Ladies Football and Rugby attract huge TG4 audiences
October 08, 2012Saturday's live coverage of the RaboDirect PRO12 match between Leinster and Munster at the AVIVA stadium pulled in a massive audience for the channel. Leinster recorded a significant win over Munster in this, the first derby clash of the season between these major forces in European club rugby.
Nielsen TAM, the official measure for tv audience in Ireland, reports that 550,000 people tuned into TG4's live match coverage. An average of 237,000 viewers watched the entire match while it peaked at 323,000 viewers towards the end of the game as Leinster held off Munster's spirited late challenge. TG4's audience makes this the most watched RaboDirect PRO12 televised match so far this season on any channel in Ireland.
Saturday's rugby ratings were followed by another major audience-winner for TG4 with yesterday's live coverage of the 2012 TG4 Ladies' Football Finals at Croke Park. Nielsen TAM reports that approximately half a million people tuned into TG4 at some stage during the finals on Sunday with an average audience of 190,000 watching the Senior Final, where Cork overcame neighbours Kerry to win their 7th TG4 Senior title in 8 years.
Approximately one in five of those viewing TV in Ireland during the matches on Saturday and Sunday were watching TG4. TG4 was the second most popular channel in Ireland on Saturday night, beaten narrowly into second place by RTÉ One, while TG4 was the top Irish channel by a distance on Sunday afternoon, securing a viewing share twice the size of its nearest rivals.
TG4 Sports Editor, Rónán Ó Coisdealbha is very pleased with these results: "Our live coverage of Irish sport is one of the channel's major achievements," he said, "and this weekend was one of the most successful of all in terms of attracting audience to seeing some of our top sporting stars, men and women in action in our most famous stadia. We are proud to be able to show them at their best." Tweet
