Nearly 1.5 million Australians watch Netball on TV

New research from Roy Morgan shows 1,476,000 Australians watch Netball on TV – and contrary to old stereotypes, that figure includes plenty of men. Netball’s TV viewership is around two-thirds women (1,002,000) but includes almost half a million men (474,000).

Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball is the latest sporting league to return to play this week, with all matches relocated to Queensland following the latest border restrictions introduced by the Queensland Government in response to a renewed outbreak of COVID-19 in Sydney.

Netball’s TV viewership is split fairly evenly across age groups led by people aged 50-64 (402,000) and 35-49 (393,000) – each representing just over a quarter of TV viewers. Close behind are those aged 65+ (352,000) and under 35 (329,000).

TV Viewership of Netball by Gender & Age in Australia: 2020

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, April 2019 – March 2020, n= 13,208. Base: Australians 14+.

This new data comes from the Roy Morgan Sports Monitor including sports participation and TV viewing of sports as part of the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, Australia’s most comprehensive consumer survey, derived from in-depth interviews with around 50,000 Australians each year.

Australians in ‘Leading Lifestyles’ and ‘Hearth and Home’ Helix Personas communities are the most likely to watch Netball on TV, ‘Metrotechs’ are the least likely

A look at Netballs’ TV viewership by Roy Morgan’s Helix Personas communities shows more than half of all viewers are in either the Leading Lifestyles (28%) or Hearth and Home (24%) communities. Both communities are over-represented amongst Netball’s TV viewership.

100 Leading Lifestyles: Focused on success and career and family, people in the Leading Lifestyles Community are proud of their prosperity and achievements. They are big spenders and enjoy cultured living to the max.

400 Hearth and Home: Closest to the average Australian, life revolves around the home for these contented Australians who embrace conventional family life. Perennial home improvers, they see their homes as an expression of their status and achievements.

However Netball needs to find new ways to connect its broadcast product with the younger and ‘trendy’ Metrotechs community which is the most under-represented community and comprises only 9% of Netball’s TV viewership. 

200 Metrotechs: Socially aware, successful, career focused and culturally diverse, Metrotechs are trend and tech focused. They are committed experience seekers, willing to spend big on the best of city life and thrive on being out and about in the world.

Australia’s quintessential Netball player likes to be out and about – and taking Aussie holidays

Of course Netball is not just a TV sport, it is one of Australia’s most widely played team sports, with 693,000 playing the sport either regularly or occasionally.

The quintessential Netball player is a young woman aged 14-24 – half of all Netball players are in this age group – working part-time but nevertheless a big spender on discretionary items and belonging to the Leading Lifestyles community as a 101 Bluechip, 107 Domestic Bliss or 109 Humanitarians persona.

She’s a lover of being active, far more likely than the average Australian to report ‘doing as many sports as possible’. She’s also more likely to agree ‘The Government is doing a good job running the country’, ‘Aboriginal culture is an essential component of Australian society’ and she’s ‘optimistic about the future’.

She enjoys a quick getaway and ‘likes to go away on weekends’ and is ‘always very active on holidays’ and she’s more likely than the average Australian to ‘like taking holidays within Australia’.

Her food habits show she’s more likely than average Australians to eat meals at fast food places, cafes, licensed restaurants, pubs or hotels and also more likely to order pizza to home delivery. She has a competitive streak: as well as playing Netball she’s more likely to play board games, pool/snooker/ billiards, video games and computer games than other people.

She enjoys getting out and about for entertainment and is more likely than other Australians to go to night clubs, rock or pop music concerts, live theatre, ballet, opera, the cinema, but she also likes to entertain friends and family or hold a dinner party when she can.

Her media choices show she’s more likely to watch Subscription TV and listen to commercial radio than the average Australian, and less likely to read a newspaper, catalogue or magazine. Channel 9 is her favoured outlet for commercial TV and she’s far less likely to watch either the ABC or SBS than others.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the new (much delayed) Suncorp Super Netball season has a chance to find new audiences during a time many Australians – and particularly Victorians – are stuck at home during a prolonged lockdown period:

“Netball in Australia attracts an audience of nearly 1.5 million TV viewers and the ability to commence the season despite the disruption caused by COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity to attract new eyeballs to one of the country’s most widely played team sports.

“Unsurprisingly, those most likely to play Netball tend to be younger – over three quarters of all players are aged under 35. However, this situation is reversed when it comes to watching Netball on TV – over three-quarters are aged over 35.

“There are several ways to reach these younger and tech-savvy viewers with their media consumption defined by heavy internet usage, higher cinema attendance, listening to commercial radio and watching subscription TV, while they are far less likely to read newspapers or catalogues. Unsurprisingly, the home of Netball in Australia, the Nine Network, is their favourite commercial TV channel.”

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