IRB Release Record Broadcast Figures for HSBC Sevens World Series

July 31, 2013

Pro-Active Television, cheap the television broadcast partner to the International Rugby Board (IRB), viagra 40mg has announced record broadcast figures the HSBC Sevens World Series 2012/13.

IRB Chairman, Bernard Lapasset said of the tournament’s coverage: “The HSBC Sevens World Series has now firmly established itself in the sporting calendar among international broadcasters and also fans around the world, who generated a record 562,486 overall attendance across the nine rounds.

“As an Olympic sport Sevens is now well on the road to Rio, attracting new athletes to Rugby all the time from a variety of different backgrounds, and also new fans with its winning blend of skill, speed, competitive action and festival atmosphere.” 

The nine-round World Series had a total airtime of 4,504 hours in 149 territories, a significant increase from the 300 hours aired eight years ago.

In total, 38 broadcasters aired coverage to 390m homes either live, delayed live, repeats or the official 30-minute ‘IRB Sevens World’ show. All in all, there was a 5% increase from those of 2011/12.

Sevens coverage was seen in new markets, including Spain, Ireland and Russia, in addition to expansions of existing broadcasts in the US (by NBC), Middle East (OSN) and Africa (Supersport).

Online consumption also saw significant increased with irbsevens.com seeing over 9.1m page views in 214 countries. Of this 36% of traffic was from mobile devices. Official video content online racked up 2.5m view on the IRB official website and YouTube channel.

Giles Morgan, Group Head of Sponsorship & Events at HSBC added: “It is great to see the growth of the HSBC Sevens World Series – the sport itself is growing rapidly as 2016 draws nearer but to see that audiences are also following that trend is fantastic. It is particularly pleasing to see new markets watching the sport too and we are looking forward to hopefully another record breaking season with even bigger audiences tuning in for 2013/14.”

The 2012/13 HSBC Sevens World Series comprised nine tournaments in Australia (Gold Coast), Dubai, South Africa (Port Elizabeth), New Zealand (Wellington), USA (Las Vegas), Hong Kong, Japan (Tokyo), Scotland (Glasgow), England (London).