Ryder Cup Viewer Numbers

Sky Sports

The television viewer numbers for the 2006 Ryder Cup are now available for the US, UK and Irish markets. The Sunday Times reports that the total number for these 3 major markets was just over 6 million viewers (the peak numbers were 4.6M in the US, 1.1M in the UK and 600 in Ireland). The US numbers are down 20-30% on previously figures, which may in part be related to the timezone differences.
The 1 Billion viewers that the Irish government promised the Irish taxpayer when trying to justify the taxpayers money being pumped into the event was clearly a little white lie! While the total worldwide figures are not yet in it’s obvious that the low US and UK numbers mean the event will not have had even a credible fraction of the promised exposure. Touting the event as the 3rd most important sporting event was also a bit of a stretch (the 2004 Ryder cup did not make the top 15 most-watched world sporting events in a global survey) – lets wait and see how this one fairs…
What does this mean for the Ryder Cup? Well with a slide in viewer numbers the revenues form ryder cup sponsorship deals may suffer. It’s up to the US team to put together a credible challenge for the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla and keep us on the edge of our seats!

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Technorati tags ryder cup, golf,Ryder Cup Sponsorship,

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