The 2021 Super Rugby season was the first to be aired under Nine’s new broadcast agreement with Rugby Australia. Over the weekend, the Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Aotearoa competitions wrapped up with both of their Grand Finals being played on Saturday.
This year the Super Rugby AU Final reached around 1.3 million people via Stan Sport, Channel Nine, 9Gem and 9Now, and was up 232% year on year*. The Super Rugby AU regular season was also up 162% year on year*.
Mediaweek spoke to Nine’s director of sport, Brent Williams, about what the season has been like so far and what the future holds for Super Rugby on Nine.
Ratings Growth
Super Rugby has seen considerable ratings growth across Stan Sport and Wide World Of Sports in 2021. Williams says that it comes down to the model that Nine have created and the fact that at the end of the day, people love to watch rugby.
“It’s a great sport and a great product to start with, and we’ve done a really successful job with the model that we’ve set up. We’ve seen really strong numbers all throughout the Super Rugby season, and then on Saturday night it all came home with record numbers across free-to-air and Stan Sport. That was really encouraging.”
Saturday Coverage
This season, Saturday night Super Rugby AU matches have been aired live on Nine free-to-air. Williams says that this weekly broadcast was significant.
“It was hugely important, and that’s reflected in the fact that we ran it on the main channel into Sydney, Brisbane, and Canberra. We saw it as an opportunity to continue to grow the sport, which has been growing considerably in viewing numbers all throughout this season. That free-to-air aspect is really important to keep growing the fanbase and to re-engage with some rugby fans who might have drifted across the last couple of years.”
Audience Differences
Recently, Nine CEO Mike Sneesby said that Stan Sport is approaching 150,000 subscribers. Williams says that while there is a difference between the Stan Sport audience and the free-to-air audience, that doesn’t mean that the two aren’t connected.
“The Stan Sport viewers are your more dedicated fans who want a deeper conversation in the game and deeper engagement in the game. We offer extended coverage around all our matches on Stan Sport compared to what we do on free-to-air – there’s much more analysis, stronger feature stories, things like that that we don’t necessarily have time to do on our free-to-air offering.
“Stan Sport is probably for your more dedicated fan at the moment, but that free-to-air exposure every week allows us to grow that dedicated fan base and grow the Stan Sport subscription even further.”
Splitting The Comp
Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Aotearoa ran separate competitions this year, which Williams says was a chance to showcase the Australian teams before they begin the Trans-Tasman competition.
“It was a slightly different schedule this year and I think it was actually a really good way to kick off our relationship with Rugby Australia, to have the Australian based teams first before we hit the Trans-Tasman. It’s allowed us to build a pretty strong base that will only grow. We’ve also been showing the New Zealand matches on Stan Sport, so there is a strong audience there that is already consuming that product.”
If the competitions do end up merging further down the line, Williams says it shouldn’t have any major impacts on the ratings the games get.
“As long as the standards and the matches are still there, fans are still going to be passionate about their teams.”
Future Goals
Williams says that when it comes to looking to the future, the focus is simple: putting on the best show possible for the fans.
“Some people saw the final on Saturday and thought that’s it. There’s so much more still to come with Trans-Tasman kicking off this week, and the Wallabies and Wallaroos coming later in the year with some international matches. There’s so much more to come.
“To be honest we don’t put expectations on hitting a certain number, we just focus on continuing to turn out the best product we can and the best broadcast we can, then hopefully people will come – which so far they have. That has continued to grow and hopefully will continue to grow for the rest of this year and the next couple of years.”
Kicking Off With Rugby
Super Rugby AU was the first sport to be shown on Stan Sport when the platform launched, a decision that Williams says was a great way to begin.
“It’s a really strong product and we saw an opportunity there to grow the sport. Rugby Australia have been great partners right from the word go. Now we’ve got tennis, we’ve got Roland-Garros and Wimbledon not far away, which we think will be very successful for us as well across all our free-to-air and Stan Sport. And there’s so much more rugby still to come this year. As a launch platform, where we’ve come in the last six or seven months has been really successful.”
*Based exclusively on broadcast numbers vs Foxtel