Matildas’ historic success a bargain for Seven with record audiences tuning into the World Cup

Emerging as the highest-rating broadcast this year, Australia’s win against France is being described as a steal for Seven, which bought the rights for 15 World Cup matches for just over $4m.

The Matildas’ historic victory over France not only booked them a spot in the FIFA World Cup semi-finals but it broke 2023 viewing records this year and has been a boon for the broadcasters.

The women’s victory in Brisbane has been described by many involved in sports deals as a steal for Seven – it partnered with Optus to sub-licence the rights to 15 World Cup matches for a bargain, just over $4m The Australian understands.

The series has delivered Seven record-breaking audiences and on Saturday the epic win against France (7-6 after a penalty shootout), was watched by a national audience of 4.162 million viewers, official figures from ratings firm OzTAM showed, and it was the highest rating broadcast in Australia this year.

Fans at the Sydney FIFA Fan Festival watch the Matildas World Cup quarter-final being played in Brisbane. Picture: Getty

Seven had a national audience of 3.69 million viewers and the match also broke streaming audience records with an additional 472,000 viewers on 7plus making it the biggest streaming event ever seen in Australia.

Veteran media analyst Steve Allen said the resounding success of the Matildas and huge interest in the tournament cemented that “Seven have landed the deal of the century”.

“It’s absolutely unrepeatable,” he said.

“Not only have they got an extra hour out of it with the penalty shootout, now they’ve got an Ashes semi-final against England.

“It’s absolutely brilliant for them.”

The victory also trounced audiences for the Matildas’ win over Denmark last week, which drew 3.633 million viewers nationally and even defeated Ash Barty’s momentous Australian Open victory in 2022, which was watched by 4.096 million viewers.

Plane passengers tune into the Women's World Cup … except for one person who watched Lord of the Rings. Picture: Jacqueline Felgate/Twitter

Seven West Media’s chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette helped strike the deal with Optus to broadcast 15 FIFA World Cup matches on free-to-air after lengthy negotiations with the telco’s vice-president of TV, content and product development, Clive Dickens, alongside Jon Marquard, who heads up media and digital consultancy Janez Media.

The Australian understands that once the deal was landed, SWM managing director and CEO James Warburton took it to the Seven board for approval, and it would go on to become a deal to be the envy of other free-to-air broadcasters who missed a golden opportunity.

Seven’s network head of sport, Lewis Martin, said the network has capitalised on the series.

“We’re really using all of our platforms to promote the event and get the nation behind it, with promotion across all our programming and within our 7NEWS and Sunrise coverage,” he said.

“We have reached millions of viewers and helped raise awareness of the tournament, attract new fans to women’s football and create national moments and memories.”

Mr Dickens said the broadcaster had more than 42 million social media video views in Australia during the first four weeks.

Matildas fans in Sydney. Picture: NCA Newswire/ Monique Harmer

“It’s been way beyond our expectations,” he said.

“It’s such a boon because this generation are very much glued to their phones … and this event has captured that demographic in a way that so many others haven’t.

“The first four weeks of the tournament were our biggest month of audience in our seven-year history.”

Optus has also redeemed itself after its infamous “Flotpus” disaster in 2018 when it encountered streaming nightmares for the men’s World Cup and ended up giving the rights to SBS, which continued to air the tournament.

Mr Dickens said the company has successfully streamed more than 6000 football games since then and learned some tough lessons.

“It was important that back in 2018 the company learnt from its mistakes six years ago, but six years is a long time,” he said.

“Australians have much easier access to the internet than they do free-to-air television, it’s very uncommon for young consumers to have an aerial connected to their screen in their home.”

As for the deal with Seven, he said: “They valued the rights the highest and they understood the cultural moment we are now all experiencing.”

Optus Sport has various package deals starting from $6.99 per month to view all 64 Women’s World Cup matches – 11 matches are free on Optus and 15 are free on Seven, which Mr Dickens said was “absolutely the right thing to do”.

Mr Marquard said the model of sharing paid viewing with free-to-air broadcasters is “not only the future, it’s the present”.

“It’s been historically the way we consume sport and it was only in the 2011 (Women’s) World Cup that SBS held the rights and weren’t even showing all games live,” he said.