Source: Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board & TNAStars.com
Recent viewership estimates for iMPACT Wrestling on Challenge TV in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland are now available. The estimates show that the flagship show for TNA continued to be the most watched professional wrestling program in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland television market. For more information on TNA’s record viewership in the United Kingdom, click here.
The episode of iMPACT Wrestling that aired on Sunday, May 6, 2012 was estimated to have approximately 181,000 viewers. An additional 25,000 viewers tuned in an hour later on Challenge TV +1 bringing the total estimated audience for this episode to 206,000 viewers. This figure represents a decrease of about 61,000 viewers over last week’s episode, which brought in an estimated 267,000 viewers.
By comparison, the live airing of WWE’s Monday Night RAW on Monday, April 30, 2012 was estimated to have approximately 165,000 viewers while the live airing of WWE’s Smackdown! on Friday, May 4, 2012 was estimated to have 86,000 viewers.
When reviewing these numbers, please note that WWE opted to negotiate a television deal with the Sky Sports suite of channels which means that their programming is on a package that must be paid for by the viewer. When iMPACT Wrestling negotiated their television contract in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, they opted to go with a free channel that viewers do not have to pay for as a part of their cable package. WWE’s choice to place their programming on a paid channel versus iMPACT Wrestling’s choice to place their programming on a free channel likely has an affect on the number of viewers watching each of the promotions’ television shows.
Also worth noting is that WWE has much more programming in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland than TNA. Their programming includes a live airing of RAW, a repeat of RAW, a live airing of Smackdown!, a repeat of Smackdown!, NXT, a show called Experience, another show called Bottom Line, a show called Vintage Collection, a show called Afterburn, and live airings of pay-per-views. With all of these programs airing throughout the week some observers could reasonably suggest that the WWE product is overexposed in this market. However, iMPACT Wrestling is still the most watched professional wrestling program in the United Kingdom over the last 10 years – a phenomenal accomplishment for the younger, smaller promotion.
Interested in learning more about how iMPACT Wrestling’s historical ratings and viewership numbers? If so, then check out TNAStars.com’s Ratings War area. In the Ratings War area you can see a comparison of iMPACT Wrestling vs. Monday Night RAW from the spring of 2010 and iMPACT Wrestling vs. Superstars from all of 2010 and the first part of 2011. Also, you can see a comparison of iMPACT Wrestling’s viewership numbers from week-to-week (from this side of the pond) in 2011 and the beginning of the ratings and viewership tracking information for 2012. Enjoy!
Raw is also on at about 2am over here, too. So its not a very fair fight when going up against TNA’s UK rating. Still though, its nice to hear TNA is beating everything else WWE related (including a nice time-slot for Smackdown!) here in the UK.
True – and good points. I’ve been thinking about removing the WWE ratings updates from these Northern Ireland and United Kingdom posts. I don’t report WWE updates in my Spike TV ratings updates, though I did report how Superstars fared on WGN America when they were head-to-head (kinda) against iMPACT Wrestling. If WWE and TNA were competing head-to-head across the pond, then that might be another issue – but they’re not.