Television results laid a fantastic foundation for the Club’s commercial success, however the Club finished third overall in total television ratings in 2014 behind AFL Premiers Hawthorn and fellow NRL Grand Finalists the Bulldogs. Showing that this is not an isolated event for a Grand Final year, the Rabbitohs have averaged more than 20 million television viewers for the last three seasons. Click here to read about the 2013 statistics. The big difference for the Rabbitohs in 2014 was the Club’s much higher appeal across non-traditional media with online exposure accounting for close to one-third of the jersey’s total exposure. “The increase in online exposure is very exciting for Club sponsors,” Rabbitohs CEO Shane Richardson said. “The Club is in a fantastic position where Rabbitohs content is being consumed across multiple channels. “Having a scenario where our partners obtain exposure from a combination of match attendance, television, print and online allows us to deliver extremely well-balanced partnerships with fantastic return on investment.” Following the trend of online content consumption, the Club’s internal media and social media channels such as Facebook and www.rabbitohs.com.au have also grown significantly in 2014:

3rd in Total Social Media Following of 478,957 as of 18 December 2014 including:

The South Sydney Rabbitohs was the eighth most talked about event or thing in 2014 amongst the 13 million users of Facebook in Australia, beating the FIFA World Cup and the Melbourne Cup to be the number one sporting team or item talked about on the social media behemoth. Adding to the significant broader media appeal, the Club backed up the result with an increase in Membership of 11.5% which saw 30,563 members join the Rabbitohs family in 2014. This figure ensured the club boasted the largest membership base in the NRL once again increasing from the base of 27,392 in 2013. The Club has already signed up over 24,000 Members for the 2015 and is striving to surpass a new Membership record of 35,000 Members in the 2015 Season. In terms of merchandise, the Rabbitohs’ Licensed Merchandise Program was the number one NRL program in 2014, leading the league year’s end. The Grand Final appearance and victory was a real boon for the Rabbitohs Merchandise department, with Rabbitohs Grand Final t-shirts and merchandise out-selling both AFL Grand Finalists combined in the week leading up to that glorious day in October. The shop website had over 700,000 views in Grand Final week alone, and between September and November 2014, merchandise sales through the Rabbitohs Online Megastore were up 420% on the same period last year.