Australian commercial broadcaster Network Ten attracted a national audience of 576,000 viewers for Australia’s narrow 29-25 defeat to Wales at the Rugby World Cup on Sunday.
The broadcaster said that the match attracted an audience of 395,000 viewers in ‘metro’ markets (ie. Those watching in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth).
An audience of 376,000 metro viewers has been measured by OzTAM but Ten said that the game finished later than was registered with the ratings agency.
An additional 303,000 subscribers watched the Pool D game on Fox Sports, taking the overall national audience up to just shy of 900,000 viewers. The match kicked off at 5.45pm (AEST).
Meanwhile, Japanese commercial broadcaster Nippon TV attracted a peak audience share of 25.5 per cent for the opening ceremony and hosts’ Rugby World Cup match against Russia. World Rugby said that the figure is “likely to be confirmed as the biggest ever national audience figure for rugby”.
World Rugby added: “Combining NTV, J Sports and NHK’s live audience, it is likely to be the most-viewed live event of 2019 in Japan.”