The extraordinary growth of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship continues for the third season in a row with the league setting new attendance and broadcast records.
The Vodacom URC has also maintained its position as the rugby competition with the fastest growth rate on social media, in addition to the league’s phenomenal rise on YouTube.
The 2023-24 Vodacom URC season was the most competitive and unpredictable in the league’s history and this level of jeopardy proved to be a huge attraction for fans as the total audience figure of 47.7million shattered the previous high mark of 37.4million set in 2023.
The most eye-catching metric of this new total was the Round 11 audience of 3.4million who tuned in to the action that took place on a break week in the Six Nations, when the Lions hosted the Sharks and the Vodacom Bulls took on the DHL Stormers at Loftus Versfeld.
This was one of seven rounds that achieved an audience of over 2.5million while a further 4.7million tuned into the seven-game playoff series where the average audience per game was 671,428.
The Vodacom Bulls proved a key draw in the playoffs with close to a million viewers (947,589) tuning into their epic Semi-Final clash with Leinster, while the Grand Final game against Glasgow Warriors was watched by 1.1million.
The league also reported impressive growth in the Vodacom URC’s audience beyond its core markets with overseas audiences growing by 138% to 6.2million.
Staying connected to match days, the Vodacom URC also recorded a three per cent rise in overall attendances. The total attendance of 1.69million provides a new record in this area with average attendances clocking in at 11,200 per game.
Round 9 – when the DHL Stormers faced the Sharks in Cape Town on 30 December 2023 – also saw a new record set for the most fans attending a single round with 146,000 taking in the action across eight games in Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales.
Photo: INPHO/Steve Haag Sports/Deon van der Merwe
The post URC’s exponential growth breaks more records appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
