Average Up but Peak Down for All Blacks on RTÉ

An average audience of 766,300 watched on RTÉ2 on Saturday morning as Ireland crashed out of the Rugby World Cup to New Zealand.

This was higher than the average viewing numbers for the Japan and Scotland Games which had come in at 622,000 and 640,000 respectively.

The peak viewing number was down though on both those games with 816,200 the most watching at any time, towards the end of the game.

The peak for the Scotland game, our opening at the tournament was 937,600 while for the Japan game that dipped to 893,000.

The number did represent a high of 73 per cent of those watching television at the time and RTÉ reported a reach figure of 1,086,200 people who watched at some stage during the broadcast.

Earlier on Saturday, an average audience of 256,200 watched England beat Australia to claim a semi-final berth, representing a 50 per cent share of the available audience.

On Sunday morning an average of 279,000 watched the hosts Japan lose out to South Africa (43 per cent share) while 157,400 saw Wales claim a dramatic win over France with a 40 per cent share of the audience.

Saturday evening saw another GAA Club Championship double-header on RTÉ2 as the focus switched to Kerry. An average of 129,300 saw East Kerry overcome Dingle (11 per cent share) while 75,000 watched St Brendan’s narrowly overcome Killarney Legion (8.5 per cent share).

RTÉ will broadcast both semi-finals this weekend as England will face the All Blacks and South Africa will take on Wales. RTÉ will also air the Rugby World Cup Final on November 2nd along with the Bronze Final on Friday 1st.

We will look at the number of those watching on live streams later in the week as the full numbers become available. This has been an interesting shift through the tournament with the game against Russia on a Thursday morning seeing as many people streaming as watching on TV.