Nine’s third year of broadcasting the Suncorp Super Netball competition has been a great success, with a huge audience for the Grand Final between the NSW Swifts and Sunshine Coast Lightning – and viewer numbers up for the entire season.
More than 900,000 people tuned in during the Suncorp Super Netball Grand Final, with a national peak audience of 406,000 and a national average audience of 271,000 watching as the Swifts defeated the Lightning, two-time premiers, 64-47.
Across the entire season, a total of over 5.939 million viewers tuned in to at least part of one match, with a match average of 135,980 viewers (includes regional). The audience for the entire 2019 season is up 2.0 per cent on 2018.
Suncorp Super Netball also increased in average-viewer numbers across the key People 25-54 demographic, up 13.4 per cent in the 5 City Metro market. Saturday and Sunday matches were both up year-on-year for Total People, with an increase of 4.4 per cent on Saturdays and 0.5 per cent on Sundays.
With strong netball teams in Sydney and Melbourne, these markets saw significant viewer increases, with Sydney up by 11.1 per cent and Melbourne up by 8.5 per cent. Adelaide also recorded an increase, up by 9.8 per cent.
The streaming numbers on 9Now were impressive, with 40,000 live streams starts of the Grand Final, up 61 per cent from the 2018 Grand Final. There were a total of 319,000 live stream starts across the 2019 netball competition on 9Now, up 52 per cent from the 2018 season.
Nine’s Director of Sport, Tom Malone, said: “The third season of Suncorp Super Netball has been a big success, with television ratings again growing 2% as the public increasingly discover and fall in love with the sport and the athletes. At Wide World of Sports, we are so proud of our partnership with Netball Australia, Telstra and Suncorp to facilitate and promote the greatest Netball competition in the world, leading the way in professional women’s sport.
“And it’s not over yet! The Constellation Cup is only weeks away, and the Diamonds will be out for revenge against the Silver Ferns, following the World Cup defeat in July. Watch all the matches live and exclusive on Nine and 9GEM.”
Nine’s Head of Netball, Keeley Devery, said: “The Suncorp Super Netball season was a fantastic triumph, as the best players met each week to provide viewers with world-class netball. The Grand Final brought about a great State of Origin clash, with the fairytale season for the Swifts finished off perfectly by defeating the reigning champions, the Lightning.
“The Suncorp Super Netball athletes continue to get better and more inspiring, with the season going from strength to strength both on and off the court.”
Nine would like to thank principal netball partner, Suncorp, and major partners, Nissan, Samsung and Telstra for another successful year.
