Olympics top TV sport ahead of AFL, Comm. Games & Cricket
The Olympics – encompassing both Summer and Winter Olympics – is Australia's most popular TV sporting viewing experience with nearly 8.7 million Australians watching the Olympics almost always or occasionally when on TV.
Over 1 million Australians almost always or occasionally watch leading Winter Olympics sports* including Figure skating, Snowboarding and Snow skiing on TV whether as part of the Olympics or not.
Closer to home the AFL is the leading domestic sport with almost 7.7 million Australians watching various AFL sporting events on TV headlined by the 6.5 million that watch the AFL Grand Final. Although only in its second year, 2.7 million Australians already watch the AFL Women’s (AFLW) on TV. These figures put the AFL just ahead of the upcoming Gold Coast Commonwealth Games with 7.5 million viewers and Australia's favourite summer sport of Cricket on 7.4 million viewers.
Two other sports attract over 6 million TV viewers including the NRL which attracts 6.7 million viewers with its most popular sporting event the annual State of Origin – with 5.8 million viewers and the traditional summer sport of Tennis with nearly 6.6 million viewers although viewing of Tennis is heavily skewed towards the Australian Open – watched by almost 6.5 million viewers.
Horse racing, which attract almost 5.5 million TV viewers including just under 5.4 million to watch the Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday of November and Motor racing with over 5.3 million viewers are the only other sports to attract over 5 million TV viewers. The Bathurst 1000 in early October is the most popular Motor racing event on TV each year attracting nearly 3.5 million viewers.
Most Popular Sports to View on TV*
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source. January – December 2017, n= 15,169. *Full list of TV Sports covered by Roy Morgan is provided below.
Sports TV Viewing by Helix Persona Community
Sport is well-known as an important viewing product for broadcasters looking to reach large audiences and a total of over 15.4 million Australians watch some form of sport on TV equal to 76.8% of Australians aged 14+ - and these viewers are spread across all seven of the Helix Personas communities, however different communities enjoy watching different sports.
Roy Morgan Helix Personas – Click through to learn more.
Helix Personas is a unique and powerful consumer segmentation and data integration tool that combines sophisticated psychographic and behavioural data to classify the Australian population into 56 Personas and seven communities. Helix Personas uses a combination of Roy Morgan Single Source data and third party data sources.
This information is used to understand future buying intentions and media consumption patterns. These are easily integrated with third party datasets.
Analysing TV sports viewing by Helix Personas communities reveals millions of Australians across all seven communities watch sport led by two communities opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum - nearly 3.9 million in the Leading Lifestyles community and over 2.8 million in the Battlers community.
TV Viewers of Sports by Helix Persona Community
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source. January – December 2017, n= 15,169.
Olympics tops for both, but Leading Lifestyles more into Tennis while Battlers prefer NRL
Analysing the TV Sports viewing habits of the Leading Lifestyles and Battlers communities shows there are key differences to the sports the two communities watch on TV.
The Olympic Games leads viewership for both Leading Lifestyles – 2.4 million TV viewers and Battlers – over 1.4 million TV viewers, however the Commonwealth Games holds greater appeal as the second most popular TV sport for Leading Lifestyles with over 2 million viewers while Cricket with 1.4 million viewers is second for Battlers.
Furthermore, Tennis, especially the recent Australian Open, is a Top 5 TV sport for the Leading Lifestyles community while Battlers are more interested in watching the NRL. The 2018 NRL season is set to kick off next Thursday night when St. George take on the Brisbane Broncos at Kogarah.
Leading Sports for TV Viewing for Leading Lifestyles & Battlers
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source. January – December 2017, n= 15,169.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says TV sport is the most valuable content broadcasters possess and the millions of eyeballs sports draw are vital resources Australia's leading broadcasters will pay to hold onto in an increasingly competitive marketplace:
“The data shows sport is of interest across the board but that different sports appeal to different community segments. For this reason and the ‘live’ nature of the viewing experience live sport is the most valuable commodity for TV networks battling to retain viewership in an age marked by a proliferation of new broadcast channels. Live streaming via subscription TV services like Netlifx has taken off in recent years, and live streaming sporting events directly to tablets and even the latest iPhone is an increasingly important part of the broadcast mix.
“However, despite the increasing channels consumers can use to view their favourite content, including live sport, the traditional TV media channel remains ‘King’ for the moment and most Australians turn on their TVs when they want to watch the AFL or NRL Grand Final – as shown by two special Roy Morgan Snap SMS surveys conducted immediately following both title deciders in 2017.
“The biennial Olympics remain the top TV sport for Australian viewers with nearly 8.7 million Australians watching the Olympics on TV when they can. The bumper ratings for the just concluded Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea bode well for the next two Olympics which are both being held in similarly favourable time-zones.
“The 2020 Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan, and the 2022 Winter Olympics are in Beijing, China. Channel 7 holds the rights for the Tokyo Games however the rights for Beijing are still up for grabs.
“On a domestic level the leading sports are clearly the AFL with nearly 7.7 million TV viewers and Cricket with over 7.4 million TV viewers and their leading sporting products are the AFL Grand Final with over 6.4 million TV viewers and One-Day International Cricket with nearly 6.2 million TV viewers. Although only a newly established competition, the success of the AFL Women’s (AFLW) – which boasts 2.7 million TV viewers already shows there is great potential in wider coverage of women’s sport.
“However, behind these market leaders there are other valuable sporting properties that attract millions of TV viewers including the NRL with over 6.7 million TV viewers, Tennis with nearly 6.6 million TV viewers and Horse Racing with almost 5.5 million TV viewers.
“These sporting properties are among the most valuable of content on Australian television and as speculation continues that international media and content giants including Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, Alphabet/Google and others are considering buying broadcast rights for these sporting products Australia’s existing TV networks are likely to continue to pay whatever it takes to hold onto their most reliable viewing products.”
*Sports measured for TV viewing by Roy Morgan:
- Over 5 million TV viewers.
Olympic Games, AFL: AFL Pre-season, AFL Regular season, AFL Finals, AFL Grand Final, AFL Women’s, Commonwealth Games, Cricket: Test match cricket, One-Day international cricket, Twenty20 Cricket/ Big Bash Cricket, NRL: NRL Regular season, NRL Finals, NRL Grand Final, NRL – State of Origin, Tennis: Australian Open, Other Tennis, Horse Racing: Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate, Golden Slipper, Other Horse Racing, Motor Racing: Bathurst 1000, V8 Supercars, Formula 1 car racing, Motorcycle racing, Rally car racing, Drag racing, IndyCar racing, Other car racing. - Between 1-5 million TV viewers.
Soccer: FIFA World Cup, A-League, English Premier League, Other Soccer, Cycling, Rugby Union: Rugby World Cup, Rugby Union Internationals, Super Rugby, Swimming, Golf, Basketball: NBA, NBL, Women’s Basketball/WNBL, Netball, Athletics – track and field, Boxing, Winter Sports: Figure skating, Snow skiing/Snowboarding. - Under 1 million TV viewers.
American Football/NFL, Surfing, Gymnastics, Professional Wrestling/WWE, Lawn bowls, Iron Man contests, American baseball/MLB, Horse riding/Equestrian, Greyhound racing, Trotting/Harness racing, Snooker/Billiards/Pool,
Marathons/Running, Triathlons and Sailing.
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Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
