A win for the Australian owned Vow And Declare in the 2019 Melbourne Cup has delivered the 10 Network an average national audience of 1.92 million viewers.
In the 5-City metro markets, 10 achieved a figure of 1.44 million viewers for the race broadcast.
The peak audience figures for the event were marginally higher at 1.975 million nationally (1.483 million metro)
The 2019 ratings figures are a record low for the event, and were well down on last year’s numbers. The result will be a considerable disappointment for the network.
By comparison, the 2018 Melbourne Cup achieved an average national audience of 2.5 million viewers (1.836 million metro) The 2018 figure peaked at 2.7 million during the final stages of the race on Seven.
Average audience for the race by City:
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Melbourne – 662k (997k in 2018)
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Sydney – 269k (372k)
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Brisbane – 191k (227k)
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Adelaide – 88k (104k)
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Perth – 114k (136k)
This year’s race was also broadcast on the Seven owned multichannel Racing.com. Official rating’s data for this channel is unavailable due to it not being included in the Oztam system.
Independent data sourced by TV Blackbox indicated approximately 8% of Fetch TV subscribers watched the Racing.com coverage of the event, while 43% of Fetch subscribers consumed the coverage on 10.
The Melbourne Cup was broadcast this year on 10 as part of a new five-year broadcast deal. The CBS owned network has reportedly paid 100 million in cash and contra to secure the four-day carnival.
The decline in viewership comes after a month of negative headlines regarding cruelty in the racing industry after the ABC 7:30 program aired a special investigation.
Attendance at Flemington was the lowest on record since 1993, with just 81,400 on course. Betting companies including TabCorp have also reported a decline in turnover on the day.
Network 10 chief executive officer, Paul Anderson, said:
“Network 10’s return to Flemington Racecourse as the official broadcaster of the Melbourne Cup Carnival has been an outstanding success and reinforced the Carnival’s position as Australia’s pre-eminent horse racing event.
“The big audiences across all of 10’s platforms highlight that no other sporting event captures the mood and attention of the nation quite like the Lexus Melbourne Cup.
“We are building a very different and unique long-term broadcast partnership with the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) that exists on all platforms and has captured a much younger audience by showcasing all the racing, fashion and entertainment across this iconic carnival,”
On 10 Play, the Melbourne Cup had an additional 90,000 online viewers. Across all of yesterday, 10 Play and 10 Daily had a combined 618,000 unique visitors, including a record number of 513,000 for 10 Play.
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