THE SUPERCHEAP Auto Bathurst 1000 dominated Sunday’s daytime TV landscape, though numbers were down from the substantial 2019 audience.

WORDS: Richard Craill

(Update, Tuesday 20 October) THE GROWING popularity of Foxtel’s Kayo Sports application has given the 2020 Bathurst 1000 audience ratings a boost, according to data released by Fox Sports this week.

The network confirmed a total audience of 424,000 watched the race on the network – comprised of the 347,000 already reported and an additional 77,000 watching via Kayo.

More than 550,000 hours of Bathurst coverage was consumed via the sports streaming application, which was Australia’s #2 downloaded app on Sunday.

More than 285,000 unique users accessed streaming via the app on Sunday.

The additional 77,000 viewers punches the total Great Race Audience to more than 1.5 million for 2020.

It was the second largest ever audience for a Supercars race on the platform, behind only last year’s record-breaking figure.

Fox Sports release confirmed their total audience was down 21% on 2019’s peak due to several factors – including the finish time – as we have already outlined below in our analysis.

FOOTY COMPARISONS

IN THEIR release confirming Bathurst’s numbers, Foxtel also released numbers from their AFL and NRL preliminary finals coverage on the weekend.

The NRL preliminaries attracted an average audience of 462,000 per match on Fox Sports, while AFL was just in front at 467,000 per match.

473,000 watched the Panthers v Rabbitohs match (115,000 of those on Kayo) while the Port Adelaide v Richmond clash was the most-viewed Aussie Rules game at 476,000 (a massive 139,000 watching via Kayo).

In terms of total audiences across Free-to-air and Pay TV, the Bathurst 1000 out-rated both NRL Finals last weekend.

A TOTAL audience of nearly 1.5 million has watched Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander claim the 2020 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

Shown live on Channel 10 (for the final time, at least in the foreseeable future) and Fox Sports 506, 1.47 million people watched the Great Race on Sunday as Holden’s factory team won in their final race.

669,000 watched the race on 10 in the major metro areas, while a further 347,000 watched on Fox Sports 506 with Supercars easily the most-watched product on Subscription TV on Sunday.

The Channel 10 and Fox Sports combined audience of 1.016m was down from the 1.26m drawn to the 2019 edition, but was still the second-most watched program on Australian TV yesterday.

For comparison, Sunday’s top-rated program was The Block, which drew 1.082m and topped the free-to-air channels.

683,000 watched Channel 7’s coverage of the Brownlow medal while 389,000 watched the second game of the Bledisloe Cup series earlier in the day on 10Bold and Fox Sports.

A further 461,000 watched Bathurst regionally via 10 or Win, taking the total audience to it’s 1.47m total – down from 1.84m from last year.

The audience viewing via Kayo Sports has not been released at time of publication.

This story will update as more information comes to hand.

ANALYSIS

ULTIMATELY Supercars decision to play it safe and move the race half an hour earlier on Sunday has probably cost them a slightly ‘sexier’ number when it comes to the 2020 Bathurst TV ratings.

Pushing beyond 6PM is a goldmine for TV audience figures as the number of people sitting in front of the box grows as they switch on for an evening in front of the tube.

Instead, the 11AM local start time and a rapid race – the second quickest in Great Race history – conspired to finish earlier than perhaos anyone expected; especially given the forecast for Sunday’s weather earlier in the week.

Given the year, you can’t hold it against the organisers for playing the conservative card to make sure the race was completed should the worst Bathurst weather have eventuated. Getting the race in safely was absolutely critical to a successful end to the most challenging of years.

The start time isn’t the only culprit though; Channel 10’s continually poor numbers this year won’t have helped the cause.

Their battle for audiences means there was less chance of cutting through to a broader audience in promoting an event that lacked the traditional Bathurst build up of years past.

Channel 7’s daily audience is more than double that of 10’s at the moment and next year that will benefit Supercars as they tap into a much bigger share of the TV viewing public with which to promote the race.

Fox Sport’s audience of 347,000 was solid, if unspectacular – but doesn’t take into account the growing number of people watching on Kayo Sports this year.

2020 has seen substantial growth in Foxtel’s sports-only streaming service with something of a migration across to the digital platform. It’ll be interesting to see what their number was, should they chose to release it: certainly, we expect it to add well over 150,000 to the final total.. which is meaningful.

Still, 2020 is the third straight year that 34 percent or more of the Great Race audience watched the race via Subscription TV which will be pleasing to the network chiefs who will note the loyal audience drawn by Supercars year on year.

This is the reason they’ve re-upped for another five years and keep spending the cash.

Finally, a quirk of the numbers we’ve noticed.

The Channel 10 Metro and Fox Sports audience was 1,016,000; just the second time it has been below 1.2 million in the last eleven races.

The last time it was? 2010 – which drew 1,038,000.

Is there something we’re missing about races on the first year of a new decade?

Ratings Watch Archive – Click Here

SOURCES: TV Tonight, Mediaweek, TV Black Box.

(NOTE: Numbers are overnight metro (5 capital city) and Foxtel ratings supplied by the ratings agency to media outlets and do not include any additional reporting including time shifted content, regional ratings or broader reach, unless released by the sport. They also do not include streaming numbers on Kayo or SuperView, etc).