Sport On Television: Viewing figures for Bernard Dunne's recent European Championship success against Escham Pickering at The Point Depot indicate that genuine big-time boxing still has a place in the hearts of Irish sports fans.
While the peak viewing boxing figures didn't quite match up to those for Ireland's recent soccer Euro 2008 qualifier against San Marino - the last soccer international at the current Lansdowne Road - or the Irish rugby team's win over Australia last weekend, Dunne's growing popularity is clearly evident.
The late-night win over the English fighter had peak viewing figures of 491,000, which was higher than the peak figures for the International Rules series between Ireland and Australia at Croke Park two weeks ago and also higher than those for Ireland's first game of the autumn international rugby series against South Africa at Lansdowne Road on November 11th.
RTÉ television's Pro Box Live, which broadcast the Neilstown boxer winning the European Super-Bantamweight title, attracted an audience of 416,000 for the duration of the bout before peaking at just under half a million for the final minutes as Dunne took the fight on a unanimous points decision. The bout was screened live late on a Saturday night.
It generated an audience share of 40 per cent for RTÉ 2, which peaked at 52.6 per cent in the final minutes of the fight.
In comparison with other high-profile events which took place over the past several weeks it represents an encouraging return for the national broadcaster, which agreed to take on the boxer when he returned from America a few years ago and before his name was widely known.
"They are serious figures," said Dunne's manager Brian Peters. "Peaking at just under half a million . . . we're delighted. We've built up nicely. Professional boxing needed some continuity, some sort of regularity. Not since the days of Barry McGuigan has there been live boxing. It has been a great relationship with RTÉ."
The highest peak share of recent weeks went to the Irish soccer team, who scored a high of 688,000, but which represented a smaller 31 per cent share of the audience. Ireland's rugby success against Australia attracted a peak audience of 616,000 people and represented 37.6 per cent of the audience share.
While the International Rules series hit a peak of 476,000, which was significantly lower than the figure for the Euro qualifier, it represented the highest market share of the five principal November events with 46.6 per cent.
"The viewing figures for Saturday night's title fight prove that Bernard Dunne has captured the public's imagination and RTÉ are delighted to have been able to bring all of his bouts to the public free to air," said Glen Killane, RTÉ Head of TV Sport.
The figures for all of the events listed are considered good by the network with the disparity between market share and peak viewing figures explained by what other programmes are on at the same time as the various events.
For example, if a match is being screened at the same time as any of the popular soaps, the match will still get a lot of people watching it but the market share could be down because a significant number of people are simultaneously watching the soaps.
