BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Exclusive: The 2023 Super League grand final between Wigan and Catalans on Sky Sports was watched by an average TV audience of 267,000 people, making it the lowest grand final audience for many years.
According to figures obtained by rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads, the grand final last weekend had a peak audience of 377,000 and the average audience was 267,000.
This was down significantly on the 2022 grand final result, between St Helens and Leeds, which had an average TV audience of 424,000.
In 2021 an average of 300,000 viewers watched St Helens defeat Catalans while the 2020 grand final, between St Helens and Wigan, had an average audience of around 400,000.
Last weekend’s grand final kicked off at 6pm and saw Wigan defeat Catalans 10-2 to mark the Warriors’ first grand victory since 2018.
It was competing with a number of other sports in that timeslot, including two Rugby World Cup quarter-finals between Wales and Argentina, and Ireland and New Zealand.
It is believed almost 100,000 viewers watched this year’s grand final in France on French TV L’Equipe.
The ratings result comes after a new TV deal was announced between Super League and Sky for the next two years which sees the overall sum headed to rugby league dropping to between £21 million to £22 million a year, it is believed.
