Ipsos iris results have found the opening rounds of the AFL and NRL footy season consumption doubled in March.
The time spent per person consuming online sports content doubled in March to 74 minutes on average a month, up from 35 minutes in February.
In the sports category, more than 12.4 million people used a sports website or app last month, and the total audience grew by 4.3% over February.
The charts below show the Sports brands’ ranking during March 2023 by online audience size.
At the top of the rankings is Fox Sports whose audience grew by 16.4% from the previous month. News.com.au’s sport section also saw a jump up by 17.2% from the last month followed.
Meanwhile the AFL online audience grew to 249.6% as the NRL audience rose by 86.3%, marking the start of the opening rounds of each code’s season.
Major news events such as the NSW election and Oscars buzz saw more than 20 million (20.3 million) people use a news website or app during the month of March.
Ipsos iris, which officially launched in March, provides accurate data about the 21 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop and tablet devices.
Overall, Australians aged 14+ spent 3.5 hours per day, or more than 107 hours, online on a PC/laptop, smartphone, or tablet device in March, and this is on par with time spent per day the month prior.
The most consumed online categories by total audience size in March included social networking (21 million), technology (20.8 million), search (20.8 million), retail & commerce (almost 20.7 million), entertainment (20.6 million), finance (20.4 million) and news (20.3 million).
The Ipsos iris data, Australia’s new digital audience measurement currency endorsed by the IAB Australia, also found that people aged between 25-39 were the largest cohort online.
Meanwhile people aged between 55-64 spent the most time online in March.