Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has hailed the bumper television ratings for the start of the second women’s WBBL T20 cricket competition, as overseas stars made an instant impression.
The opening round finished with a bang, with renowned big-hitting West Indies batter Deandra Dottin smashing an unbeaten 60, the highest score of the weekend, in Brisbane Heat’s five wicket win over Sydney Sixers.
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Defending champions Sydney Thunder lost their opening game to Melbourne Stars by six runs despite a classy 47 not out from Harmanpreet Kaur, the WBBL’s first Indian player.
Hobart Hurricanes and Perth Scorchers split their two match series, as did Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renefades .
More than 6000 thousand people turned out at North Sydney Oval over the weekend to watch the six opening round matches involving all eight teams.
The match between Thunder and Stars – starting at 6.15pm AEDT – gained a national average TV audience on free-to-air’s Network Ten of 386,000, according to Mediaweek.
It marked the first time a stand alone women’s sporting match has been broadcast in prime time on a commercial free-to-air network’s primary channel.
The earlier broadcast match in the double-header at North Sydney Oval between the Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades netted 267,000 viewers.
They were heartening figures for Cricket Australia and Network Ten in the second season of the WBBL, with the governing body looking to cash in on the huge popularity of the Twenty20 format when the next BBL-WBBL media rights are up for grabs from the 2018-19 season.
“We were absolutely delighted with the average audiences,” Sutherland told AAP.
“It just goes to show that during summer time people can’t get enough cricket.
“But at the same time people are really coming to realise that women’s cricket is great entertainment and want to watch it.”
Saturday’s WBBL TV numbers dwarfed those of the A-League on both free-to-air and pay-TV. on Friday and Saturday.
Dottin apart, Perth’s Australian representative Elyse Villani was the only player to pass 50 over the weekend.
The Renegades’ classy 18 year-old allrounder Sophie Molinuex excelled in both her teams’games across the weekend, prompting her her captain and New Zealand international wicketkeeper Rachel Priest to declare: “If she’s not in the Aussie set-up soon, then something is not right.”
Sutherland felt emerging Australian talent like Molineux were profiting from playing alongside seasoned internationals.
“Our young Australian state players are getting the experience of playing with some of the best players in the world and you can see them lift,” Sutherland said.
“Just watching Sophie Molineux play today, she has taken four wickets and finished the game (28 not out) and she’s out their batting with (Enlgand international) Danni Wyatt, what a great experience for her.”
Truth Bomb
Guest
Why even post that? Are you that miserable?
Truth Bomb
Guest
It's an applicable response to a sour puss throwing a bucket of water over women's cricket ratings. It comfortably out-rates an established mens' league that gets lots of media coverage
I hate pies
Guest
Geez there was some pies being chucked. When does the real stuff start?
Working Class Rugger
Guest
You also have the arrival of the new national Netball league that will be on FTA. The ARU are working on launching a Womens Sevens league inc2017 as well. Slated to be professional. So, there's going to be no shortage of options available in the near future.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
I think that would traditionally be fairly accurate. Though I would suggest that anecdotally speaking more women than ever are active spectators across most sports these days. I tend to think and hope that will only accelerate with the arrival of the numerous womens league and the attentiom they are receiving.
Ahmed
Guest
Another thought. Would be interesting to see the ratio of female: male viewers of these matches. There is the view that sport is general played/watched by males in much greater numbers (for most Sports).
Ahmed
Guest
Could be an interesting few months for women's sport. Hopefully they can sustain similar ratings for the next few matches, lead into the always popular tennis, and then we have the first national women's football league season! Three sports, hopefully three sets of great ratings. Plenty of other fascinating women's sport on top of these three as well (surfing, golf, soccer etc.)
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
This...
andrew
Guest
Well done to the ladies for putting on a show that people are willing to watch despite Roz Kelly being involved in hosting...
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Who's cares about how it compares with the A-League. Last season from memory the WBBL averaged around the 250k mark. This rating figure indicates a more than 50% jump which is great for what is still a very new, pioneering league (in regards to Women's sport). Hopefully it only grows from here. Well done ladies. You deserve it and I enjoyed watching at home.
Chris
Guest
lol i know he does. Next post he'll be giving us all these stats and wonderful stories about how he really does indeed love football.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
If there was an article about "big" A-League ratings then, yes, that comment would be applicable
Truth Bomb
Guest
And so "Christmas with the Kranks" gets double the viewers of an entire round of A League?
Sydneysider
Guest
Don't be fooled. He hates the A-League. He gets enjoyment out of making fun of the league and it's crowds and TV ratings.
Chris
Guest
Whats your point mr afl? Does everything you write about have to have a relationship with the a-league?
no one in particular
Roar Guru
So it got 2/3 of the viewers that Christmas with the Kranks got
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Saw a bit. Some pretty good cricket.
Truth Bomb
Guest
Will be very interesting, mds1970 Any cross code, cross platform comparison needs to be qualified however comparisons are still useful in understanding relative interest How does one compare Saturday afternoon / evening games on a main channel to the blue ribbon Friday night spot on a secondary channel?....or to pay tv when the league has been provided by the same pay tv provider largely exclusively for over a decade? It's a toughie
mds1970
Roar Guru
It's a tricky business to compare sports ratings. When one is on FTA and the other on Fox, or if not all games are shown on the main channel in all markets etc - you don't really have a like-for-like comparison. What's important for women's cricket is the WBBL numbers, which were impressive enough. Great to see a rise in interest in women's sport. Will be interesting to see how the AFLW comp goes on TV in February-March next year.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Well, we are talking about five soccer games on Fox, plus one game on FTA versus one WBBL game on FTA - you don't think that's a bit in the A-League's favour already? and they still can't beat the one WBBL game Do you reckon the A-League is going to get four games per round on commercial FTA? I'm surprised you'd hold such a view. I think you mentioned to me the other day that the WBBL is not currently earning any broadcast revenue - compare that scenario to this hope that commercial FTA will pay handsomely for two A-League games per round. Doesn't really compute.