Over 34 million fans tuned into the inaugural United Rugby Championship season as the league set a number of major broadcast records in its first campaign.
The reach of free-to-air has obviously been a major factor in the records set for the season-long audience, Play-Off viewers and the URC Grand Final itself, but it is clear that the new 16-team league has caught the imagination of rugby fans across the northern and southern hemispheres.
Despite reducing the regular season to 18 rounds, the strong viewership numbers produced across the UK, Ireland and South Africa exceeded forecasts and, in a further boost, Italy reported its largest ever audience.
Strong international rights coverage and the launch of the URC.tv streaming service also bolstered the global total.
The figure of 34.6 million who tuned in represents a 169 per cent increase on the viewership of the last Guinness PRO14 and Rainbow Cup season combined in 2020/21.
The cumulative average audience per game during the season was 230,000 which represented a 109 per cent increase on 20/21.
In total, four rounds eclipsed an audience of 2 million, seven rounds drew more than 1.5 million and 6 of the remaining 7 rounds all attracted a minimum viewership of 1 million. The average audience per round in the regular season was 1.7 million.
The first-ever United Rugby Championship Grand Final took place in Cape Town, South Africa between the DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls and was watched by 1.25 million, setting a new TV milestone for the league.
Even though the Grand Final was an all-South African affair 41 per cent of the audience came from outside of the territory with RTÉ’s live coverage in the Republic of Ireland accounting for 15 per cent.
The largest viewership for the Play-Offs came in the DHL Stormers v Ulster Final Four game where the audience hit 754,000 while the other Semi-Final encounter between Leinster and the Vodacom Bulls drew 472,000.
Including the URC Grand Final, the average audience per game in the Play-Offs was 537,000
In its first season, the United Rugby Championship was supported by Free-to-Air broadcasters in the UK, Ireland and Italy – BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland, Mediaset, RTÉ, S4C and TG4 and by leading Pay TV companies SuperSport (South Africa) and Premier Sports (UK and Ireland).
This mix of broadcast platforms allowed fans to enjoy rising standards of production while the crossover and collaboration across different territories gave the league a truly global feel.
“We are blown away by the broadcast audiences in this first season of the United Rugby Championship,” said United Rugby Championship CEO Martin Anayi.
“It is a tremendous credit to the standard of rugby displayed by our teams and players and the superb work done by our broadcasters to showcase that talent.”
“The URC offers a diversity in playing styles and cultures across two hemispheres that is unique in club rugby and we can see that fans in the north and south have been attracted to that.”
“With a mix of Free to Air and Pay TV coverage allied to our increased presence in South Africa and record figures in Italy we have found a very effective formula to grow interest in our league and the sport of rugby union.”
Top 10 most watched regular season games in 2021/22
In the Top 10 most watched games of the regular season, Munster featured five times, the Cell C Sharks were involved in three with Ospreys, Ulster and the DHL Stormers appeared twice.
The most watched game in the regular season was Ospreys’ Round 3 game with Cell C Sharks which was viewed by a combined audience of 581k on BBC Wales, SuperSport and Premier Sports.
R3 Ospreys v Cell C Sharks 580,026
R3 Cardiff v Vodacom Bulls 560,886
R2 Munster v DHL Stormers 538,909
R6 Cell C Sharks v Scarlets 531,421
R10 Munster v Ulster 523,707
R4 Munster v Connacht 521,110
R1 Munster v Cell C Sharks 484,267
R5 Ospreys v Munster 480,652
R4 Ulster v Emirates Lions 468,993
R4 Dragons v DHL Stormers 445,471
The Most Watched Clubs
Helped by their appearance in the URC Grand Final, the DHL Stormers were the most viewed team in the league with their total audience coming in at over 7.2 million. The URC champions are followed by the Vodacom Bulls, Munster, Cell C Sharks and Leinster for audiences across the entire season.
The DHL Stormers and Munster were the most watched teams in South Africa and Ireland, respectively with Ospreys leading the interest in Wales, Benetton were No 1 in Italy and Edinburgh topped the pile in Scotland.
Strength of the Irish Derbies
The most watched derby games of the season all took place in Ireland, with Munster’s R10 clash with Ulster drawing in 523k in a game that was also No 5 in the list of Top 10 most watched in the regular season. Munster also feature in four of the Top 5 derby audiences.
R10 Munster v Ulster 523,707
R4 Munster v Connacht 521,110
R16 Ulster v Munster 428,709
R15 Munster v Leinster 402,534
R6 Leinster v Ulster 401,603
Leinster Outside Top Five Games in Ireland
R2 Munster v DHL Stormers 538,909
R10 Munster v Ulster 523,707
R4 Munster v Connacht 521,110
R1 Munster v Cell C Sharks 484,267
R4 Ulster v Emirates Lions 468,993
