Matildas smash 20-year-old ratings record
The Matildas’ win over France on Saturday night was the biggest TV sporting audience for more than two decades, reaching an average of more than 4.17 million people – not including the hundreds of thousands of people watching in stadiums, pubs and on outdoor screens.
Preliminary ratings data compiled by measurement company OzTAM and Network Seven, which owns the free-to-air rights to the game, shows it reached 3.69 million people on Seven’s main channel, plus another 472,000 on its 7plus TV app – making 4.17 million in total.
It reached 7.2 million people in total, and peaked at 4.43 million at any one time.
The quarter-final game, in front of more than 49,000 people at Brisbane Stadium, went to extra time after a 90-minute stalemate. It then went to a record-long penalty shootout with 20 shots, where the deadlock was finally broken by a strike from Cortnee Vine.
Matilda fans celebrate after the Matildas win the penalty shootout, at Darling Harbour in Tumbalong Park.
Since 2001, the top TV audiences have been previously listed as the 4.043 million people who tuned in for Lleyton Hewitt’s five-set match against Marat Safin in 2005, 4.029 million for the finale of MasterChef Australia 2010, and the 4.016 million people watching the 2003 Rugby World Cup between Australia and England.
A Seven spokesman said the 2013 My Kitchen Rules finale had 4.51 million viewers, nationally.
In the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Cathy Freeman’s victory in the 400-metre race reportedly reached 8.8 million people. OzTAM, which is owned by the Seven, Nine and Ten networks, started measuring ratings in 2001, after the contract with previous provider AC Nielsen ended.
The game builds on growing audiences for each Matildas game of the tournament.
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