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Pretty fascinating figures released this afternoon from the RTE press office on the most viewed sports programmes of the year. Usually we only get 10 of these, but given the madness of the sports year that just ended, we've got 20 sporting events to chew on.
Among the takeaways:
- International football still gets the ratings, though you can track the general decline in interest in Trap's men from this poll.
- Strong showing from the GAA with an All-Ireland football final between two non-urban counties getting better ratings that Ireland v Italy at the Euros.
- For an event that apparently transcended sport and lifted the nation, Katie Taylor's gold medal fight massively underperformed in terms of viewers. Perhaps the midweek, late afternoon airing is to blame but there is also a chance that not everyone was as caught up with Taylor's crusade for gold as the media.
- The poor year for Irish rugby shows. Ireland-Wales was ranked ninth, which is below the All-Ireland hurling replay.
- RTÉ are chuffed that 19 of the 20 events to make the list were broadcast from Montrose, but there's one thorny point. Many, many more people chose to watch the BBC's coverage of the Olympics closing ceremony over RTÉ's, so much so that it was the only non-Irish broadcast to be featured in the list.
- That weird Saturday night match in Paris where the France v Ireland Six Nations match was called off was the 20th most watched sporting event of the year.
