US ratings reveal still plenty of work for NRL to do
NRL boss Andrew Abdo declared the league was “proud” of its Las Vegas achievements despite local TV viewership figures revealing only 61,000 people in the US watched the first match in last weekend’s extravaganza.
A cumulative average of 105,000 painted a better picture, which was broken down by just 44,000 watching the second match played at Allegiant Stadium last Sunday.
The double-header, which started with Manly beating South Sydney before the Roosters took down the Broncos, was shown on US cable network Fox Sports 1.
Abdo compared the ratings with Major League Soccer, a staple in the US, which made the NRL’s first incursion into Las Vegas a success for the league.
“The Las Vegas matches were watched by a huge number of people around the world, including a record Australian audience,” Abdo said.
“We had a 61,000 average viewership on Fox Sports 1 for the first game, which was more than one-third of the marquee college basketball clash between Xavier and Georgetown which preceded our games. That figure also compares to some US Major League Soccer games on Fox Sports 1.
“The second game attracted an average audience of 44,000. These are the two mostwatched NRL matches in the US on record.
“The audience of the first game was three times higher than the most-watched NRL games on Fox Sports in the past three seasons and over 280 per cent higher than the most recent Saturday games on Fox Sports 1.
“We are proud of what we achieved this year in Las Vegas and have been blown away by how positively Americans have responded to rugby league.
“The exposure the game received and the reviews of the matches by US fans and media will be a massive boost for year two and beyond.”
In Australia, Fox Sports reported record local audiences for the Las Vegas double-header. The games were the first in a five-year deal the NRL signed to play matches in the US.