Foxtel’s coverage of the Olympic Games has delivered bumper audiences.
Numbers for the eight channels (broadcast in both HD and SD) have been merged but indicate an average of 617,767 viewers on Wednesday night from 6pm-10.30pm.
On Sunday the ‘Other STV’ share hit 29.7%, up 28.5 share points from the previous (non-Olympic) Sunday. An average audience of 946,432 viewers tuned into Olympics coverage between 6pm-10.30pm.
On Monday, the average audience was 659,247 viewers, on Tuesday it was 700,781.
Richard Freudenstein, Foxtel Chief Executive said, “Foxtel set out to provide Australians with not only the most comprehensive Olympics coverage in this country’s history but also the freedom to navigate and watch what they want, whenever they want to, across the whole competition.
“These incredible results are testament to that task, and we are thrilled that so many of our customers are tuning in and enjoying the monumental broadcast. Foxtel has truly changed the way people experience the Olympic Games.”
Foxtel’s tablet App is the number one on both the Free Apps and the Entertainment category in the App Store, and has enjoyed a huge 135,000 downloads.
“The London 2012 App is a great value-add for our sports subscribers. With all eight channels streaming plus the opportunity to catch up and find out all the statistics and results, once again, we are giving our customers the option of being able to watch the Games how and when they want,” said Freudenstein.
In the PR game that is the 2012 Olympics, Foxtel is also attracting much better word of mouth and press coverage than Nine.
I’m loving Foxtel’s coverage it’s awesome.You can’t go wrong when you have 8 channels to choose from.Note to a couple of people it’s almost impossible to keep up with the program times when showing Live Events.A game gets played into overtime you are always going to run a bit late.
Yes! Foxtel’s coverage is Fantastic!! You can watch what you want whenever you want. I agree Ray Hadley is very good at commentating the swimming that is the reason why I watched all the heats and finals, Susie O’Neil and Rebecca Wilson are good too, their combination is great!
All their commentators are good and Eddie McGuire is fantastic as Host. I also think Ch9 is doing a pretty good job too at covering the Olympics, they also have pretty good commentators with Ray Warren, his so Good as well! Michael Slater, James Brayshaw, the other James with him I forgot his last name are also good. Ken Sutcliffe, Karl Stefanovic, Cameron Williams, Leila McKinnon and Mark Nicholas are good too! I think every single thing is Outstandingly Superb.
Well Done Foxtel and Ch9 hope both keep the rights for the Olympics for a long time to come.
The HD channels are still bitrate staved running around 6Mb/s. Just think if it was 14Mb/s as it was when they started HD! it shows up in water sports but its still better than SD that’s why studio shots look great no movement,well done Foxtel especially the app love it
Yes Foxtels coverage has been fantastic. Been watching the Basketball without any interuptions. I got up this morning to watch 100 m. One of the great sporting moments. Also been listening to the ABC. This easily beats nine’s coverage. If this is the future of sport I am prepared to pay. Once again well done Foxtel.
Over the weekend i have been pissed off with Foxtel’s coverage. All of a sudden they have decided that scheduling events will be on different channels. For example the athletics was due to be on 4 and 5 and ended up being on 1 and another channel. I set recordings so i don’t miss stuff i want to watch and instead i got volleyball and hockey matches. What gives Foxtel?
It has been a superior product to Nine don’t get me wrong but stop screwing with the schedules.
Been glued to the Foxtel coverage since last saturday arvo. They’re doing an awesome job, and I too enjoyed the swimming commentary from Ray Hadley, Susie O’Neil and Rebecca Wilson (the latter of whom I usually cannot stand!) Their Vancouver 2010 coverage was great but this has been a big step up IMO.
I would prefer if Foxtel charged $40 or more for the Olympics if it meant we would get better quality HD channels. The current Foxtel Olympic channels are woeful quality and so pixelated.
This is because they have cut costs by renting less transponders on the satellite. As a result we are getting 50-60% less bitrate than the Fox Sports HD Channels.
Was liking the foxtel coverage over ch none until I heard the interview by the pillock interviewing the pole vaulters, one qualified one not – questioning was beyond the pale, yes there are 8 channels or so to cover but if i hear that sort of disrespect again I will cancel subscription. This is the sort of media infiltration that takes away from the pure (ish) competition
Well Foxtel doesn’t have to stick to strict guidelines such as free to air networks have.
Jezza 55, the gentleman you are referring to is Ray Hadley who is a very accomplished sporting commentator and in my opinion is better than Rabbits Warren on Channel 9. I think you may be allowing your political leanings cloud your opinion a little bit I think.
Absolutely agree 100% Foxtels coverage totally obliterates 9′s woeful coverage.
Have enjoyed actually watching live the rowing,archery,shooting,weightlifting,table tennis and badminton to name a few.The best thing is you get to see everything going on during the competition and get to watch not only the finals but all the people having a go in the lower tiers of the competitons eg the girl from UAE who was the 1st woman ever to represent her country in weightlifting.She may have come last by a long shot but she had a go.
Foxtel’s coverage is brilliant and having a IQ HD/MyStar HD allows for all your favourite events to be recorded in real HD (as opposed to what Gem passes for HD).
I just hope Foxtel don’t go back to charging an arm and a leg when the Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games and next Olympics come along as they have made it free to sports subscribers and it should remain that way. I have the lot (all channels) and HD and the price of that is rediculous ($130+ a month), so charging roughly $40 every 2 years for these global events is just plain wrong. Fingers crossed this is left in the past!
The coverage is good except for the guy doing the swimming. He should have stayed looking after his blue rinse talkback radio grumpies. Who’s going to stop the boats? His mate Tony, what about that carbon tax stopping gold fish from breeding? Please foxtel I am a subsciber, never again this guy. i have had to watch chanel 9′s coverage instead.
Not surpised, complete coverage and you can channel flick easily to watch what you want
@goffy: Channel Seven did not onsell the weightlifting at the Beijing Olympics to SBS. SBS didn’t show one second of weightlifting, even on the day of the heavyweights and superheavyweights. I had a screaming match down the phone with a woman from SBS when I looked at the TV guides on those days and saw no weightlifting listed. Channel Seven showed a 90 second wrapup of the weightlifting each night but spent hours on BMX, rowing, equestrian and basketball. Neither SBS or Seven showed any men’s shot put, hammer throw, wrestling or discus but curiously, Seven showed 90 minutes of women’s hammer throw.
I signed up with Foxtel for the Olympics this time so I could see those sports. I haven’t been disappointed. My only regret is that I didn’t get a second Foxtel box for the spare room as there have been clashes a few times and I wanted to watch and record both events.
I urge Sen Conroy to amend the Broadcasting Act to ensure that all future Olympics must be shown on Foxtel as well as free-to-air because it is my worst nightmare that with the dire financial position of Nine, the Olympics might go back to Channel Seven at some point in the future and our freedom to watch the sports we want will be snuffed out.
Loving Foxtel’s coverage. I record the swimming finals over night and watch them when I wake up as if it was live. And the best bit is you can fast forward to the events you want to see. The only negative for me is Ray Hadley. He has no idea what position swimmers are in during a race. So often he’ll call an Australian swimmer as being in say second or third spot, when clearly they’re in 4th or 5th. As soon as they hit the wall and their position comes up, he corrects himself. It’s not a big deal, but if you going to call a race, I think it’s important to be aware of who is where and be relatively accurate, otherwise as a commentator you just become a distraction.
Channel 9′s hierarchy of sport it quite clear, swimming/rowing first, and then hockey/basketball/water polo during their breaks. There isnt really much time during the morning session to show anything else.
At least when 7 sold it off to sbs, volleyball, soccer, hockey, weightlifting and fighting sports got a chance to show their craft…
Foxtel is foxtel, always going to do a better job at showing more diverse sportlist.
Happy for them, they are doing a great job. Like some above I have only watched the opening ceremony on 9.
Terrible though, caught myself watching the 10m air rifle final the other night…and getting caught up in the whole thing and actually enjoying it!!!
Foxtel is brilliant. Love the iPad app. Watched the swimming heats the other night on the train.
Nine choosing Karl over Eddie is a big mistake, and shirvo has grown into a great anchor working each night with Eddie.
Eddie said once that foxtel is the future of sports tv, and after these Olympics he may be right
So 700k x $18 (if they don’t have Sports) that’s around $12.6 million! Yes I know the actually number of people getting sports just for this month is way less than that.
What I like is being able to switch between the 8 channels until there is something I like, not wait for Nine to do the switching.
I havent seen any of the foxtel coverage as i dont buy my TV… having said that …good on them for doing a great job…and Channel 9 started off poorly but has improved…i think they have taken notice of social media and have adapted their coverage, i think the next time thay cover olympics they will try and do it multichannel as well… they have too, because as @pete says and i do agree with him..they are doing their best with one channel… when 7 did the china games…at least they could push viewers to SBS… and from memory alot of people preferred SBS coverage
The coverage is simply brilliant! Eddie and Shirvo are so much better than Karl over on Channel 9. Ray Warren/Hadley are the most annoying commentators and cannot stand them. Every sport live or replayed when London is asleep.
The Foxtel coverage is fab. I have watched everything bar the Opening Ceremony on Foxtel and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Love Matt Shirvington, he is a great anchor. Have also enjoyed Ray Hadley, Rebecca Wilson and Susie O’Neill commentating the swimming – their chemistry is very good. Have also enjoyed the rowing and equestrian commentators. Very well done to Foxtel, I’m loving it all so far!!! Those ratings are well deserved.
No wonder they are doing so well.
Eddie Everywhere and Matt are excellent and the coverage on each of the channels is superb.
Nine feels like a highlights package with very rare live stuff. Very ordinary coverage but probably the best they can do within the confines of one channel coverage compared to Foxtel’s eight channels.
And thanks to Foxtel for not adding an extra subscription fee to the channels
I have to commend Foxtel on their outstanding coverage of the Olympics. The only time I’ve watched Channel 9 has been to see the swimming finals because I can’t stand Ray Hadley.
Yes this is what I am watching….not nine…