Foxtel’s much lauded broadcast of the 2012 Olympic Games has delivered subscription television its highest ratings of all time.
Foxtel’s eight dedicated Olympics channels reached a peak audience of 1.273 million on Sunday night at 8.20pm, the highest recorded audience of any program since Foxtel was first launched almost 17 years ago.
Since the first official day of live competition began on Foxtel on Saturday evening, overall viewership of subscription TV has increased dramatically, putting Foxtel ahead of the combined primary and secondary Seven and Ten channels in All People Metro share on Saturday.
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Saturday: Foxtel 24.8; Seven 11.3; Ten 8.0
Sunday: Foxtel 27.3; Seven 15.5; Ten 9.7
Monday: Foxtel 23.6; Seven 16.1; Ten 13.4
Tuesday: Foxtel 22.6; Seven 17.9; Ten 14.1
Wednesday: Foxtel 22.5; Seven 17.3; Ten 14.6
Channel Nine’s free-to-air coverage, in comparison, has been much criticized , with Facebook user Matthew Taylor’s post on Channel Nine’s Facebook page asking for other sports to be shown “instead of swimming, repeats of swimming, interviews of swimming, analysis of swimming, previews of swimming”, which he signed “the rest of Australia”, attracting over 150,000 likes.
Richard Freudenstein, Foxtel Chief Executive said, “Foxtel set out to provide Australians with not only the most comprehensive Olympics coverage in this country’s history but also the freedom to navigate and watch what they want, whenever they want to, across the whole competition.
“These incredible results are testament to that task, and we are thrilled that so many of our customers are tuning in and enjoying the monumental broadcast. Foxtel has truly changed the way people experience the Olympic Games.”
Foxtel’s tablet App has also seen a strong reaction with a total of just over 135,000 downloads so far. The App remains number one on both the Free Apps and the Entertainment category in the App Store.
