Underwhelming viewing figures have emerged from the BBC’s latest Super League coverage.
This is the national broadcaster’s first year of their new deal that saw them take over from Channel 4 to show free-to-air Super League games. It’s the first time the BBC has shown games since the rebranding to Super League.
This weekend, BBC Two aired Huddersfield Giants vs St Helens, and RugbyLeagueonTV.com shared via Twitter: “Huddersfield v St Helens on BBC 2 Sunday.
“215,000 average, 2.4% audience share, 259,000 peak at 4pm.”
This is similar to other games on BBC Tw0, such as Huddersfield v Warrington earlier this year.
It’s around double of what the BBC saw for Catalans Dragons vs St Helens when it was on BBC Three – and it was a lower viewership than Sky SPorts’ coverage of the same game.
A higher average on a pay-to-view service than on free-to-air television is very poor, and shows how little the BBC have put into advertising the game.
How super has the BBC’s Rugby League coverage in 2024 been?
Credit: Imago Images
This isn’t the first disappointment we’ve had from the BBC’s coverage of rugby league this season, however.
Surprisingly, the BBC didn’t broadcast any of the Challenge Cup fixtures on live terrestrial TV in Round 6, including a huge Leeds Rhinos vs St Helens clash.
For many the Challenge Cup is a BBC staple, and the national broadcaster has been showing it since 1948.
Leeds v St Helens was shown on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Red Button, but wasn’t available on any of the BBC’s regular channels.
Instead, The One Show, Celebrity Mastermind and Would I Lie To You was shown on BBC One and on BBC Two, the Great British Menu: Banquet Special and Gardener’s World were seen as more important.
The final had a 10% lower audience share than last year also, but was on at the same time as the Premiership final in rugby union.
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Catalans Dragons
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Ian
September 3, 2024 at 5:31 pm
It was advertised before and during Match of the Day and I rather doubt Sky + got greater figures Says more about the attractiveness of teams than anything
Eric T Cat
September 3, 2024 at 11:13 pm
BBC coverage is dire, it’s one step short of flat hats, whippets on a string, and a pint of mild in the hands of the presenters. Almost invariably during commentary you will hear “For those of you watching for the first time…”, August 1895, one of the first regularly televised sports, and they still trot that out. Look at the opening credits, there’s a pit wheel in there, there are no pits, not for a long time, even the old power stations are vanishing. Channel 4 made a real effort. I moved to Sky Streaming, the choice of all games, access to NRL, sadly not all matches, it’s light years beyond the BBC.
Nadia Dunkley
September 4, 2024 at 10:16 am
BBC coverage has been terrible. Little advertising of the games. What has happened to the Super League show ? The poor coverage is why we have Sky. We can see all the matches. We don’t follow a particular club just love watching the game.
Mary Hill
September 4, 2024 at 9:00 am
The BBC coverage is absolutely rubbish . Channel 4 did a great coverage of Rugby League matches.Why has the BBC confined it to BBC2 and the red button? They don’t advertise or promote when they are showing a match. I used to enjoy the Super League show every week with Tanya Arnold and They don’t have it on anymore . The BBC is not helping the sport of Rugby League. Shame on the BBC.
Mr Gordon Booth
September 4, 2024 at 1:41 pm
Dreadful coverage their commentators and pundits second rate some whom never been involved in super league.
They should call this experiment off now as this coverage does more harm than good to the super league.
The viewing figures are dreadful just over 200,000 with a UK available audience of 68 million. These are audiences for obscure channels on a satellite box.
Geoffrey Cook
September 4, 2024 at 1:57 pm
No advertisement for the game plus 3pm on a Sunday when most RL fans are at games what can you expect
Adam
September 4, 2024 at 9:35 pm
When they don’t advertise the games or tell people which obscure channel they have put them on, how can they expect people to watch them?
The BBC coverage of sport in general is dire.
With Wimbledon tennis, they still have that really annoying policy of switching channels in the middle of a match because Alan Titchmarch or something is due on the current channel.
They’ve been doing that for years. They even did it to Alcaraz and Djokovic in the Olympic final, switched channel after one set because curling or summat was coming on.
They have lost the plot when it comes to presenting and they still think rugby league means wintry Saturday afternoons on muddy fields with Eddie Waring burbling about up and unders and early baths.