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Premiership Rugby buoyed by bumper Xmas crowds and TV figures
By Jon Newcombe
The Gallagher Premiership enjoyed a record-breaking festive period with six sold-out fixtures and more people watching on TV at home.
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Over the Christmas period, a whopping 2.6 million fans tuned in to watch English rugby’s premier competition, eclipsing last season’s then-record total of 1.8 million.
Round 8 recorded the highest-ever average audience on TNT Sports with cumulative peak audiences increasing by 44% across the two festive rounds.
Big Game 16, which saw hosts Harlequins and Leicester Tigers play out a stunning 34-34 draw, was a full house with all 80,634 available seats filled for the showcase match at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham in Round 9.
The traditional Christmas clash attracted a 31% higher average audience than last season’s total, growing 14% on ITV and 63% on TNT Sports.
At the same stage as last season through ten rounds, the cumulative Premiership Rugby audience on TNT Sports is 44% higher and the average audience is up 11%.
Bath, Exeter, Gloucester, Northampton Saints and Saracens all enjoyed sell-outs, with Harlequins also packing out Allianz Stadium.
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Stadium occupancy is also significantly higher year-on-year, averaging at 81% – an increase of 10% on the equivalent stage last season with large crowds forecast to continue as the play-off race continues to heat up.
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Simon Massie-Taylor, Premiership Rugby CEO, said: “We are thrilled that the Festive Fixtures period has become an iconic part of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby season and is now a staple for many rugby-supporting families over the holiday season.
“We are delighted to see both attendance and TV ratings soaring for these matches and on such a strong growth trajectory over the last few seasons. We have seen some of the sensational rugby on the pitch and a number of unpredicted results in recent weeks. We know fans cannot wait to watch the drama unfold during The Run-In and into the knockout stages of the season.”
As the Gallagher Premiership 2024/25 now passes the halfway stage, the race for the top four spots is shaping up to be another classic with just 10 points separating high-flying Bristol Bears in second place with defending champions Northampton Saints in eighth.
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Tickets for the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final 2025 on Saturday, June 14, continue to be sold at an unprecedented rate with fewer than 22,000 tickets remaining on general sale.
Over the festive fixtures period, all games once again remained on despite some heavy snowfall in Premiership Rugby heartlands. The last Premiership Rugby fixture to be postponed due to weather was in 2009, thanks in no small part to ongoing multi-year investment in pitch protection technology, provided by Sports and Stadia Services Ltd.
I think we're going to see a recovery, finally, after the post-COVID period. Premiership Rugby has never been more accessible, and more competitive. Every match is on some form of television, whether TNT Sports or Discovery+ streaming. You have a situation in which every single point counts, which means every single try counts, every PK, every conversion kick. It's crazy.
I will say, I'd love a switch to the Top 14 standard, in which you get an attacking bonus for winning by 3 or more tries, rather than a try bonus that you get for 4 or more tries no matter how many you allow. But other than that, it's perfect as far as game play goes.
The other big items to solve, the need to settle the Championship and bring back the consistent relegation threat to make the bottom of the table more exciting. I'd also like to see the teams qualifying for the Champions Cup trimmed to either 6 or even 5. You do those two things, we'll never have a single dead rubber match. Barely do now but sometimes, round 17 and 18 they pop up. Those two changes though, and they'll be eliminated entirely, the league will be perfect.
Lastly, something I'd push for big is a more reasonable TV deal in the United States. Right now, for those unaware, the Premiership is on an obscure rugby only app called The Rugby Network which is owned by Major League Rugby. It can be a bit glitchy and has a very limited audience. EPCR competitions are on FloRugby, another obscure app that's also very overpriced and unreliable.
Leverage the relationship with WarnerDiscovery (who own TNT Sports). to get Premiership Rugby on the TNT and TBS networks, as well as their Max streaming service in the US. Give to them first at a discount if need be. Tough to find very recent figures but based on what I can find, about 25% of English declare an interest in following rugby union as spectators. This means, if just about 4% of Americans take an interest in rugby, you have a market as big as the one rugby union currently captures in England. I think that's doable.