Australian cricket fans have parked themselves on the couch in big numbers on Day One of the Boxing Day Test.
Data obtained by TV Blackbox reveals the FOX Cricket commercial-free coverage from Melbourne set a new record for the highest rating day of Test Match cricket on the channel.
As Australian captain Pat Cummins won the toss and sent the English team in for another day of misery at the crease, the Foxtel Group achieved an average national audience of 526k via traditional pay-tv viewers and streaming platforms including Foxtel Go, Foxtel Now and Kayo.
The result was the highest rating day for a Test match of all-time; up +9% on the previous record holder which was the 2021 Ashes 2nd Test, Day 4 in Adelaide.
The result was also up 13% on the previous highest rating Boxing Day match which was 2020/2021 Test vs India.
Day one also delivered impressive results for the Seven Network with the free-to-air broadcast recording an average audience of 1.46 million viewers nationally for the third session and 994,000 in the capital cities.
The second session had 1.26 million viewers nationally and 880,000 in the capital cities, while 1.14 million free-to-air viewers nationally tuned in for the first session and 791,000 in the capital cities.