Big reduction in Sky’s Irish audience for their second Saturday night game

Some 18,000 viewers tuned into Sky Sports for the Wexford versus Dublin hurling match on Saturday night. This is a significant drop from the 32,000 who watched the channel’s first ever broadcast of a hurling match, between Kilkenny and Offaly on June 7th.

AC Nielsen figures also reported that 56,000 viewers switched on at some point during the Leinster hurling semi-final in Wexford Park.

Sky had a 1.7 percent share of those watching television in Ireland at the time.

Viewing figures

The game was in competition with Ireland’s rugby Test match in Argentina, the US Open and the World Cup (Uruguay versus Costa Rica).

Sunday's Munster hurling semi-final between Clare and Cork on RTÉ had an average of 394,000 viewers for an audience share of 44.67 percent.

The peak viewing figures reached for those watching the game at Semple Stadium were 474,000. RTÉ had no competition from the World Cup for the 4pm throw-in.

Sky’s third exclusive broadcast of the championship and first ever Gaelic football game is another Saturday evening fixture, from Markievicz Park as Sligo host Galway in the Connacht semi-final. The other confirmed live broadcast is Monaghan versus Armagh in the Ulster football semi-final on June 28th.

AC Nielsen figures do not include those who watch Sky Sports in high definition. It provides figures for Irish residential subscribers and does not include those who watched in pubs or in Britain.