The 2003-4 IRB Sevens season, widely regarded as the finest yet, also enjoyed best-ever television viewing figures.

The series was broadcast worldwide for a total of 364 television hours to a potential household reach of 129 million homes.

Coverage of the eight events – in Dubai, George, Wellington, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bordeaux and London – went out to 126 territories.

The figures represent a significant increase on the previous season’s figures: Hours of coverage grew by 29% to 364, while the potential household reach rose by almost 175% and the number of territories able to watch coverage by 58%.

The Hong Kong Sevens was again the most widely broadcast event with over 100 hours of global TV coverage, while the Dubai and George events also surpassed the 62 hours of coverage shown of the Hong Kong event the previous year.

Dubai also recorded the greatest year-on-year coverage increase, up 140% from 28 hours last year to 67.

High levels of coverage were also generated by the South African and New Zealand legs of the event, with live transmissions in New Zealand of the Wellington event attracting over 10% of the total potential audience.

Regionally, the 40 hours coverage on the four ESPN STAR Sports beams and 60 hours of the Hong Kong Sevens shown on Hong Kong Cable helped the Asia Pacific territories to deliver the highest level of coverage with 164 hours.

Data from Comperio Research

For more details contact:

Alison Hughes
Communications Assistant
International Rugby Board
Tel: +353-1-240-9208
Fax: +353-1-240-9201
Mob: +353-868-565-352
Email: Alison.Hughes@irb.com
Web: www.irb.com