1.45 million viewers tuned in to see Ireland’s opening game against England in the Guinness Six Nations on Virgin Media One.
On average, 979,400 viewers watched Ireland in the Aviva Stadium, beating last year’s Grand Slam viewing figure of 951,000 in Twickenham on St. Patrick’s Day. The game delivered an impressive average viewing share of 68 per cent.
Viewing peaking at 1.1 million within the last twenty minutes as Joe Schmidt’s team tried to fight back against an impressive England side.
Viewership over the opening three games averaged 524,000. This represents a growth of 51 per cent on last year’s games.
The evening start times will have helped in this regard and it will be interesting to see if the lift carries through to next weekend when Ireland take on Scotland in an early Saturday afternoon kick off.
The game against Scotland last season, from the Aviva Stadium, was the second most watched match in the Six Nations, drawing an audience of 729,000.
Will there be a curiosity to see if Ireland can bounce back from the defeat against England or will there be a loss of some of the more fair-weather supporters who are more interested in a winning team than anything else.
Joe Schmidt is not the only one having to make decisions around next weekend.
