Melbourne Cup romps home in the ratings race for Nine
Nine’s decision to buy the rights to the Melbourne Cup for the next six years, despite a looming gambling advertising ban, has paid dividends in the first year.
Interestingly, it was the post-race presentation that drew the biggest national audience, with 2.218 million punters tuning in for the victory march. The ‘late’ broadcast, coming just before Nine’s 6pm news drew 2.157 million viewers, slightly less than Nine News’ 2.215 million viewers, and more than the race itself.
The race managed to draw 2.123 million punters, with an average audience of 1.91 million, suggesting some late tune ins, or perhaps disgruntled punters switching off mid-race.
As mentioned above, the ‘halo effect’ of the race worked wonders for Nine: its 6pm news outrated that of Seven — a rare occurrence — while The Block managed to also outrate Seven’s 6pm news.
Elsewhere, 1.87 million race fans tuned into footage from the Melbourne Cup mounting yard, while the race preview drew 1.34 million, and the early race-day coverage pulled 1.61 million.
Even Seven got in on the racing action: its ‘Horse Racing 2024’ coverage pulled 1.2 million viewers, despite the network not having the main race.
Last year’s Melbourne Cup drew 1.68 million viewers for previous rights-holder Ten, up from the Cup’s 2022 nadir of 1.35 million viewers, nationally.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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