That's according to television viewership figures from the first two weeks of the 2012 tournament.
The Stormers' two matches, against the Sharks and the Hurricanes, had 776330 and 711039 viewers respectively, while 698043 people watched the Cheetahs versus the Bulls.
Repucom, the company that compiles viewership figures of the South Africa, New Zealand and Australia Rugby alliance, supplied the statistics.
Repucom's figures for the first two weeks were based only on South African audiences and didn't take into account viewership figures from Australia and New Zealand.
Despite sections of the media (this writer included), coaches such as John Plumtree from the Sharks and members of the public saying there were too many derby games, the figures demonstrate an appetite for these fixtures. For the first two weeks of the 2012 tournament, games involving two South African sides had an average audience of 641915 in week one and 737187 in week two.
Given that the Hurricanes were the only international side playing against South African teams in the first fortnight, it will take several more weeks of analysis to see a trend emerging in that particular category. What does emerge from the numbers is the low South African audience viewership figures when it comes to watching matches featuring two international teams.
In week one, only 112205 viewers tuned in to watch the best from Australia and New Zealand playing against each other and in week two that number dropped to 92899.
Clearly, South Africans mostly want to watch local derbies, and they're also happy to watch a local side against an international team, as demonstrated by more than 700000 viewers tuning in to watch the Stormers play the Hurricanes.
Last year's tournament reflected South Africa's dominant viewership appetite over the course of the season. The five South African teams occupied the top five places in terms of average viewership. From fifth to first: Lions (406628), Cheetahs (470862), Sharks (495407), Stormers (536055) and Bulls (657527). The Reds, who won the tournament, and the Crusaders, who have lifted the title seven times and played in last year's final, had average TV audiences of 204624 and 268059 respectively.
It's this kind of TV clout that a delegation consisting of Brian van Zyl (Sharks), Kevin de Klerk (Lions), Brand de Villiers (Bulls) and Cheeky Watson (Kings) are going to present to Sanzar to plead for a sixth SA team next year.
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