Each Wednesday we take a look at the world of the Irish and international sports media, the stories, the numbers and the organisations that are, more than ever before, our window on the world of sport…

FOOTBALL SEMI FINALS HOLD THEIR OWN

The Sunday Game Live produced the highest sports viewing figure of the weekend with an average of 530,000 and a share of 50 per cent, peaking at 587,000 for the All Ireland Men’s Senior Football semi-final between Mayo and Tipperary.

The Saturday evening game between Dublin and Cavan had an average audience of 505,000 and a peak of 565,000.

That compares to the previous Saturday when the average tuning in to watch Waterford beat Kilkenny in the Hurling semi-final having an average of 414,000 and a peak of 541,000.

The hurling attracted a 32 per cent share of those watching on Saturday while the football figure was 38 per cent.

NATIONS CUP FINISHES OUT STRONGER

Ireland’s final game in the Guinness Autumn Series against Scotland on Saturday saw an average of 312,000 and a peak of 420,000.

That was closer to the 276,000 average for the previous week’s Georgia game than to the 564,000 who tuned in to the match against England from Twickenham.

It was still a significant number tuning in on a Saturday afternoon that would not have been available to sport were the tournament not to have been arranged in place of the traditional visit of southern hemisphere teams.

As a point of comparison, the weekend viewer numbers from last year’s Rugby World Cup games against Japan, Scotland and New Zealand were 640,000, 620,000 and 766,300.

The average viewership for Ireland against New Zealand in the Guinness Autumn International was 926,000, making it the second most-watched sports programme of the year.

DUNDALK DRAMA PIQUES INTEREST

Sunday night’s FAI Cup Final was watched by an average of 121,000 with a share of 10%.

It may have been that there was a sense of sports fatigue creeping in at the end of another marathon weekend.

The audience peaked at 206,000 in extra-time as Dundalk sealed their victory.

Given that is nearly seven times the population of Dundalk, we can assume that the audience share there was pretty high.

TYSON ‘FIGHT’ GENERATED $80 MILLION

The exhibition fight that took place on Thanksgiving weekend is reported to have drawn in 1.6 million pay per views which at a price point of $49.99 has given rise to income of $80 million.

The fight was shown online, away from any of the traditional media outlets and was a first sports offering from the social streaming company Triller.

It has previously focused on music and entertainment.

MEDIA SPORTS ANALYSIS

This week we are tracking the Sports media coverage across the Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Irish Independent, RTE.ie and The 42.ie to determine the respective level given over to each of the ‘main sports’ and to the diversity of coverage including other sports and the percentage devoted to Women’s sport.

We will report our weekly findings on Monday morning of next week.

Join us every Friday morning for our popular and essential guide to everything you can watch each weekend; every Wednesday for our Weekly Media Matters column; and every day for the latest on the commercial world of Irish sport.

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