Seven claims Cricket Test series a success despite loss for Australian cricket team
Seven has deemed its first Cricket Test series between Australia and India a success, despite a loss for the Australian team and a decline in audience from the previous time the teams battled on commercial free-to-air television.
An unsuccessful series for Australia and the shake-up of sports rights, which saw Foxtel pick up a portion of the audience and obtain rights to digital, are likely somewhat responsible for the decline in ratings compared to the 2014/2015 season on Nine.
Seven has claimed the first Test series a success
Unlike when the cricket aired on Nine, Seven is not the exclusive broadcaster of the test matches. Seven has the free-to-air rights to all men’s Test matches and all Commonwealth Bank women’s internationals, as well as 43 KFC Big Bash League and 23 Rebel Women’s BBL games. Foxtel has exclusive rights to the One Day Internationals as well as digital rights.
For the First Test, Seven averaged an audience of 399,000, with that number rising as high as 582,000 for Test Three. Test One of Foxtel averaged 179,000, according to national subscription figures.
The 2014-2015 Test series, which ran on Nine, averaged 697,522 for the first Test, and climbed as high as 1.113m for Test Three. Seven’s average audience numbers do not include audiences during rain delays, while Nine did not take this out of its total average audience number.
However, Seven has claimed 56% of the daytime commercial television audience, across the four-test series, as well as a 60% share of the 18-49 demographic and 58% of the 25-54, in line with previous predictions made by chief revenue officer, Kurt Burnette.
Natalie Harvey, Seven’s director of network sales, said partners were thrilled with the success.
“The tremendous reach of the Cricket has delivered a massive audience, and has given our Cricket partners and all advertisers unrivalled access to the key demographics they are targeting across the summer,” Harvey said.
Seven’s coverage of Test cricket will return on January 24, when Australia takes on Sri Lanka in Brisbane.
The six-year $1.182bn rights deal with Cricket Australia was first announced in April.
