Australian sport combined to delivered 504.413 million viewers across the country on free to air broadcasting more than 905 live game events in the 2024 Calendar year (aggregated average viewers). Of those 45.709 million (9.06%) were watching on free to air streaming channels, including Cricket for the first time. And these are just the ones we know about.
On Foxtel streaming services (Go/Now/Kayo), Oztam reported 140.628m aggregated average viewers, across 717 live sporting events.
Before we go further, please note all Data comes from VOZ, and the daily top 30 consolidated ratings list, as well as Oztams VPM ratings (now unfortunately discontinued) and their top 20 weekly lists. For sports like the NRL, Super Rugby and Aleague, please note that ratings from NZ, PNG, Fiji and elsewhere are pretty thin on the ground, and so international ratings may not be present in this article. Further Foxtel data for set top boxes is basically non existent with only scattered details available. As usual, silence emanates from Paramount, Stan and Optus Sport.
The Top Ratings
While the AFL Grand Final was the clear winner for Seven, the FTA top Ten list is dominated by Rugby league (3 x Origins and 1x Grand Final) and Olympic coverage. (Seven notes that its AFL Grand FInal surrounding coverage also makes the list, but we havent included pre,post, breaks or non live match coverage). The Melbourne cup comes in at 11th
Olympic coverage dominates the top 20 and top 30, with 25 programmes inside the top 40.
If you remove Olympic coverage (as Seven did in its 2024 coverage release), the top Ten also includes the Melbourne Cup, and Cricket, but the Nine network still wins 7-3.
With The Olympics gone, the top 20 is largely Cricket – the fourth test is still to be consolidated – and Test cricket makes up half the entries in the top 40.
Top rated events per Sport
With Foxtels streaming ratings, the Top 10 is dominated by the AFL, thanks to some big finals, and blockbuster viewing in the last round – the AFL takes 8 of the top 10
The AFL makes up 12 of the top 20, and the AFL and NRL split the honours at 20 matches each inside the top 40,
NBL
Opening round attendance and tv viewing soared across all subscription and streaming platforms in a record-breaking opening round, with an added record of the most attendees in League history. The seven games broadcast from Thursday to Sunday achieved more than 40% year-on-year increase in average audience on ESPN, via KAYO and Foxtel.
The Melbourne United v Tasmania JackJumpers Championship Series headlined the League’s incredible growth, with broadcast ratings up 52% on last season’s Series, including a jump in viewership on Game 5 – a 35% increase on last year.
The broadcast ratings across the entire season increased by 26%, including a more than 27% jump across the Finals.
SuperNetball
The 2024 Suncorp Super Netball season has emerged as the most watched season in history on the Foxtel Group‘s linear and streaming platforms, including Foxtel, Kayo Sports, Foxtel Now, and Foxtel Go.
This milestone marks the third consecutive year of viewership growth for the league. Streaming audiences have notably increased for three straight years, with 63% of viewers now accessing netball content on Kayo Sports, Foxtel Now, and Foxtel Go.
Over the course of the season and the finals series, more than 210 million minutes were streamed across all matches.
In June Foxtel noted that
- Super Netball’s opening round achieved the highest opening round of all time
- Super Netball achieved its biggest audience ever for a game during the Vixens v Fever game in round 7
- The 2024 Super Netball regular season has produced the top five regular season rounds in the history of Super Netball’s partnership with Foxtel Group
- The 2024 Super Netball season has produced the top 10 individual regular season match audience since the start of its broadcast partnership with Foxtel Group in 2022
Racing
Seven’s Spring Racing Carnival coverage, which includes celebrated meets on the Australian thoroughbred racing calendar and a procession of Group 1 races, has scored an average national total TV audience of 178,000.
Everest Day at Royal Randwick and the Caulfield Cup at Caulfield Racecourse reached 1.39 million people and had an average audience of 557,000. The Big Dance day at Royal Randwick reached 1.51 million, with an average audience of 192,000, while the Cox Plate at Mooney Valley reached 1.04 million with an average audience of 162,000 and the Golden Eagle day at Rosehill Gardens reached 1 million and had an average audience of 119,000.
Nine’s coverage of the Lexus Melbourne Cup on 5 November attracted a National Total TV average Audience of 1.910 million viewers, marking an 11.3% increase compared to last year.
Formula one
In June, Fox reported that The 2024 F1™ season has delivered two of the top 10 race audiences since Foxtel Group started exclusively broadcasting the rights in 2017. The 2024 F1® Australian Grand Prix streaming audiences were up four per cent year on year.
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