Matthew Spiranovic of Australia celebrates victory during the 2015 Asian Cup final match between Korea Republic and the Australian Socceroos at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images
The ABC’s coverage of the Socceroos Asian Cup victory over Korea Republic averaged 1.8 million viewers nationally for the entire match, including the nerve-jangling extra time finale.
The ABC said the match reached 5.3 million Australians overall; that is, 5.3 million people watched at least five minutes of the match, peaking with 3.0 million viewers watching at 10.27pm AEDT, the final minute of extra time.
The game also averaged 416,000 for Fox Sports’ HD coverage, capping a very strong tournament for the subscription TV platform.
Also on Saturday night, the Seven network’s coverage of the Australian Open women’s final, in which Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova, averaged 1.5 million viewers nationally.
In preliminary OzTAM ratings, the Asian Cup final averaged 1.081 million metro viewers for the match proper and 1.672 million for the extra-time period while the Australian Open averaged 972,000 metro viewers and 1.173 million for the “presentation”. Last year’s shorter women’s final averaged 1.38 million metro viewers for Li Na’s victory.
The ABC’s coverage of the Queensland state election on ABC and ABC News 24 had a combined average national audience of 466,000 viewers, and a reach of 2.1 million viewers, including 959,000 in Queensland, according to the ABC.
“The ABC’s coverage of both the thrilling Asian Cup final and the election result in Queensland demonstrated our ability to cover multiple events of national and state importance across all platforms,” ABC managing director Mark Scott said.
“The Asian Cup final in particular brought many new viewers to the ABC and we are very proud of the results.”
The Asian Cup final was screened on ABC2 in Queensland, where the match averaged 136,000 viewers and the extra-time period 194,000 while the simultaneous ‘Queensland Votes’ coverage in that state on the main ABC channel averaged 109,000 viewers. The audience including regional Queensland rose to 223,000. ABC News 24 was the top digital multichannel of the night with a 4.0 per cent share.
In Brisbane, Nine’s ‘Election 2015: Review’ averaged 146,000 viewers. Figures for the subscription TV platform and Sky News Australia’s coverage were not available.
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