The Matildas’ epic shootout victory over France on Saturday was the largest television sport event in at least a decade, with an estimated average audience in Australia during the game of 4.17 million.
According to preliminary OzTAM data, the 7-6 penalty win reached more than 7.2 million people across Channel Seven and its streaming service 7plus. The figures made it the top television program for the year, eclipsing Monday’s round of 16 victory over Denmark.
Seven’s network head of sport, Lewis Martin, said the tournament “has brought Australia together in a way we haven’t seen for years”.
The ratings have had television executives dusting off the history books to work out just where the Matildas rank on all-time lists.
More than eight million people tuned into Cathy Freeman’s 400 metres gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Since then, Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt’s feats at Wimbledon, as well the 2003 men’s Rugby World Cup final attracted average audiences in excess of four million.
Ratings data and the advent of streaming has made historical comparisons difficult, but it is likely the audience for the Matildas’ match on Saturday was the highest since Freeman’s race.
The Matildas’ figures exceed every NRL grand final and every State of Origin game since at least 2016.
In addition to the 4 million watching on Channel Seven, several hundred thousand viewers are likely to have watched on Optus Sport.
Optus head of content Clive Dickens said his company has only ever released audience data for its highest-ever rating match, the Euro 2020 football final. “That was a million households on Optus Sport,” he said. “We did that because it was the largest ever streaming event in the history of the Australian internet.”
The streaming service reported on Sunday the Matildas v France match was its third-highest ratings stream of all-time, behind only that Euro 2020 final between England and Italy and England’s semi-final against Denmark.
On Saturday night, hundreds of thousands watched the game at live sites, stadiums and 783 bars across the country, which are also not included in the television ratings.
Dickens said the high level of interest shows the increasing support for women’s sport.
“This one is enormous because the characters and stories of the athletes capture the imagination of what I call new Australia, which is a much more younger, more diverse generation.”
Optus reported on Sunday that it has now experienced its biggest ever four-week period, driven by the Women’s World Cup and this weekend’s first round of the English Premier League.
The 472,000 viewers on 7plus also made the game the biggest ever event on Channel Seven’s streaming service.
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August 13, 2023 at 09:28AM
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Matildas’ World Cup shootout TV audience likely the biggest since Cathy Freeman race - The Guardian
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