The epic Third Cricket Test has delivered more record-breaking audiences for Fox Cricket with an average live audience for the five days of 377,000, making it the number one Sydney Test ever on subscription television.
Foxtel Group audiences watching via traditional pay-tv set-top-box services, and via streaming platforms including Foxtel Now, Foxtel GO and Kayo were up 44% vs the 2019/20 Sydney Test vs New Zealand. Linear audience increased 22% compared with last year, while the streaming audience was up +194%.
Viewership for this coverage was up 70% compared with the 2018/19 Sydney Test v India. (Linear +34%, Streaming +708% -noting Kayo was launched in November 2018).
Day Three and Four included a massive total audience for the third session of 469,000 and 470,000 respectively, with an audience of 352,000 watching the final session of Day Five as India’s batsmen toughed it out for a heroic draw.
Steve Crawley, Executive Director Fox Sports, said:
“The Australia-India rivalry has captured the imagination of the nation this summer. We have seen brilliant cricket throughout the ODI, T20 and Test series, and fans are turning to Fox Cricket in record numbers watching on Foxtel and streaming on Kayo.
“In subscription television, we know we have to deliver our customers an outstanding product through the quality of our commentary and production.
It’s a great endorsement of the hard work that everyone at Fox Sports puts in, that we now have more sports subscribers than at any point in the Foxtel Group’s history and we continue to attract record-breaking audiences.”
With the Fourth Test starting in Brisbane on Friday and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy still up for grabs, the 2020/21 Test Series is already tracking as the number one Test Series in subscription television history with an average audience of 381,000, up +34% vs the 2019 Test Series v New Zealand and up +44% vs the 2018 Test Series v India.
The Sydney Test also delivered a strong audience for the Seven Network with the tense final day at the SCG recording an average audience of 1.14 million viewers nationally for the third session and 778,000 in the capital cities.
The second session had 812,000 free-to-air viewers nationally and 550,000 capital-city viewers. All three sessions won their timeslots, ranking #1 in 25 to 54s, 16 to 39s and total people.
The total average national free-to-air audience across the SCG Test was 792,000 viewers, while the capital city audience was 540,000. Both were up 21% on the 2018-19 Test between Australia and India.
