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Seven’s tennis takes advantage over TEN’s cricket ratings

While the Big Bash League has been finishing higher in daily rankings, Seven says the tennis numbers across two channels tell a different story.

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Seven has hit back at media suggestions that the Big Bash League has been out-stripping the Australian Open in the ratings.

The network points out that the tennis -on Seven & 7TWO- is still in front of cricket on TEN & ONE.

It follows TEN Head of Sport David Barham telling the Herald Sun, “We were dominated for years by the Australian Open tennis at the end of summer, with a few Test matches before it.

“We’ve now got three sports you can watch — Australian Open tennis, international cricket and Big Bash.

“If someone said a few years ago that you’d be producing matches that knock off the tennis, everyone would’ve laughed out loud.”

Since January 16 the BBL finished higher in the OzTAM rankings on four nights. But Seven was in front in overall network share. Nine’s One Day Cricket was also ranking higher on 2 nights.

But it’s clear that the BBL has other networks rattled this year.

Seven Head of Programming Angus Ross said the Australian Open has given the network it’s strongest start on 4 years.

“Across Channel Seven and 7TWO, we delivered great choice for viewers that has seen audiences peak over two million viewers. And across all of Australia we’ve delivered a greater combined national average audience last week of 1.16 million to Big Bash‘s 884,000.”

Channel Ten + ONE / Seven + 7TWO ratings:

January 16
Kyrgios, Federer, Kerber (985,000)
Strikers v Renegades (931,000)

January 17
Stars v Heat (985,000)
Djokovic, Gavrilova (899,000)

January 18
Kyrgios, Murray, Tomic (1,148,000)
Thunder v Strikers (803,000)

January 20
Heat v Renegades (1,027,000)
Federer, Barty, Tomic (1,000,000)

January 21
Nadal, Gavrilova, Raonic (1,024,800)
Stars v Sixers (764,000)

Average
Seven: 1,011,360
TEN: 902,000

Source: Fairfax, The Australian

12 Responses

  1. Sometimes I just sit here shaking my head. When the 1st article came out (a piece in a NewsCorp paper, not the one here), it took me all of 5 seconds to ask “What about 7Two’s figures?” To anyone that’s watched even a little bit of tennis of late, they know that sometimes the better match is on 7Two. Of course, it’s relevant to take that channel into account. Don’t forget that BBL is on ONE in some states at some times as well, which is also relevant.

    That doesn’t take away from the BBL, 10’s coverage of it, or the improved ratings it is getting. The only thing is Barham/10 should have known better. He could have simply said “improved” or “making significant ground”.

  2. Ten will do whatever it can to gain attention at this time of the year because for the rest of the year it battles with SBS or ABC for share. Lasdt week they were screaming from the rooftops about Womens BBL. Seriously is there a game that you could care less about than womens cricket?!

    The fact remains that BBL is fluff, it is like a sugar hit on TV. It’s nice to watch but the traction or engagement is negligable. Most people still could not name their local franchise, their capain or even when they are playing. Compare that to NRL or AFL and and the chasm is vast.

    This discussion is academic really as we are currently in non ratings. Once thingas get real again Nine and Seven will dominate the crap that Ten serves up like Im a Nobody and they will be back to their normal average 5 cap audience of 400,000.

    Seven are right when you look at the numbers across 7, 7Two and…

    1. The BBL is hardly ‘fluff’. It’s a cricket tournament that attracts hundreds of millions of that viewers world wide ( many more than NRL/ AFL ) and often sell out crowds. The teams play for a trophy and prize money.
      It will continue to grow. The broadcast rights will be highly sought after.

      1. Hundreds of millions of viewers? Where? Still gets outrated by international cricket here. Id love to see where these magical figures have come from….. Can’t wait for the BBL final to rate 3 million for the final Saturday night too!

    2. Based on roughneck’s analysis, there’ll be limited interest by Nine or others in the BBL rights, which simply isn’t the case and contradicts Nine’s own stated desire to obtain the BBL.

      Also the mere fact that Seven are having to defend the mighty AO ratings speaks volumes about BBL’s success.

      1. The biggest challenge Seven has in January is not BBL, it is that there arent any decent Australians playing Tennis that either dont choke in the first round or have meltdowns.

        Whenever an Australian is playing well, The Aus Open kills it on all screens. With few viable prospects apart from Russian imports/converts on the horizon, the crew at Pyrmont are probably hoping the little Lleytons are ready to swing a racquet in anger as soon as possible.

    3. Strongly disagree with the fluff as well. The game is young and growing fast and it is gaining a following. Yes its in non ratings but so is the tennis n much of the tests and one dayers.

  3. Hope Ten retains the BBL, they have given it life and fans are enjoying it in person or on TV. The only criticism l have is putting one days in the tournament calendar. The BBL should be a continuous tournament in its own right with no one day internationals nor tests within it. Great job Ten, l love your coverage.

    1. BBL should be treated like the domestic tournament it is. International cricket is the pinnacle of cricket, if you want your BBL without international interruption enjoy it in April-Sept when Australia don’t play as often and the big boys of sport are using the grounds that they’ve predominantly bankrolled improvements in.

  5. What wonderful ‘Alternate facts’ as presented by 7.. their PR seems to be looking to Spicer and Kellyanne Conway for tips which is rather scary.
    Perhaps it would have been wiser to hold off on the comments until this morning… when once again cricket (a local state based competition) beat a major international tennis event on the nations leading broadcaster..
    I also so admire 7’s new love for Regional viewers though as they get beaten by first ‘Today’, and now the cricket. it’s cute. I hope Ten starts advertising Australia’s number 1 Summer sport. Litigation for everyone!

  6. Interesting stuff… is comparing stats across a suite of same-network channels (Ten/One vs. Seven/7Two) really valid? Sure, the tennis is sometimes shown across two of Seven’s channels but that’s not the case with Ten… normally most focus on primary channels comparison though perhaps total network shares now seen by execs are more significant.
    Seems a bit of a case of lies, damn lies, and statistics to this fairly untrained eye?!
    What definite, as your piece David notes is the BBL T20 cricket certainly has shaken up the traditionally fairly sleepy summer non-ratings landscape and certainly given Seven’s Aus Open tennis coverage the type of consistently high-performing ratings competition it hasn’t had for years, if ever?
    I believe Ten has BBL for at least one more full season after the current one wrapping up with the final this Saturday. Then you’d have to think Nine would…

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