The Big Bash League "signed off with a big television ratings win, smashing the Australian Open for six on Sunday night," according to Sam Landsberger of the HERALD SUN.
Figures released by the networks on Monday "showed 851,000 tuned into Aussie favourite Daria 'Dasher' Gavrilova’s marathon Round 3 loss" -- 53% fewer than Mike Hussey’s "fairytale farewell" in Sydney Thunder’s maiden championship.
Channel 10 recorded 1.3 million metro viewers in Australian capital cities "as the two sports went head-to-head for the last time this summer." The disparity between a domestic cricket game and a grand slam "further underlined the arrival of the Big Bash on the sporting calendar."
The spike in BBL interest "is set to net Cricket Australia a huge cash windfall with the next broadcast deal tipped to triple in price." Channel 10 forked out just A$20M per season for a five-year contract, which expires after the '17-18 summer (HERALD SUN, 1/25).
AMERICAN FOOTBALL: QUOTENMETER's Sidney Schering reported German free-to-air TV channel Sat.1 drew more than 1 million viewers for its broadcast of the AFC Championship game on Sunday. The first quarter of the game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos attracted 1.19 million viewers. In the target demographic 14-49, the game, which started at 10:15pm, was watched by 840,000 viewers. The numbers translated into market shares of 4.1% and 7.2%, respectively. The market shares dropped to 3.7% and 6.8% in the target demo during the second quarter starting at 10:45pm. They increased to 4.9% and 8.5%, respectively, during the third quarter. The fourth quarter drew 1 million viewers, including 730,000 in the target demo. The figures translated into market shares of 8.2% and 13.6%, respectively (QUOTENMETER, 1/25).
