab are almost certain to find that as far as viewers are concerned they are playing out of their league. But good on them for giving it s go.
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Comparing prime time US viewership with mid-day tier two games is hardly an encouraging angle to take to make the NRL’s gamble look even close to decent. The real winner here will be the AFL who will stay focused on the local market and continue to erode the already shaky base the NRL holds. The NRL is making the same mistake that Rugby AU did by focusing too much on TV deals and not enough on weekly stadium attendance and grass-root development.
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why will no one say it, it bombed. It’s viewership was good here ( as nothing else was on) . But is not even a drip in the ocean when looking at the US. The problem is the people talking about it (Fox and 9) have a vested interest in it. Good to see some actual analysis not just V’landys talking points re spewed through “owned” channels
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Let’s also not forget that the viewership was likely comprised of home-sick Aussie expats, rather than any meaningful number of ‘proper’ Americans.
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