Bulls Franchise, viewership and supporter base figures.

Just something that might interest a view of you.
An official Media Release of figures and statistics, compiled and sent out by the Vodacom Bulls marketing machine provided the following stats.

Topping the South African conference is evidence that the Vodacom Bulls are performing on the field. According to leading sports researchers BMI, the boys in blue lead off the field too in terms of being the most watched Super Rugby team this year. Add to that a 300% growth in Facebook followers as well as over 10 000 Twitter fans and it’s safe to say that the Pretoria based side is having the season of their lives.

The popularity of South Africa’s most successful Super Rugby franchise is evident not just by home crowd attendances or jersey sales but also in television audience ratings. With an estimated 9 644 000 rugby supporters in South Africa, the Vodacom Bulls boast the highest number of supporters compared to the other franchises. Fast approaching the 3 million supporter mark, the Vodacom Bulls has positioned itself as a family brand and has mass appeal across all race, gender and age groups. 49% of its supporter base are Black, while 32% account for the White population, 17% are Coloureds and 2% Indians. The Vodacom Bulls also proudly boast the country’s youngest supporter profile of 42% under the 35-year age group.

When studying television audiences, it’s the same popular rugby franchise that comes out tops. Having monitored 73 games broadcast from February until May on SuperSport 1, the Vodacom Bulls top the charts with an average match day audience of 535 744. The highest audience figures were recorded on March 31st when the DHL Stormers hosted the Vodacom Bulls at the DHL Newlands Stadium. Despite the defeat the 2010 Super 14 champions could be well proud of the 770 000 viewers that tuned in to the Channel of Champions – more than a quarter of a million more viewers above the average Super Rugby viewership for local derbies.

Two weeks later, the Pretoria based side thrashed their neighbours the MTN Lions 32 – 18 and again attracted television audiences well above the average. This particular match rated second in terms of viewership figures amongst local teams with a total audience of 584 200, which is 154 000 more viewers than the MTN Lions would typically expect.

The Vodacom Bulls also dominated the next category featuring local teams against their New Zealand and Australian counterparts. Playing against the Brumbies, Reds, Crusaders and Blues, the Vodacom Bulls dominated the top four spots with an average of 614 725 viewers per game – over 150 000 more viewers on average than any of our local teams playing against an Australian or New Zealand team.

In this category, the team’s highest audience figure was 671 830 for their match against the Brumbies on April 21st, 208 618 more than the overall average. Their fixture against defending champions the Reds on March 24th occupied second spot with a total viewership of 612 826, which was 149 7614 more than the overall average.

A quick comparison to the other South African franchises for the period February to May 2012, revealed that the Vodacom Bulls games are ahead of its competitors by between 78 478 to 199 917 viewers per match. The average for nine Vodacom Bulls games for this period was 535 744, which was 78 478 higher than second highest, the Stormers with 457 266. The Lions were not far off the Cape side with an average of 429 257, while the Sharks (392 816) and the Cheetahs (335 827) didn’t reach the 400 000 mark.

Added to the successful television audiences, is the recent growth of the team’s social media platforms. Having recently increased their presence on social media platforms Twitter and Facebook, the results are something to ride home about with a 300% growth on Facebook. Twitter is just as impressive with over 10 000 fans signing up.

I put it down to Bulls fans having no life outside of support for their team. Whilst those of us in the Cape are watching the match over a braai, chilling on the beach with friends etc, those in Pretoria look outside, see nothing but dust, motorways and security complexes and decide the only thing they can do is tune in to the TV as their sole form of entertainment.

I tend to agree with you, Pretoria has nothing to offer but beautiful young woman when you are a student, but once you leave the comfort of mommy's home, it is beer bellies, moustaches, blue bulls, in fact anything comes in blue in Pretoria, even the Smurfs are blue there.

fa0019 wrote:I put it down to Bulls fans having no life outside of support for their team. Whilst those of us in the Cape are watching the match over a braai, chilling on the beach with friends etc, those in Pretoria look outside, see nothing but dust, motorways and security complexes and decide the only thing they can do is tune in to the TV as their sole form of entertainment.

I'm a bit worried about their Twitter stats - I "follow" the Twitter accounts for all 15 teams to keep informed. Are they counting me as a fan?

Kiwi, up there they count everything, it is part of their propoganda.

Similar to the one you used about richie McCaw yesterday.

The thing is even Bulls fans in the Cape are the same.

They have the world on their doorstep but would rather stay in and watch round and round repeats of the Maisiekind show.

Not that I'm suggesting anything on bulls fans!

Well, they like the colour pink, says it all.

Its one thing I wish I live to see.. Bakkies return to the bulls, just so he can pull on a pink jersey.

fa0019 wrote:Its one thing I wish I live to see.. Bakkies return to the bulls, just so he can pull on a pink jersey.

Can you imagine how his "blood brother" will rag him. He'll never live that one down.

I know they have the most fans, but who has the highest attendance at the Stadium. You can be a 'fan' and never go see a live game. Or do the revenue get split to Franchises based on viewer-ship as well?

Fern, as I said earlier, this is bulls propoganda, they are trying to convince their supporters they made the right choice.

By the way, whilst we are talking about fans, you know what happens when shoite hits it?

Probably the Stormers. We fill near 50K for each game. Loftus max is 45K... the Lions could fill 80K but they don't have the support to fill this... at least as of late anyhow.

To be fair to the bulls they could probably add another 20K to their attendances if they had the stadium.... same goes for us however.

Kiwi posted some stats not so long ago.

From memory. averages

Stormers 43 000
Bulls 35 000
Sharks 28 000
Lions 24 000
Cheetahs 24 000

The strange thing is... the Lions have the most potential of all. They are the ones in the biggest city, with the population with the largest disposable income etc.
If they could get a winning team they could be unbeatable as they could get double the gate receipts then anyone else.

I admit it has a large African population who are not traditional rugby fans but thats why the potential is so great... a completely untapped resource.

Which is why this whole relegation saga is crazy.

In the end would you spend R1000 to take your family to see your side get beat up for 80mins?

A little bit of investment, a few genuine marquee players and the situation could change dramatically.

Why not fa? I've had a season ticket in Wellington since the opening of the new stadium and what is my return? sweet F.A.!

How exactly do you define a "supporter"? Also, by the way they've specified the facebook increase in percentage and the twitter in raw numbers I'm guessing they have a low starting point on facebook (1 'friend' increasing to 3?) and loads of twitter followers (you'd think a significant portion of twitterers who are rugby fans would follow all the sides (mainly SA, then S15 countries, then some elsewhere so it could easily be 100000+)

This is very interesting. I would like to see how the average attendance has changed over the recent years. Not just for Bulls, but for all the Super Rugby franchises in SA. The tv ratings as well. I find the comparison to Rugby in Europe very interesting. Rugby in SA is all about how to grow/sustain in a near fully developed market. Rugby still has a lot of potential growth in Europe. So the strategies are completely different. This is the financial and business side of Rugby I find fascinating.

Stats and data, I need stats and data.



Stats? On my God, what have I become???????

Doc, the SA market is in fact very much open to growth. It is far from saturated, when you consider our population of near 50 million and only 10 million rugby supporters according to this article, I think we have a fair ways to grow the sport.

When you look at DSTV the pay channel where you can watch all this rugby, a small minority of the population as access to it, I would hazard a guess of roughly 20-25%.

When the Bulls played their Super rugby match vs the Lions at the Calabash last year, and also the Springbok vs All Blacks test in 2010, the feedback from the local Community Soweto was indeed very positive, if SARU and especially the Lions who are JHB based move there, the popularity in Soweto (close to 6 million population) will soar.

So me thinks rugby can still grow a lot in this country.

As for your need for stats, I think you are suffering from "biltongstatvirusicolotos"

Everyone likes a winner... especially the fan who isn't a particular fan on anyone in specific or just an occasional fan.

The bulls with their recent success will obviously take a lot of these fans... just like everyone aged about 25-35 in the UK are Man United fans and everyone aged 35-45 are Liverpool fans.... when they were youngsters these were the most successful sides.

I'm sure the tables will change if lets say the sharks or the Stormers become as dominant.

i.e. all bulls fans are glory supporters!

Thank goodness I am not one of them.