WIMBLEDON 2021 serves up ratings success for Nine and Stan Sport

Coverage of Wimbledon in 2021 has proven to be a ratings success for Nine across linear television, BVOD and Stan Sport.

Across the two-week tournament, Australian’s streamed 51.8 million live minutes of video content on 9Now platform, this equates to more than 1.7 million streams.

And on Stan Sport, Wimbledon accelerated subscriber growth to a new record level. For the first time, Australian tennis fans were treated to coverage of every ball from every court of the premiere Grand Slam, with Stan Sport delivering live and ad-free coverage with full match replays, mini matches and highlights available on-demand.

The 2021 broadcast was the first time Wimbledon had appeared on Nine since 2010.

The most watched match of the tournament was the women’s final, in which Ash Barty defeated the Czech Republic’s Karolína Plíšková 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

The broadcast secured an average audience of 2.013 million (Metro: 1.511 million / Regional: 502,000) and a peak audience of 2.251 million (Metro: 1.687 million / Regional: 565,000), making it last week’s No. 1 program with all key demographics and Total People.

It is also the third highest rating program of 2021, after the first two State of Origin matches.

On 9Now, Day 12’s women’s final secured a live BVOD audience of 92,000, making it among the highest rating live streamed programs of 2021, after the first two State of Origin matches. More than 16.4 million minutes of content was streamed on Day 12.

Barty’s straight sets semi-final victory over Germany’s Angelique Kerber was the second most watched match of the tournament, boasting an average audience of 734,000 (Metro: 548,000 / Regional: 186,000) and a peak audience of 928,000 (Metro: 665,000 / Regional: 264,000).

Sunday night’s men’s final in which Serbia’s Novak Djokovic defeated Italy’s Matteo Berrettini 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3, was the third most watched match of the tournament.

It secured an average audience of 318,000 (Metro: 248,000 / Regional: 70,000) and a peak audience of 572,000 (Metro: 438,000 / Regional: 134,000).

The late-night share performance of Wimbledon 2021 contributed to 9Network and Channel 9 winning the past two weeks with all key demographics and Total People. Compared to the corresponding fortnight last year, the 9network was up by 4% with People 25-54, by 5.3% with People 16-39, by 4.8% with Grocery Shopper + Child and by 3.6% with Total People.

Brent Williams, Nine’s Head of Sport, said:

“Congratulations to Ash and Dylan on their memorable and historic victories. Indeed, the whole Australian playing group provided some incredible performances across the entire tournament.

I also want to acknowledge our studio team of Todd Woodbridge, Jelena Dokic and Sam Groth, whose insightful commentary and astute knowledge helped make our broadcast the incredible success that it was across all of Nine’s platforms.

We were delighted to also present a new unique offering on Stan Sport with tennis fans across Australia enjoying live and on-demand streaming of every match from Wimbledon.”