The NRL's decision to venture to Las Vegas for its season-opener hasn't yielded the best results in its attempt to win over American viewers and expand the game.
With the Sydney Roosters, Brisbane Broncos, Manly Sea Eagles and South Sydney Rabbitohs making the trip to the US, the league will be disappointed with how the TV ratings performed.
In an attempt to broaden the NRL horizon, league bosses were hoping that the expansion to America would help increase television audiences, sell subscriptions and build local (American) gambling revenues.
For the prime-time Saturday night slot between the Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles - with the latter taking a 36-24 victory -ย only 61,000 people tuned in despite the high-scoring affair.
However, the disheartening results didn't end there, with the match between the Roosters and Broncos only gaining a lowly 44,000 local viewers.
Owner ofย SportsMediaWatch.com, Jon Lewis, believes numbers like this are not ideal when trying to expand.
โLet's be real about it,โ Lewis said.
โAnything below 100,000 viewers on American television is very low. There's no question, there's no sugarcoating it.
โIt's an insufficient sampling to grow the game."
Despite the initial disappointment, Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V'landys admitted shortly after the matches that this expedition would take time to find its feet before discovering the first-year TV ratings.
โThis is just the foundation. It's like building a house. You've now done the foundation. We've set a benchmark. We're going to improve from there next year,โ V'landys said.
โBut the results are going to be coming through with American viewers. So we'll be interesting to see how we went on Fox One tonight, how many viewers we got.โ
Although the initiative didn't reach the desired heights in the 'local' sector, Australian viewership sky-rocketed, and Fox Sports cashed in on its most-watched NRL games throughout their coverage.
The first match saw 838,000 Australians tune into the Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles - which was exclusive to pay TV and Kayo - while that number slightly dipped for the following game.
Fox Sports Executive Director Steve Crawley was thrilled with the result.
โWe all live in hope that a wonderful concept and great effort by many will be rewarded but there's no better feeling than when the reality arrives in record numbers,โ said Crawley.
โWhat a ripper. What a result.โ
Competitor Channel 9 wasn't far off with the viewer numbers, tallying 796,000 people, sitting sixth-highest rating of free-to-air programs for the day.
The NRL will return to Australia for the remainder of Round 1, kicking off on Thursday night between the Newcastle Knights and the Canberra Raiders at the McDonald Jones Stadium.
