Rugby World Cup organisers hail ‘spectacular’ TV numbers

Rugby World Cup organisers have welcomed impressive domestic and international television audiences that far exceed previous editions as the tournament reaches the one-third point of its 48 matches.

In an upbeat Paris press conference on Wednesday, when the night's Italy v Uruguay will be the 17th match to be played, Jacques Rivoal, President of France 2023, said: “There's excitement everywhere — in the stadiums and on TV screens.

“Everywhere we're exploding the benchmarks that were set in Japan in 2019 and in England in 2015, sometimes 30% to 40% more.”

An average of 11.5-million people in France watched last week's France v Uruguay match — 60% higher than the most-watched Six Nations game this year in France. About 15-million watched the tournament's opening game between France and New Zealand, with a peak of 17-million. Only the 2011 final between the same teams has had a higher audience.

“It's practically on a par with the World Cup [soccer] final in Qatar between France and Argentina,” Rivoal said. “These figures are quite spectacular. We hadn't anticipated such figures and we can only be delighted.”

Despite a “challenging kickoff time” of 1pm, Japan's opening game against Chile drew a Japanese TV audience of 13.8-million — 15% more than watched their opening game against Russia as hosts in 2019 and higher than Japan's second game against Ireland four years ago.

Rivoal said that 3.5-million watched the opening match in Germany — more than all the World Cup matches in 2019 broadcast on German channels.

“There have been more than 500-million views of our official content on our social platform, which is amazing,” tournament director Michel Poussau said.

On the commercial front, more France jerseys have been sold than Japan jerseys in the whole of 2019 — though that might be due to the fact that the shelves in Tokyo's shops were virtually bare after the first week as organisers were woefully undersupplied with shirts, particularly those of the host nation.

After the access issues in Marseille and Bordeaux that dogged the opening weekend, questions were asked about long delays faced by thousands of fans leaving the Stade de Nice, served by a single tram stop, and by cancelled media shuttle services.

Organisers brushed off such concerns, however, saying the Nice transport operation had “worked perfectly”. 

Reuters