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Saracens’ 36-24 win over Harlequins on 25th March reached a peak audience of 1.5 million UK viewers across commercial network ITV and pay-TV broadcaster BT Sport, setting a new viewership record for English rugby union’s top-flight Premiership.
Confirmed:
- Audience peaked at 1.33 million on ITV and 186,000 on BT Sport
- Match delivered a UK audience share of 7.1 per cent
- Staged at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the game itself was watched by 55,000 in the venue
Context:
The new record surpassed the 1.3 million viewership peak for last year’s Premiership final – which averaged 946,000 viewers on ITV and BT Sport as Leicester Tigers beat Saracens 15-12 – and the regular season record set in January this year when the combined audience for Bristol Bears’ victory over Harlequins peaked at 1.04 million across the same two networks.
Premiership audiences are seeing growth off the back of the league’s first ever free-to-air (FTA) domestic rights deal, which saw with ITV agree to air five games per season from the start of the 2021/22 season.
Coming next:
The league and its domestic broadcast partners will be hoping to see this upward trend in viewership continue with the Premiership final, which will also air on both BT and ITV.
