The New Zealand Rugby Union has declared itself satisfied with the broadcast of Saturday’s Test match between the All Blacks and Australia on video-sharing website YouTube, despite only 22,000 viewers tuning into the live stream.
New Zealand’s 41-33 Bledisloe Cup triumph in Dunedin was made available online in 45 countries where the rights had not already been sold to broadcasters, including the US and Italian markets.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew told the Associated Press news agency that numbers were hit by the decision to go ahead with the broadcast only a day before the game.
He added: “Technically it worked very well. The quality was really good and it was an opportunity to test a different way to deliver our top product.”