Rugby World Cup

Almost three million rugby fans have combined to establish Rugby World Cup 2011 as the nation’s most watched subscription television event as FOX SPORTS celebrates unprecedented success from its historic six-week broadcast of the year’s biggest sporting event.

Over 2.9 million viewers tuned in to LIVE match coverage as FOX SPORTS delivered LIVE, UNINTERRUPTED and HIGH DEFINITION coverage of all 48 matches from September 9 to October 23.

Rugby World Cup 2011 recorded three of the top five highest-rating programs in subscription television history, headlined by an average audience of 734,000* viewers for the semi-final between Australia and eventual champions New Zealand on October 16.

FOX SPORTS was the only Australian broadcaster to offer LIVE coverage of all 48 matches in the tournament, screening every match in high definition and uninterrupted during play on a dedicated channel (FOX SPORTS 3HD and FOX SPORTS 3).

Over 135 hours of LIVE match coverage was provided with additional Rugby World Cup programming including daily highlights packages, regular news updates, historic matches, and weekly magazine show The Rugby Club combining to make FOX SPORTS a compulsory destination for rugby fans throughout the tournament.

Naturally, the Wallabies were the most popular team on FOX SPORTS, drawing an average of 396,000 viewers per game from their seven matches including the record-setting semi-final against the All Blacks.

FOX SPORTS CEO Patrick Delany, said: “It’s a great outcome for what has been a marathon effort to deliver a coverage that gave justice to one of the world’s biggest sporting events and its millions of fans.”

“Our coverage was driven to ignite the passion of rugby fans. Its inextricable evidence that live, uninterrupted and high definition coverage, combined with the best commentary and analysis, are elements that fuelled their passion. Those are the hallmarks of FOX SPORTS and provide a glimpse of what we will deliver for fans in 2012 with the return of a dedicated AFL channel,” said Delany.

“I’d like to acknowledge the outstanding work of our energetic rugby production team as well as our world-renowned on-air team headed by the number one voice in the game, Greg Clark.”

RUGBY WORLD CUP 2011 on FOX SPORTS

· Over 2.9 million viewers across Australia tuned in to LIVE match coverage throughout RWC 2011.

· Recorded the highest-rating program in subscription television history – 734,000* avg aud (NZ v AUS semi-final on Oct 16).

· Recorded three of the top five, and seven of the top 20 highest-rating programs in subscription television history.

· Attracted an average of 396,000 viewers per LIVE Wallabies match broadcast.

· Attracted a tournament average of 183,000 viewers per LIVE match broadcast.

· Tournament watched by over 40% of total FOXTEL/AUSTAR subscribers.

*Source: OzTAM National STV Homes, Consolidated Data, 16/10/2011, Total People, Projections

Rugby World Cup 2011. Grand Final. New Zealand Vs France. Live 6.30pm AEDT Nine and in HD on GEM
Well, Australia didn’t make so why not get behind our Tasman neighbours NZ! HD coverage on GEM, including a one hour post game show after the game, while Nine resumes regular Sunday night programming.

MotoGP Round 17. Malaysia,Live on ONE in HD, 6.30pm AEDT (and delayed on Ten, 10.30pm local time)
Join Greg Rust, Daryl Beattie and Craig Baird as they bring you all of the action and suspense of Round 17 of the 2011 MOTOGP.

Wide Open Road. Dream Machines, ABC1, 7.30pm
Cars quickly became integral to every aspect of our lives. By the end of the 1950s most parents experienced the world through the windscreen and most kids watched it go by from the back seat.

Movie: Edward Scissorhands, ELEVEN, 8.30pm.
From the blast in the past department. An uncommonly gentle young man, who happens to have scissors for hands, falls in love with a beautiful teenage girl. Stars Johnny Depp.

Movie: The Man with the Golden Gun, 7mate, 8.30pm
James Bond is assigned to find the Solex Agitator, a powerful device that harnesses the energy of the sun. In tracing the device, Bond is led to master killer Scaramanga, a professional assassin who uses a golden gun with gold bullets to execute his victims. Aided by local intelligence agent Mary Goodnight, time is quickly running out for them to save the world from the destructive power of the Solex Agitator.

Wide World of Sports will broadcast the Rugby World Cup final between New Zealand and France, and the playoff for third place between Australia and Wales, LIVE on Channel Nine and simulcast LIVE in HD on GEM.

The Wallabies, shattered after their semi-final loss but boosted by the return to their starting lineup of Kurtley Beale and Berrick Barnes, face Wales at Eden Park with Nine’s broadcast starting at 6.30pm AEDT tonight on Nine, 6.00pm AEDT on GEM.

Then at 6.30pm AEDT on Sunday, the tournament comes to a north-versus-south climax when France, “Les Tricolores”, do battle with the New Zealand All Blacks at Eden Park.

The All Blacks, who have reached the final unbeaten, are chasing their first Rugby World Cup crown since winning for the only time in 1987, the year the tournament began, while France has yet to taste victory.

Wallabies legends George Gregan and John Eales head up the Wide World of Sports rugby broadcast live from Eden Park. On the expert panel is former Wallabies captain Andrew Slack, test prop Benn Robinson and host Ken Sutcliffe. Tim Sheridan will report live from the sideline at Eden Park.

Australia v Wales: Tonight at 6.30pm AEDT on Nine, 6.00pm on GEM

France v New Zealand: Sunday at 6.30pm AEDT on Nine and GEM

Rugby World Cup: Bronze Final – Wales Vs Australia LIVE. Nine 6.30pm NSW & VIC (5.30pm QLD, 6.00pm SA, 5.00pm NT, 3.30pm WA)
Friday night football! OK – so we didn’t make through to the Grand Final, but lets see if we can get the bronze by beatings Wales?

Movie: Cats & Dogs, GO!, 6.00pm
The age-old turf war between cats and dogs gets more intense when felines discover that humans may be at the brink of developing a vaccine for dog allergies.
Movie: The Thing, 7mate, 9.30pm
Scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What they don’t know is that the alien can assume any human form, and before long the scientists can’t tell who’s real and who’s a deadly alien threat.

Movie: The Thing, 7mate, 9.30pm
Scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What they don’t know is that the alien can assume any human form, and before long the scientists can’t tell who’s real and who’s a deadly alien threat.

Naked Calendars, SBS ONE 10.00pm
SBS’s naked hour continues with with this – a light-hearted look at the peculiarly British phenomenon of the naked charity calendar and how the most unlikely people do the most extraordinary things in the name of charity. With around 200 naked calendars on sale last year, it seems there wasn’t a town, village, profession or organisation in Britain that didn’t ‘get their kit off’ for charity. This program follows how this burgeoning phenomenon became a national pastime.

Movie: The Other Side of the Bed, SBS ONE, 11.00pm
Musical and romantic comedy set in contemporary Spain. Pedro tries to convince his girlfriend Paula that her desire to leave him is just a phase. Paula says she has fallen in love with someone else, and in fact the new man in her life is Pedro’s best friend, Javier. Torn between two beautiful, vibrant women and his oldest friend, Javier scrambles to maintain the status quo through an escalating series of lies and deception.

In New Zealand, the Rugby World Cup semi between Australia and New Zealand was watched by a combined audience of  1.9 million viewers. Over there, it aired over four channels including TV ONE, TV3, Sky Sport (cable) and Maori TV. Most watched on either TV ONE or Sky Sport, with the total number of viewers representing 48.7% of the entire population of NZ over 5 years of age.

In Australia, 1,788,000 watched the match on Nine or GEM in the five main cities (no split figures are available – but I would suggest roughly half would have watched on GEM in HD*) while a further 719,000 watched on Fox Sports – representing the highest ever ratings for Pay TV in Australia. An estimated further 800,000 would have watched in regional Australia, bringing our total to 3,307,000 watching.

To put the New Zealand figures in perspective, if 48.7% of Australia’s over five year old population watched the one show, that would yield ratings figures close to 10 million. The only television events that would ever come close to those sort of figures are Royal Weddings – this year’s Royal Wedding was watched by around 6 million in Australia.

Imagine what the New Zealand ratings will be for the Grand Final.

* if you go by ratings for Ten and ONE when they do HD simulcasts, usually about the same number of viewers watch the event on Ten as they do on ONE in HD. This was the case with the Moto GP last weekend, where the show on ONE and the show on Ten rated much the same as each other. Therefore we can use the assumption that the case would be similar for Nine and GEM (as well as Seven and 7mate with say Bathurst) that about half the audience would be wwatching in HD.

Had Nine have split ratings for the Rugby World Cup into Nine and GEM, you would have seen 1) the show listed twice in ratings with both around 800,000, 2) as a result, it would not have topped the night in ratings and 3) the GEM share would have been a record high, while the Nine share would have been dragged down.

The Australian subscription television ratings record has tumbled for the second time in 2011 overnight, with FOX SPORTS’ coverage of the second semi-final of the Rugby World Cup drawing an average audience of 719,000 viewers.

The LIVE and UNINTERRUPTED broadcast of the Wallabies 6-20 defeat to the All Blacks on FOX SPORTS 3HD and FOX SPORTS 3 became the most watched event in Australian subscription television history, surpassing the previous record average audience mark of 531,000 set by the Super Rugby Final on July 9.

While the Wallabies’ dream of lifting the Webb Ellis Cup is over, the men in gold will play one last match at the tournament when they face off against Wales in the Bronze Final on Friday. LIVE and UNINTERRUPTED coverage will begin at 5.30pm AEDT on FOX SPORTS 3HD & FOX SPORTS 3.

FOX SPORTS will also provide LIVE and UNINTERRUPTED coverage of Sunday night’s Rugby World Cup Final between hosts New Zealand and France from 6pm AEDT.

RECORD SUBSCRIPTION TELEVISION AUDIENCE

RUGBY WORLD CUP 2011

2ND SEMI FINAL – 16 OCTOBER 2011

NEW ZEALAND 20 defeated Australia 6

AVERAGE AUDIENCE: 719,000

Source: OzTAM National STV Panel; All People; Average Audience; Overnight.

France won the first Rugby Union World Cup Semi Final over Wales, while Australia couldn’t hold up against New Zealand for the second – NZ were arguably the strongest team on the night.

The Rugby World Cup 2011 Grand Final next Sunday will therefore be New Zealand Vs France.

It will air LIVE on Nine from 6.30pm AEDT Sunday October 23, as well as on GEM in HD.

At least Australia won the Trans Tasman Rugby League Test, easily accounting for a weaker New Zealand side. The test was seen as a lead up for the Four Nations series, set to air on NIne soon.

Last year, the Four Nations was to air in HD on GEM, but Nine pulled the HD broadcasts at the last minute.

This year, whether Four Nations will air in HD on GEM or not is yet to be confirmed. The series will air soon on Nine.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 7mate, 8.30pm
The one and only Bond movie starring George Lazenby as secret agent 007. Secret Agent James Bond must stop criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s plans to blackmail the western world with bacteriological sabotage of the world’s food supply. His ransom: to be recognised as the rightful Count de Bleuchamp and amnesty for all his past crimes.

Rugby World Cup: Semi Final 1. Wales Vs France, 6.30pm AEST Nine, HD on GEM
Who will play Australia in the Grand Final next Sunday (sorry New Zealand fans!, Australia will win!)?. Wide World of Sports presents the first semifinal of the Rugby World Cup, live from Eden Park, Auckland. Join George Gregan, Andrew Slack along with Ken Sutcliffe for all the action.

The Wedding Singer, 8.30pm, GO!
Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Christine Taylor, Alexis Arquette. Before the Internet, before mobile phones, before roller-blades, there was a time – 1985! A man with a miserable love life travels from wedding to wedding singing romantic songs to happy newlyweds.

Poirot: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, ABC1, 8.22pm
Hercule Poirot becomes involved in solving the murder of successful industrialist, Roger Ackroyd. As Poirot investigates he discovers that there might be a connection to the suicide of a local woman.

Everybody Loves Raymond, ELEVEN, 6.30pm, 7.00pm, 8.00pm, 9.00pm
Ok – don’t mind the show but four times in one night? Weird programming but something different if you’re lost for something to watch and laugh at on a Saturday night on free to air digital TV. With Ray Ramano.

Nine programming for the week October 23-29, 2011 sees the launch of the second season of Celebrity Apprentice Australia, the Rugby World Cup Grand Final for 2011 and a drastic reduction in the number of Big Bang repeats.

Here’s the summary (based on Sydney market)

Sunday Oct 23
6.30 Rugby Union World Cup Grand Final – LIVE to all markets. Airs in HD on GEM as well.
9.00 Underbelly Razor
10.00 Person of Interest
11.00 Prime Suspect – encore / repeat

Monday Oct 24
7.00 Celebrity Apprentice Australia – season two premiere
8.00 The Big Bang Theory – New
8.30 The Mentalist – New
9.30 CSI: Miami – New
10.30 CSI: Miami – rpt
11.30 Better With You – new

Tuesday Oct 25
7.00 Celebrity Apprentice Australia
7.30 The Big Bang Theory rpt
8.00 The Big Bang Theory rpt
8.30 Two and a Half Men – New
9.00 Mike & Molly – New
9.30 Survivor South Pacific
10.30 The Hoy Of Sets
11.00 Embarrassing Bodies

Wednesday Oct 26
7.00 Celebrity Apprentice Australia
8.00 TBA
8.30 CSI
9.30 Unforgettable – Pilot rpt (no new Prime Suspect ep available this week)
10.30 Unforgettable – ep 2 rpt
11.30 Better With You – new

Thursday Oct 27
7.00 Celebrity Apprentice Australia
7.30 RBT
8.30 Unforgettable – new
9.30 CSI: Miami – rpt
10.30 Chase – new
11.30 Better With You

Over on GO!, the 6.30pm weeknight Big Bangs are gone, replaced with Two and a Half Men – starting from the Pilot (from all those years ago!) at 6.30pm Monday Oct 24. Big Bangs still air on GO! on Sunday at 8pm, Monday 9pm, Wednesday 9pm and Thursday 9pm.

And, if you miss Celebrity Apprentice Australia weeknights on Nine, it is encored on GO! at least three times – late night weeknights from Tuesday Oct 25, afternoons from Tuesday Oct 25 as well as Saturday afternoon where the full week is played out in one big marathon.

All programming subject to change.

It’s a massive Australia-New Zealand double-header this Sunday as rugby league and rugby union provide two sizzling sporting clashes LIVE on Channel Nine and simulcast in HD on GEM.

Super Sunday is shaping as the most epic day in the history of sport between Australia and New Zealand with the Trans Tasman rugby league test and the Rugby World Cup semi-final.

And to whet the appetite of football fans before the fireworks on Sunday, Wales play France in the first Rugby World Cup semi-final on Saturday at Eden Park. This game will be shown live on Nine from 6.30pm AEDT.

On Sunday the Kangaroos play New Zealand in the Trans Tasman rugby league test at Ausgrid Stadium in Newcastle. Wide World of Sports will broadcast the game LIVE at 3.30pm AEDT on Channel Nine and simulcast it LIVE in HD on GEM.

Leading the commentary team is Ray Warren, with Australian legends Peter Sterling, Wally Lewis and Andrew Johns on the expert panel. Nine will also catch up pre-game with Manly’s premiership winning half-back and Kangaroo debutant, Daly Cherry-Evans.

Then the Rugby World Cup second semi-final between the Wallabies and the All Blacks gets underway LIVE on Nine from 6.30pm AEDT. The do-or-die clash will also be simulcast LIVE in HD on GEM.

George Gregan heads up the Wide World of Sports expert rugby panel LIVE from Auckland. Joining him for both Rugby World Cup semi-finals are Wallabies legends and former captains Andrew Slack and John Eales, along with injured test prop Benn Robinson. Ken Sutcliffe is the host and Tim Sheridan will report live from the sideline at Eden Park.

Ray Hadley, who called his last Rugby World Cup match in the Australia-England final in 2003, returns to call the Wallabies-All Blacks semi-final from Eden Park for the Nine Network.

Trans Tasman Test Australia v New Zealand: Sunday live at 3.30pm AEDT

Rugby World Cup Semi-Final Australia v New Zealand: Sunday live at 6.30pm AEDT