More Sofa Fans, Fewer In Grounds - 21/11/2005

The latest television audience and gate figures for the Premiership show that more fans are watching games from the comfort of their sofas while fewer are going to the grounds. Average television audiences for live Premiership football matches are running 4.5 per cent up on last season, although the figure was boosted by the 3.02 million viewers who watched Manchester United v. Chelsea. However, nearly a third of the way into season, average crowds are still slightly down on the figure for the whole of last season, with games playing to an average of more than 3,600 empty seats.

According to Broadcasters' Audience Research Board figures, the average audience for the 24 Premiership matches screened on the main BSkyB channels this season was 1.14m. This compares with 1.09m for the thirty games shown over the same period of last season. However, apart from the United v. Chelsea clash, only one match has drawn an audience of more than 2m, the 2.18m who watched Liverpool v. Chelsea. Sky's PremPlus pay-per-view service is doing well. The eighteen matches shown to date were watched by an average 226,000 viewers, 30 per cent more than the 173,000 who watched the sixteen games screened up to the same point last season. Somewhat surprisingly, the most watched pay-per-view game was the 1-1 draw between Sunderland and West Ham which was seen by an average 331,000 viewers. After 116 matches, crowds are running at a fraction over 90 per cent of ground capacity. This compares with about 94 per cent for the whole of last season when aggregate capacity was 25,000 lower. Average attendances are down only marginally at 33,823, against just under 34,000 for all the games last season. Four Premiership sides (Blackburn, Sunderland, Wigan and Aston Villa) are running at less than 80 per cent of capacity and another three at less than 90 per cent. Success does not necessarily bring in the crowds. Blackburn, doing better than many had expected, are filling only 62 per cent of the seats at Ewood Park and, despite a phenomenal run, Wigan are attracting fewer than 20,000 fans on average to the 25,000 capacity JJB. But then Wigan is a far from large town in a rugby supporting area with no historical core of supporters to draw on.