Australian TV viewers have stayed up late to witness Ash Barty become the first Australian woman to win Wimbledon in 41 years, defeating KarolÃna PlÃÅ¡ková 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.
Based on correct broadcast times (11.00pm-1.04am AEST) the Saturday night contest attracted a national audience of 1.985 million (Metro: 1.489 million / Regional: 496,000) on Channel 9.
The impressive audience figures more than justify the networks decision to secure broadcast rights to the prestigious tournament for the first time since 2010.
By comparison, this year’s Men’s Final of the Australian Open broadcast in prime time attracted a national audience of 1.550 million (1.173 million / Regional 377,000).
The most-watched Australian sporting event for 2021 remains the opening State of Origin contest with a national linear average audience of 2.733 million (Metro: 1.927 million / Regional: 806,000).
In addition to the free-to-air broadcast, the Women’s Final was streamed ad-free on Stan Sport and with commercials on the 9Now platform. Online audience figures were not available at the time of publication.
The strong Wimbledon result helped propel the 9network to win the week with a Total People audience share of 40.6%.
