Australian Open first night session disastrous for Nine: audience drops 24 per cent

The night session, which kicked off with Nick Kyrgios, attracted a national average audience down 24pc from last year.

Nick Kyrgios celebrates after defeating Portugal's Frederico Ferreira Silva during their men's singles match. Picture: AFP.

The first night of the delayed Australian Open was disastrous for television broadcaster Nine Network with its audience down by nearly a quarter from last year.

The night session, which kicked-off with tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios, attracted a national average audience of 653,000, down 24 per cent from 864,000 last year.

Its audience across the five metropolitan cities, which is closely watched by advertisers, was down 23 per cent to 486,000 from 634,000 a year earlier.

That’s in stark contrast to the Australian Open’s first night session last year on January 20, with Nine at the time boasting its metro audience was up more than 17 per cent from 540,000 in 2019.

Still, Nine is pleased with the audience numbers for the Kyrgios match against Frederico Ferreira Silva , which attracted a national and metro audience of 797,000 and 605,000, respectively, on its primary channel.

Portugal's Frederico Ferreira Silva hits a return against Nick Kyrgios. Picture: AFP.

On its digital channel 9Gem, the evening match between Simona Halep and Lizette Cabrera attracted a national and metro audience of 55,000 and 32,000, respectively

Nine said Tuesday that the first day of the Australian Open, which was delayed three weeks because of the coronavirus crisis, reached “more than four million viewers across the entire day”.

The Australian understands that Seven’s telecast of the Super Bowl, which ran from Monday 10am Sydney time to around 230pm, attracted a bigger audience than the first few Australian Open matches.

The game, which saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers thrash Kansas City Chiefs, attracted a national and metro audience of 383,000 and 279,000, respectively, for Seven, up five per cent from last year.

Nationally, 417,000 viewers tuned in to watch the game‘s keenly anticipated halftime show, featuring singer The Weeknd this year. It attracted a metro audience of 319,000, according to Seven.

Seven, Nine and the ABC‘s evening news program took the top five spots on the TV metro ratings table on Monday, with Seven’s long-running drama show Home And Away in sixth spot.

Home And Away was the most popular entertainment show in the country, beating Ten’s newly launched show The Amazing Race and Seven’s minigolf program Holey Moley, which will be a concern for executives.