Smith and Kohli show smashes Fox Sports records

Steve Smith and Virat Kohli have combined to break new ground as Fox Sports smashed the record for the most watched ODI in the history of pay TV.

India captain Virat Kohli has proven a hit with TV viewers

Proving themselves to be cricket’s true box office kings, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli have combined to break new ground as Fox Sports smashed the record for the most watched ODI in the history of pay television.

The fierce rivals put on a show in Sunday’s second match of the series, and the 585,000 average viewers toppled the 2015 World Cup final as the highest-rating 50-over game ever and also made it the third most watched subscription TV sports program of all time behind the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi- final and final.

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With Kohli set to fly home after the first Test next month, Fox Sports were well positioned to be the big winners from his baby bombshell as the exclusive rights holders to the six white-ball fixtures the superstar will feature in.

And that has paid immediate dividends with ratings across the first two games up 39 per cent on last year’s three-game series, also against India, putting it on track to become the highest-rating ODI series in subscription television history.

“The women are the best in the world and now Australia’s ODI men’s team is performing better than we’ve seen in modern times against top-rated India and Virat Kohli – it doesn’t get any better,” said Fox Sports Executive Director Steve Crawley.

“Beginning the summer with the white ball has proven to be a hugely successful formula for Cricket Australia.”

Game two on Sunday alone delivered a whopping 585,000 viewers as Australia secured a 51-run victory with Smith scoring his second consecutive 62-ball century – trumping the 2015 cricket World Cup final by 41,000 fans.

On Friday, 469,000 watched as Australia drew first blood following centuries to Smith and captain Aaron Finch.

Underlining the impressive numbers, it can also be revealed that Sunday’s fixture was the third most-watched sports program on pay TV of all time.

Only the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi-final (734k) and final (649k) drew more eyeballs in the long history of sport on pay TV.

Game three takes place on Wednesday at Manuka Oval in Canberra.

In another plus for the broadcaster, the Sydney Thunder’s thumping WBBL final victory over the Melbourne Stars was the highest-rating WBBL pay TV fixture of all time – with 131,000 people, up 24 per cent on last year’s final, watching as Heather Knight smashed a six to deliver the Thunder a second championship.