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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