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In advance of the first State of Origin, the NRL has advised of promising early returns on its  $120 million investment its digital platforms.

NRL Digital, encompassing a central news website, and sites and apps across the competition’s 16 teams, went live in December with the purpose of taking control of its digital assets from Telstra.

The NRL has reported 24.4 million live streams, via its digital platforms, across the last 87 games, with an average of 2.6 million visitors per week. In addition, the number of live pass subscriptions consumers are buying via Telstra to watch matches on the handsets and devices are up 95% compared to last year.

NRL Chief Digital Officer Rebekah Horne explains “we are averaging about 300,000 streams per game, and if you add that to the TV numbers - which are broadly holding steady after the first 11 rounds - we think that is pretty good. As an industry we’ve learnt the lesson that people no longer watch just on TV, so we think this is making a difference.”

Horne advises that both South Sydney and the Melbourne Storm, are on track to write about $1 million in digital advertising revenue each this year, adding “memberships across all the clubs are up past 300,000 already this season (and) some clubs are up 30% from last year, some are up 10%. So we think this helps us. And there are also clubs doing well commercially from their digital assets as well.”

The NRL now has about 2.5 million fans across all the social media accounts, and the NRL will use the accounts to amplify events during and around the three State of Origin clashes, beginning with the first clash in Melbourne this week.

During the game, fans will be provided with information and statistics via the Telstra Tracker feature, which will also be pushed out via graphics and data via NRL social media accounts and websites.

The data is gathered from tracking devices made by ASX-listed Catapult Group International and worn by all the players.

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