Rugby World Cup organisers hail "spectacular" television numbers

PARIS: Rugby World Cup organisers have welcomed impressive domestic and international television audiences that far exceed previous editions as the tournament reaches the one-third point of its 48 matches.

In an upbeat Paris press conference on Wednesday (Sep 20), when the night's Italy v Uruguay will be the 17th match to be played, Jacques Rivoal, President of France 2023, said: "There's excitement everywhere - in the stadiums and TV screens.

"Everywhere, we're exploding the benchmarks that were set in Japan in 2019 and in England in 2015, sometimes 30 to 40 per cent more."

An average of 11.5 million people in France watched last week's France v Uruguay match - 60 per cent higher than the most-watched Six Nations game this year in France. Around 15 million watched the tournament's opening game between France and New Zealand, with a peak of 17 million. Only the 2011 final between the same teams has had a higher audience.

"It's practically on a par with the World Cup (soccer) final in Qatar between France and Argentina," Rivoal said. "These figures are quite spectacular. We hadn't anticipated such figures and we can only be delighted."

Despite a "challenging kick-off time" of 1300 local (1100 GMT), Japan's opening game against Chile drew a Japanese TV audience of 13.8 million - 15 per cent more than watched their opening game against Russia in 2019 and higher than Japan's second game against Ireland four years ago.

Rivoal said that 3.5 million watched the opening match in Germany - more than all the World Cup matches in 2019 broadcast on German channels.

"There have been more than 500 million views of our official content on our social platform, which is amazing," said tournament director Michel Poussau.

On the commercial front,