mens
Gallagher-Prime Minister
TV viewing figures for the first round of the new Gallagher PREM season are double what they were at this stage of the competition last year.
Entertainment can mean different things to different people, but armchair fans seem to be buying the high prices on offer. The 52 tries scored last weekend was a record for the first round of the 30-season competition, which has featured just 10 teams in the last four seasons as opposed to anything between 11 and 14 in the past.
As reported Andy Milnes of Neisen Sportsthrough four televised matches with measurement, the cumulative audience on TNT Sports was over 795,000, compared to 390,000 last year.
Those numbers don’t include a 33-17 coverage of Bath with no measurements in between Harlequins on the night of the premiere, which was broadcast on TNT Sports 5.
“It’s a performance that not only hints at growing interest, but also highlights the value of a healthy distribution mix,” Milnes wrote on LinkedIn.
ITV has rights to six regular season games this season, plus the final, which mirrors last season’s deal.
And the terrestrial broadcaster began its coverage with an impressive 40-38 victory for Saracens Leicester at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
It was shown free-to-air on ITV1 and averaged 390,000 viewers, with a peak of 544,000.
ITV’s schedule for the first half of the 18-round regular season also includes Sale The Sharks clash with Exeter on Sunday 6 December at 3pm (ITV1/ITVX) and Harlequins v Northampton in Big Game 18 at Allianz Stadium on Monday, December 28 (ITV4/ITVX).
The remaining three games will be announced in due course, with ITV waiting to see which games will have the most for them.
Now officially operating as a closed league, the threat of the bottom end of the league has been removed. But with eight of the 10 teams fighting for a place in the Champions Cup – unless the format changes, which has been rumored recently – and a spot in the top four playoffs, TNT Sports still has plenty of narratives to push.
While the TV viewing figures suggest an encouraging start, the number of people going to matches is down by 5.6% when comparing simultaneous matches.
Last season Leicester home game against Saracens attracted a sell-out crowd of 25,849, while 20,183 players turned up at Mattioli Woods Welford Road last weekend.
The drop in this case can be explained by the fact that last year’s match was played during the holiday period, when people are more inclined to leave the comfort of their homes and attend matches in person.
However, Exeter will be disappointed with an opening day crowd of 8,682, a far cry from last year’s visiting gate Gloucester in the 5th round (10,006).
And if Sale Sharks expected their summer transfer activity to increase their attendance, unfortunately they were wrong.
CorpAcq Stadium was only half-full for the debuts of Courtney Lawes, Joe Marchant and Alex Lozowski, with 5,937 in attendance compared to 6,257 for last year’s game against Bristol Bears, and that was a dead tire from Round 18.
Two games saw an increase in attendance. Harlequins attracted 2,078 more fans (a 16.3% increase) to visit Bath, who were their opening opponents last year. Meanwhile, there were no seats at the newly-named DPD Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens as champions Northampton enjoyed News support against New York, comparing support1-35 to 13,762 in Round 11 last season (up 10.1%).
The total attendance for the first round of the 2026/27 Gallagher PREM season was 64,755 (68,596 in 2025/26), an average of 12,951 per game.
