On the eve of the Big Bash League Finals, the Foxtel Group has confirmed the 2020/21 season has continued Australia’s summer obsession with cricket on Fox Sports with an average live audience for the 56-game regular BBL season of 256,000, up 28% on 2019/20.*
Coverage of the Big Bash League 10 Finals series starts on Friday January 29 with all matches available on Seven, Fox Cricket and Kayo.
All Foxtel Group platforms experienced growth with audiences watching on Foxtel, up 15% while streaming audiences on Foxtel Now, Foxtel GO and Kayo grew by 106% vs BBL 09.
For the 16 exclusive BBL games on Fox Cricket, the average audience was 274,000, up 41% on 2019/20 (Linear +26% , Streaming +112%) while the 39 simulcast games averaged 249,000, up 24% on BBL|9 (Linear +12%; Streaming +102%).
Fox Cricket’s share in subscription television homes grew by six percentage points year on year to 59%.
Steve Crawley, executive director Fox Sports, said: “We have been blessed with an outstanding summer of cricket. The Australia-India rivalry captured the nation’s imagination while more and more fans have chosen to watch the Big Bash League on Fox Cricket. It’s a great endorsement of investment we have made in cricket commentary and production that we have seen such outstanding audience growth in every form of the game and we are looking forward to the Big Bash Leaue finals series beginning tomorrow.”
Fox Cricket’s exclusive coverage of Sydney Thunder vs Perth Scorchers (Game 12) was the highest rating game of the season on Fox Cricket with 376,000 viewers with one of the Thunder, Renegades or Sixers appearing each top-five rated Fox Cricket games.
See also: Foxtel’s record score: India’s Tour of Australia hits Fox Cricket TV ratings for six