Tokyo’s lonely Olympic Games stands make way for a crowded couch
The grandstands might be eerily empty, but the Tokyo Olympics is shaping as one of the most-watched events in Australia since the Sydney Games.
The grandstands might be eerily empty, but the Tokyo Olympics is shaping as one of the most-watched events — both on television and mobile devices — in Australia since the Sydney Games.
Seven, which holds the exclusive Olympic broadcast rights in Australia, enjoyed a blistering start to its coverage, with the Opening Ceremony the most-watched program of 2021 so far, drawing 2.7 million viewers across the country on Friday night.
And although many of the marquee events at these Games will take place well outside of Australian prime time — in order to accommodate friendlier viewing times for American audiences — the lockdowns in NSW and Victoria should boost Seven’s numbers considerably.
Websites across the News Corp (publisher of The Australian) network have also experienced record traffic as a result of its Olympics coverage.
“Tokyo is undoubtedly the television Games but make no mistake they are the digital games too,” News Corp Australia’s Head of Content-Led Growth Peter Brown said on Sunday.
“In just six days, leading into the games, and since the Opening Ceremony, our journalism has attracted more than 12 million page views and scores of new subscribers.
“Australians are multi-screening TVs, devices — especially their phones — and spending a lot of time in our live blogs on our free sites, as well as subscriber-only sites.
“Lockdown is a battle for attention and I’m really pleased we have a world class team of journalists in Japan making sure all Australians stay up-to-date and ahead of the biggest stories.”
Over the coming fortnight, the Seven network will broadcast every Olympic sport on 45 dedicated Games channels across its 7plus streaming platform, as well as its main free-to-air channel and 7mate, giving viewers the chance to watch any event at the time of their choosing.
On Sunday, 238.7 million minutes were streamed on 7plus, dwarfing the previous Australian record of 86 million streamed minutes for the third State of Origin rugby league match earlier this month.
Viewing numbers for the Olympic Games aren’t included in the official TV ratings surveys, but Seven bosses are confident the strong platform provided by the sporting fortnight will lead the Kerry Stokes-controlled network to its first ratings win since 2018.
Seven holds a narrow lead over Nine in the year-to-date survey period, with a 38.2 per cent overall audience share, just ahead of Nine’s 38 per cent, according to OzTam.
Ten’s disappointing year continues, reaching its nadir on the weekend when its 5-city market share slumped to 3.3 per cent, just ahead of SBS on 2.6 per cent.
Seven’s network programming director Angus Ross said the Tokyo Games was likely to be the most-watched event on Australian television since the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
“We’re already expecting this to be the most-watched Olympics for us … but with lockdown, it will be even bigger,” he said.
Ross said the Games would give Seven a solid platform to promote its programming line-up for the second half of 2021 — namely, a rebooted version of The Voice and the second season of SAS Australia.
“We’re only in year two out of a three-year schedule rebuild,” he said.
“With the line-up we’ve got … I think we are very well-positioned to win the year.”
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