The Australian Open "showdown" between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal has "scored Channel Seven its highest TV ratings for a men’s final tennis match in a decade and third most-watched ever," according to Mitchell Bingemann of THE AUSTRALIAN. Some 4.4 million Australians tuned in at the peak of the broadcast "with the match averaging 3.6 million viewers across rural and metro audiences" as Federer beat Nadal in a "five set thriller at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne." The final "pulled in the third largest audience ever for a men's tennis final for Seven and its largest ratings win" since '06, when Federer beat Marcos Baghdatis. The match was "still well below Seven's largest ever audience for a men's final at the Australian Open," which was achieved in '05 when 5.56 million tuned in to watch Lleyton Hewitt lose to Marat Safin. The men’s final "topped the women’s final on Saturday night, when 1.27 million Australians tuned in to watch Serena Williams beat her sister Venus for the title." The Federer vs. Nadal showdown "easily won the Sunday night ratings battle for Channel Seven," which pulled in an audience share of 50.6% (THE AUSTRALIAN, 1/29).
EUROSPORT COVERAGE: Eurosport celebrated a record-breaking Australian Open with Sunday's men's final beating the channel's audience record. The Grand Slam final drew more than 15.2 million viewers for Eurosport. This represents the biggest peak audience in the channel's history, beating the 11.7 million who tuned in to watch Russia vs. Poland in an Olympic volleyball qualifier in Jan. '08. It was Eurosport's most-watched tennis match of all time, with an average of 5.9 million viewers. Eurosport's coverage of the final also broke local records, with the highest average viewers for a Eurosport program in Spain and the Netherlands. In Spain, 610,000 viewers tuned in to support Spaniard Nadal. Meanwhile in the Netherlands, 503,000 viewers watched the match, translating to a 23.2% market share. Eurosport reported it reached more than 30 million viewers for the opening nine days of the tournament. This represents a 26% increase in viewers per day compared to '16, with an average of 869,000 watching the tournament each day (Eurosport).
IN FRANCE: L’ÉQUIPE reported the Nadal-Federer match drew an average audience of 1.12 million viewers on French pay-TV channel C8. Federer’s win was watched by a peak audience of 2.1 million viewers, translating to a market share of 10.2% (L’ÉQUIPE, 1/30).
