Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said that "the women’s game is on the way to becoming a mainstream sport in Australia after the Women’s Big Bash League exceeded TV ratings expectations," according to Eliza Sewell of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. Saturday night’s primetime clash on Channel 10, when Melbourne Stars held off a fast finishing Sydney Thunder, "attracted a peak national audience of 637,000, with an average of 386,000." The Melbourne Renegades-Adelaide Strikers match on Saturday afternoon was "the most watched program in its timeslot across the capital cities." Last season, an average audience of 231,000 people watched the 10 televised games, which peaked with just under 400,000 watching Jan. 2’s Melbourne Derby. Sutherland said, "The difference between the peak (audience) and the average is not much, which means that people are watching it and they're watching it all the way through. ... We do know we had about a 200k average last year so we've blown that completely out (of the water), we've basically doubled it ... it's just an indication of the trajectory that the women's game's on, both in terms of the standard but also the viewability" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 12/11).
BBL DRAWS BIG: The AAP reported more than 6,000 people "turned out at North Sydney Oval over the weekend to watch the six opening round matches involving all eight teams" of the WBBL. The match between Thunder and Stars "marked the first time a stand alone women's sporting match has been broadcast" in primetime "on a commercial free-to-air network's primary channel." Saturday's WBBL TV numbers "dwarfed" those of the A-League on both free-to-air and pay-TV on Friday and Saturday (AAP, 12/11).
